Innovative Leisure at the Euro Amusement Show, Amsterdam

Sun 1st November 2009

Two simple rides that make for strong revenues. Little Big Ideas

You don’t need a huge investment to have success. You don’t need to purchase the latest technology gadget, nor the latest major ride. What you need is an idea, possibly a simple one, surely an absorbing one.

Little big ideas, that’s what Innovative Leisure is about. Founded in 2000, the company is the brainchild of Phil Pickersgill who, with over 15 years experience in the industry, had a vision of a company introducing new and exciting products from the US market to the UK and Europe. Among his successes are the two products that the company presented again in Amsterdam during EAS 2009: Coconut Tree Climb and Water Wars.

The Coconut Tree Climb is a vertical climbing experience up the trunk of a pseudo coconut tree. Available with three trees, also on a mobile version, the attraction is fully themed with realistic bark finish and fake palm leaves at the top. The units also feature an auto-belay safety system on each tree incorporating certified auto-belay cables. A climber timer is another of the attraction’s features, adding more fun and a competitive element to the experience, with a buzzer fitted to the top of each tree. Seen as healthy by parents and exciting by children, the attraction obviously offers a physical activity, which parents like to see their children participating in (as opposed to a more passive one) and is suitable for a wide age range, from young children to adults. Many good qualities that are clearly reflected in Coconut Tree Climb’s sales data.

Physical activity is a trait of another Innovative attraction, although just about everything else about the two differs: Water Wars is a great family fun activity where players launch water balloons at each other from opposing battle stations with the simple aim of getting each other wet. It is an inexpensive cooldown activity that is easy to install and requires practically no maintenance as there are no mechanical moving parts. Already successful, it now comes with a new addition, the Depth Charge feature: a small pool that can be used to soak your opponents even more. “The interactivity of the game was truly demonstrated with the kids actually leaning into the Depth Charge water explosion when it went off so they could get even wetter, which proves the research we have seen that the age group of early teens right through to young adults really don’t care if they get wet. In fact they love it!” comments Phil Pickersgill.

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