Newspaper Article 1996 – Wanted: A new vision for Fantasyland

Wanted: A new vision for Fantasyland

By Geoff Taylor
Staff reporter, Hastings

Fantasyland’s problems are typified by the fact that if you happen to be visiting the park mid-week and want to get something to eat or drink, you can’t.

Both of Fantasyland’s food outlets, Fantasyland Takeaways and Windsor Tearooms are leased to private operators who, on slow days, often close up shop in off peak hours.

As a result, more than one bus load of tourists has turned up unexpectedly and been stranded in a food-free zone. This, at the biggest tourist attraction in a district trying to maximise its tourism potential.

Not only that but potential income that could be provided by a more imaginative food and beverage supply is being given away.

According to a report on Fantasyland being considered by the Hastings District Council, the food supply is one of a number of problems caused by Fantasyland’s lack of a strategic plan.

The report, by Trust Bank Central marketing manager David Clapperton, says Fantasyland needs better marketing, a leaner management structure, and programmes for buying new attractions and maintaining old ones.

Fantasyland is at the crossroads. Mr Clapperton said the one thing Fantasyland needed above all others was a new vision. The vision of the late Harry Poppelwell, who founded the Fantasyland concept in the early 1960s, needed to be updated.

Mr Clapperton said a separate board of directors should take over Fantasyland’s assets and come up with a strategy. Aware of the council’s long historical and emotional commitment to Fantasyland, he wanted to see the report passed on to a separate forum which could view the park from a new perspective.

The council’s community services committee has had the report since June and is still grappling with it. Much of its difficulty has been caused by the report’s decisive recommendations. Practically all councillors acknowledge a need, but many are scared of the level of investment a new-look Fantasyland might need.

During the latter stages of the committee’s last debate on Fantasyland, Mayor Jeremy Dwyer warned that he could see the “do nothing” option emerging. Hawke’s Bay local authorities had a history of commissioning reports on tourism but getting cold feet when the reports actually arrived.

The committee has delayed any action until the beginning of September when it hopes the presentation of Destination Hastings’ strategic plan will deliver it some inspiration.

WHILE IT makes sense to liaise with Destination Hastings, it is hard to see how a brand new board with a $100,000 budget to promote all of the district’s tourism needs can give better advice on Fantasyland than David Clapperton.

To Fantasyland backers, the only vision needed is in the form of dollars. The park just needs to be taken more seriously by the council, they say. It needs more financial backing. They point to the fact that Fantasyland is Hastings’ biggest attraction and say the public don’t mind contributing to it. National Research Bureau surveys taken by the council confirm the public is happy at present at least, with its degree of contribution to the park.

The success of the roller coaster when it was at Fantasyland showed new rides can bring in the crowds, they say.

Fantasyland manager Jack Wilson said a downturn at Fantasyland was unavoidable. Tougher economic times in the 1980s and more competition for the entertainment dollar had hit many attractions, Marineland included. He recalled afternoons when he left a deserted Fantasyland only to see in town scores of children playing and hanging around a video parlour.

However, a large cash injection would make a huge difference, he said. The money could provide more advertising, get new rides and clear a back log of play-ground equipment maintenance needed to meet legal requirements.

Long time Fantasyland advocate, Cr Trevor Baker summed up the views of a number of councillors when he said Fantasyland needed to become a Local Authority Trading Enterprise as soon as possible. A commercial approach was necessary to save Fantasyland.

Mr Clapperton agreed, however he was concerned that people were not thinking about Fantasyland’s future in wide enough terms.

NEW RIDES were not the answer to Fantasyland’s problems but only a short-term solution. A new ride would work for 12 months, but then the novelty would wear off, he said. Mr Clapperton said before talking about individual components such as new rides or the amount of capital needed, a vision for the park had to be developed.

“People are too hung up with Fantasyland as a theme park when they should be thinking outside the square and looking at other options,” he said.

When Fantasyland was first started it was unique. Now, however, there were other them parks around, some with better attractions.

Mr Clapperton’s research showed that 64,000 adults a year were spending an average of $8 when they visited the park. On present costs, to break even Fantasyland needed another 30,000 adult visitors a year. Something new was needed to bring in more people so the rides could benefit, something unique to Hawke’s Bay that visitors could not find on their own turf.

He suggested a gannet education site similar to Christchurch’s Antarctic Centre. Access to Cape Kidnappers’ gannet colony was restricted to certain times of the year and certain hours of the day. An off-site education centre could complement it nicely.

Other possible options for Fantasyland were to showcase Hawke’s Bay’s horticulture, viticulture or gardening industries.

“How many people in Hawke’s Bay really know about the horticulture industry itself – and yet it is our life blood?”

The suggestion that such local industries could be show-cased has also been taken up by district councillors Dinah Williams and Cynthia Bowers who believed Fantasyland’s natural beauty made it ideal.

Another possibility is that the park could be converted to a free playground similar to Auckland’s Cornwall Park.

Critics of this suggestion say maintenance costs of such a large park would still be large, particularly with no entry charges.

Mr Dwyer has recently questioned whether the council should be running a motor camp and suggested the Windsor Park Motor Camp could be developed, perhaps in combination with Fantasyland.

The important thing, according to Mr Clapperton is that a decision is made on Fantasyland’s future and the practice of pouring money into it year by year ends.

Fantasy staff have recently signalled that they are tired of waiting for the council to decide. A report by acting manager Allan Percy to last month’s community services meeting said staff were desperately looking for direction and support from the council as to Fantasyland’s future.

Mr Clapperton says a clear vision for Fantasyland is needed but he admits a vision is no easy thing to find. Fantasyland needs a champion, he says, a new Harry Poppelwell.

Photo captions –

David Clapperton … Fantasyland is at the crossroads. Above all, a new vision is needed.

When you want something to eat or drink you often can’t get it.