INTERVIEW
WOLFGANG KIESSLING After 45 years in the business, Loro Parque and Siam Park founder Wolfgang Kiessling could rest easy. Instead, he’s opening two more major attractions on the nearby island of Gran Canaria Alice Davis, managing editor, Attractions Management
A
ttractions Management last spoke with Wolfgang Kiessling in early 2009 (see AM/1/09). He and his son, Christoph, were celebrating the launch of their second visitor attraction, a waterpark on the island of Tenerife. That attraction, Siam Park, is now routinely voted TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice top waterpark in the world (in 2015, 2016 and 2017) and recently enjoyed an impressive 15 per cent increase in visitor numbers, welcoming 1 million guests in 2016. Kiessling opened his first attraction on the Spanish island back in 1972 – the equally popular Loro Parque, which these days attracts some 1.2 million guests annually. The internationally renowned 13.5-hectare (33-acre) zoological park is located in the picturesque north of Tenerife and has more than 10,000 animals and the biggest and most diverse collection of parrots in the world. Having built, from scratch, two of the best visitor attractions in Europe (and possibly the world), one might expect Kiessling, who turns 80 this year, to be thinking about retirement. But quite the contrary; he’s just months away from opening his third major visitor attraction (an aquarium), with a fourth on the horizon (a new waterpark).
POEMA DEL MAR The first to launch, by the end of this year, will be Poema del Mar (Poem of the Sea). The €30m ($35m, £27m) aquarium development will this time be located on the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria, on the Las Palmas harbourside. The project came about thanks to a meeting between Kiessling, some local politicians, and the owners of the port, 36
attractionsmanagement.com
Wolfgang Kiessling has been in the attractions business for 45 years
AM 3 2017 ©Cybertrek 2017