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EAS 2011 - Interview with Lino Ferretti, Marketing
Looking back at the Euro Attractions Show 2011, the largest European trade show of the attractions industry, we noticed the presence of many Italian companies that are all very active in the market of amusement rides and roller coasters. They offer to attractions owners and operators a wide range of products and services ranging from children's rides to family rides, flume rides or even free fall towers.
Among these rides manufacturers, we were interested in Preston & Barbieri, which delivered last year the dueling roller coaster "Nitro" to Dennlys parc in France and the monorail "Würmling Express" to Phantasialand in Germany. This company was born from the collaboration of both Preston (founded in 1986, specializing in attractions in general) and Barbieri (founded in 1954, specializing in fairground rides and bumper cars). We met Lino Ferretti, Marketing Manager, who answered our questions about the latest projects of the company.
NewsParcs: What were your highlights of 2011?
Lino Ferretti: Our greatest achievement this year was the new roller coaster we delivered in August at Mirabilandia in Italy, Max Adventure Master Thai. Mirabilandia is an important customer, because this park welcomes about 2 million visitors a year. The model we delivered is a Family Dueling Coaster, a new range that we launched in France at Dennlys parc in 2010. The originality of this attraction is that you must ride both circuits before returning to the station, although you can still leave the train at the halfway if the operator decides it. In the past, this system existed with other manufacturers, but we brought it up to date. For families, this is a great roller coaster! The reviews and feedbacks are positive, Mirabilandia thanked us and we are very pleased with the final result.
NP: Are there any differences between Master Thai and Nitro?
LF: We currently offer two types of circuits, the 60 and 70. The layout is the same, but with a small change in the length of the track that allows us to increase the hourly capacity. Indeed, you can put more cars on the longest track, 12 in place of 6, for an hourly capacity of 900 visitors instead of 450. Master Thai is a Dueling Coaster 70 and Nitro, a Dueling Coaster 60.
NP: Are there some of your customers interested in this new concept of dueling coaster?
LF: Since the opening of Nitro, we have many customers who are interested in this product! Several owners of amusement parks have already visited and tested the ride, and this is very positive for our image!
NP: Did you have other important projects in 2011?
LF: Yes, we installed twenty of small and medium attractions - including a free fall tower and a ferris wheel - for a new amusement park in Tajikistan called Citywide Recreation Park, and we will deliver in Spring 2012 a family roller coaster! It will occupy an area of 61 meters by 26 (200x85 feet), with a maximum height of 21 meters (68 feet), a maximum speed of 70 km/h (43.5 mph), a single train of 24 passengers and magnetic brakes. This is another important investment for this customer and thanks to them we won a very good contract !
NP: You also worked with Alterface for the development of a ride system in Russia isn't it?
LF: Absolutely, we created the transportation system for the interactive dark ride Corsair's Revenge! These are vehicles of 4 persons traveling on a rail and they rotate on themselves. They are equipped with Alterface's guns thanks to wich the passengers can shoot on targets. We noticed that there are more and more of our customers who are interested in the principle of interactivity. The families in particular are looking for interactive experiences, where there is an adventure or virtual points to win. .. A dark ride is no longer passive, it becomes a sort of giant video game! An interactive dark ride is really an ideal product, and it will work forever!
NP: On your EAS 2011 booth, you also displayed a car. Can you tell more about it?
LF: Yes, this is the car "Daytona 24", a gasoline vehicle traveling on a track guided by a rail. Each car can carry two adults and, contrary to other similar products from our competitors, the car will not touch the central rail if the visitor drives correctly! Therefore, this attraction has an advantage, thanks to the freedom of driving, which adds interaction that visitors look for. And that is also perfectly suited to the families, like for most of the rides we designed.
We had very good results on this product in 2011, including providing a twenty of cars for the new amusement park TransStudio Bandung in Indonesia. The ride is called TransCar Racing and there are two tracks. The cars are equipped with 270 cc Honda engine with air filter for a minimal pollution. They reach a speed of 15 km/h (9 mph) but you can go faster. TransStudio is very satisfied and they ordered seven additional cars for 2012. Another customer was also interested and asked us about twenty cars.
NP: How happened the Euro Attractions Show 2011 for Preston & Barbieri?
LF: EAS is an interesting trade show for us, especially when we talk with professionals, not just with curious ones, what happens sometimes in this kind of event. We would have liked to see more people this year as the first day was calm, but overall we are satisfied!
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Our Industry Roundup is a summary of the latest major news related to the theme park industry worldwide. We report news specifically on operators, owners, trade associations and related organizations, including trends, attendance...
NewsParcs will do a full coverage of the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 in Orlando to have a look at the latest trends and developments of the global theme park industry.
