A great ride: Holiday World celebrates 60 years.MOST EXECUTIVES DON'T like talk of roller-coaster rides when speaking of business, but Will Koch does. Koch is president of Koch Development Corp., which owns and operates Holiday World and Splashin' Safari, the growing theme park in the southern Indiana Southern Indiana, in the United States, is notable because it is culturally distinct from the rest of the state. The area's geography has led to a blend of Northern and Southern culture that is not found in the rest of Indiana. community of Santa Claus Santa Claus: see Nicholas, Saint. Santa Claus jolly, gift-giving figure who visits children on Christmas Eve. [Christian Tradition: NCE, 1937] See : Christmas Santa Claus . This season, Holiday World debuted its third major roller coaster What a bad CD-R disc is often called. See CD-R and underrun. , a wooden attraction known as The Voyage. At 1.2 miles, it's the third-longest wooden coaster in existence (behind King's Island's The Beast and Son of Beast). Its maximum speed is 67 mph, and its highest drop is 154 feet. Its three trains pass through five tunnels on their 2-minute, 45-second trip, along with three 90-degree extreme-banked turns. Perhaps most important, it's said to have more "air time"--that feeling of weightlessness weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravitational field. over the crests of a coaster's hills--than any other wooden coaster, totaling 24.2 seconds. The Voyage is earning plenty of new attention for Holiday World. It recently made national TV appearances on ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , Fox and the National Geographic Channel
National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. , Family Fun and other publications The Voyage maintains Holiday World's focus on wooden coasters rather than the steel varieties that in other parks have risen more than 400 feet and surpassed 100 mph. "We think wooden coasters are a little more family-oriented," Koch says. Keeping that family focus has been a key to the park's success--a family will find it more affordable than some parks, thanks in part to its free soft drinks, free parking and lower-priced dining. "We think some of our competitors alienate To voluntarily convey or transfer title to real property by gift, disposition by will or the laws of Descent and Distribution, or by sale. For example, a seller may alienate property by transferring to a buyer a parcel of the seller's land containing a house, in customers somewhat by nickel-and-diming them throughout the day," he says Holiday World, celebrating its 60th anniversary, continues to boost attendance. Koch says the park drew 300,000 visitors in 1990 and had nearly 900,000 guests last year. He hopes to hit the one-million mark this season, partly through new attractions and partly by adding Nashville, Tenn., to the list of target markets for advertising. Building attractions like The Voyage and the Splashin' Safari water park's new Bahari River is both a cause and effect of increased business. "We've been growing at a consistent rate, and if you're growing, it's important to add capacity so wait times don't get too long," Koch says. With that in mind, the park spent a total of $13.5 million on new attractions for this season. The company has developed 110 acres and has another 90 to grow on, Koch says. "I believe we will run out of markets before we run out of land." |
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