Tag Archives: Busch Gardens

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Busch Gardens new president faces headwinds in amusement park industry

By Justine Griffin, Tampa Bay Times, March 1, 2017

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TAMPA — After spending more than 30 years working at SeaWorld Entertainment parks across the country, Busch Gardens’ newest park president, Stewart Clark, still wasn’t prepared for the backlash he and his family faced after the release of the documentary, Blackfish.

Clark’s wife, Kelly Flaherty Clark, a longtime animal trainer and spokeswoman at SeaWorld, was prominently featured defending SeaWorld in the documentary from 2013, which explored the controversy over captive killer whales and the death of a SeaWorld trainer.

“There were several very personal and demented attacks on my family,” said Clark, who left his role as vice president of Discovery Cove to become park president of Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa on Jan. 16. “I told my kids this then and still tell them to this day: Hundreds of thousands of people come to our parks on any given day. They are the quiet supporters who don’t want to engage in a fight on Twitter, but they’re seeing first hand the great conservation and educational work we do.”

Clark, 52, doesn’t have much time to look back. He has a challenging path ahead — in helping bolster both Busch Gardens and his parent company. SeaWorld Entertainment, which operates Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, has struggled financially in recent years. Attendance has dropped significantly at SeaWorld Entertainment’s Florida parks — down 547,000 visitors in 2016 — company officials said during an earnings call earlier this week.

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Theme park industry gazes beyond Orlando to the next mecca

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Step aside, Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse.

Orlando may be the global mecca of amusement parks with mammoth players like Universal Studios and Disney World drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists to the Sunshine State every year, but the giant entertainment companies were hardly mentioned by global theme park industry leaders at an annual industry conference this week.

The future, it seems, isn’t necessarily in Orlando.

A rising middle class in Asia and the Middle East is fueling development of new theme parks overseas. New rides are based on emerging technology, from virtual reality goggles that are synced with the dips and loops of roller coasters to interactive rides where guests use their hands to throw digital snowballs — all of which is hard to do in parks like those in Orlando largely built-out already.

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