Loro Parque, Siam Park & Poema del Mar | Christoph Kiessling
It’s tough to flee the presence of both Loro Parque or Siam Park in Tenerife, even if you happen to don’t go to both of those a number of award-winning points of interest. However many guests to this Spanish territory, roughly 1,000km west of Morocco, do. Collectively the 2 parks welcome round 2.5 million visits in a typical yr.
Situated respectively within the north and south of the most important Canary Island, the animal park and water park are the Kiessling household’s life work. Journey round Tenerife and also you’ll see ads for them in every single place. From bus stops to billboards, taxis to vacationer workplaces, and even on litter bins.
The world’s greatest park – with or with out water!
Siam Park was named Tripadvisor’s best water park on the earth yearly since 2014. And though the class has now been merged with greatest amusement park, it emerged victorious once more earlier this yr, forward of second place Puy du Fou.
Each Siam Park and Loro Parque, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this yr, function intensive Siam theming. The one-time Asian kingdom comprised what’s now Thailand, in addition to components of Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. With authentic buildings designed and constructed by Thai craftsmen utilizing genuine supplies, the favored parks supply greater than merely theming pastiche.
So immersed in Siam tradition has the Kiessling household, initially from Germany, change into that Wolfgang Kiessling, Loro Parque’s founder, served because the Canary Islands’ honorary consul-general to Thailand for 26 years till late 2021. His son Christoph, presently vice-consul, will ultimately take over the obligation.
Loro Parque: Animal Embassy
When Wolfgang, who turns 85 this September, launched Loro Parque (Parrot Park) exterior Puerto de la Cruz in 1972, it was purely a fowl park. They’re nonetheless its most important inhabitants, and their chirping supplies a continuous soundtrack to the primary of our two conversations with Christoph Kiessling on the household’s dwelling/workplace advanced contained in the park.
Nevertheless, visitors are actually welcomed to what’s described as an ‘Animal Embassy’. So what does that imply?
“My father got here up with it,” says 53-year-old Christoph, the corporate’s vice-president. “One of many ignorances of humankind is to imagine we’re the one ones who’re clever and may talk. All animals speak. You solely have to take a look at the pores and skin, their eyes, their smile. The animals we now have right here at Loro Parque are happy animals in a managed setting and may speak for the species within the wild.”
The group at Loro Parque is cautious to not use the phrase ‘captivity’. Throughout a tour of the Planet Penguin exhibit, one of many largest of its sort on the earth, communications director Natalya Romashko factors out a map highlighting the 63 present animal welfare and biodiversity initiatives of the Loro Parque Fundación.
Ten per cent of ticket gross sales at Loro Parque, Siam Park and likewise Poema del Mar, the Kiessling household’s aquarium on the neighbouring Canary Island of Gran Canaria, goes in direction of the inspiration, which helps initiatives in 35 international locations.
Monkey enterprise at Loro Parque
A second free-flying aviary is presently beneath building to enrich Loro Parque’s present 1,400 sq. metre fowl habitat, which is dwelling to 160 birds of 34 species. Only some outdated birdcages stay. Different residents of the park embody lions, monkeys, pink pandas, meerkats, anteaters, tortoises, alligators, dolphins, sea lions and orcas. Youthful visitors may even trip an orca curler coaster in Kinderlandia.
Christoph Kiessling explains how the park’s animal collection grew again within the Eighties. “The mayor known as my father and stated, ‘Wolfgang, I’ve confiscated the chimps from the road photographers. As soon as they cease being infants, they get extra energetic, so the photographers begin doping them. You’re the solely particular person I do know who can deal with these creatures.’
“As we diversified, we noticed the opposite species received extra consideration than the parrots.”
These days Loro Parque covers a floor space of 135,000 sq m. A further 160,000 sq m is used to domesticate the fruit and greens that feed its animals.
“The carbon footprint of our park is near zero,” says Kiessling. “We work with renewable power, we’re freed from plastic, and the one palm oil we now have is in our chocolate bars and ice cream. Additionally the fish we feed to our sea life is from the North Sea, as a result of the fish from the Canary Islands are usually not appropriate for the animals.”
Aquarium adventures
It was in late 2017 that the Kiessling household launched Poema del Mar in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria. This barely smaller Canary Island has an analogous inhabitants to Tenerife (simply shy of 1 million) and sits about 100km east.
“In comparison with a water park or attraction park, I imagine opening an aquarium is perhaps one of the crucial tough duties on the earth of leisure,” says Christoph Kiessling.
“Normally a brand new attraction appears to be like higher than an outdated attraction. With an aquarium, it’s the opposite approach spherical. You begin with an empty exhibit, with small fish. The aquarium is like springtime. Day-after-day it will get just a little nicer. However as soon as the fish develop, you may have new tasks to adapt the areas. It’s fairly a problem.”
Unfold over three themed zones are 350 species of marine life, together with 10 kinds of ray alone. The 6,000 cubic litre deep sea tank contained in the Ocean zone is without doubt one of the greatest on the earth. The opposite zones are Jungle and Reef.
Like Siam Park, Poema del Mar is being operated this yr with round 30% much less labour than pre-pandemic.
“Earlier than COVID, everyone had employees for every part,” says Kiessling. “Now we now have points with prices and the provision chain. At Loro Parque, we now have solely 15% fewer individuals as a result of 90% of the employees are chargeable for animal care and we are able to’t lower prices there.”
COVID within the Canary Islands
On condition that the tourism business within the Canary Islands depends closely on inbound tourism – Kiessling’s parks entice extra guests annually than the inhabitants of both Tenerife or Gran Canaria – the previous two years have been significantly difficult.
Along with neighbouring resorts Playa de las Américas and Los Cristianos, Siam Park’s location in Costa Adeje may be very a lot Tenerife’s vacationer epicentre.
“The south of the island was so empty [at the height of the pandemic] you may have had a picnic in the course of the highway,” says Kiessling. “As soon as we noticed that the demand had totally returned we reopened Siam Park, but it surely was closed one month longer than the opposite two.”
The post-lockdown protocols have been fascinating.
“We needed to make all guests snug, and remind those that imagine COVID isn’t present to respect the foundations of the park,” says Kiessling. “It was tough to ask some clients to put on a masks. Folks would say, ‘All I’ve is a paper masks’. However we offered neoprene masks. After you dive into the water and are available again to the floor, they’re dry once more. You forgot you had them on.”
In response to Kiessling, tourism ranges are again to regular within the Canaries, and there are some encouraging new developments.
New tourism developments
“The Canary Islands have qualities which might be crucial post-COVID,” he says. “We’ve got the most effective year-round local weather and sanitary situations. If you’re European, as a result of we’re in ‘Spain’, your social safety is legitimate. Individuals who up to now would fly to extra unique locations just like the Maldives or the Caribbean are selecting to come back right here. Along with Greece, we’re the winners in Europe after the pandemic.”
Each Siam Park and Poema del Mar have recorded a double-digit share improve in guests to date in 2022. But numbers are down barely at Loro Parque as a result of tour operators haven’t totally resumed their itineraries on the island. Pleasingly although, extra native individuals have been persuaded to find/rediscover Kiessling’s points of interest since lockdown.
“Earlier than COVID, we had 91-92% vacationers,” says Christoph. “Now our resident market is between 15 and 16%.”
Aside from a pandemic, it’s pure disasters which might be most definitely to stem the stream of vacationers to the Canary Islands. While final yr’s volcanic eruption on La Palma didn’t affect the neighbouring islands to the East, the Tropical Storm Delta of 2005 triggered appreciable harm in Tenerife.
Constructing Siam Park & linking to Loro Parque
But the storm introduced a chance to the Kiessling household, who had already begun building on Siam Park.
“After the storm, lots of people have been frightened that fallen timber may trigger harm to their properties,” says Kiessling. “So we put an announcement within the newspaper, saying we are going to take away their timber free of charge.”
These timber, along with earth shifted from north of Tenerife, have been planted on web site to assist speed up the park’s landscaping.
“What different parks do is theming,’ says Kiessling. “What we do is completely different. We go to the nation, purchase supplies and work with native craftsmen in order that what we construct is genuine. We need to serve our clients with the smile and kindness of Asia.”
Although Siam Park has some spectacular points of interest, massive components of them are hidden by foliage. There aren’t any slide towers both. Relatively visitors make their strategy to the highest alongside landscaped walkways.
“We management the trip expertise like no different water park on the earth,” says Kiessling. “We’re not plastic incredible, we’re about sensation and emotion.”
A hyperlink to the marine life at Loro Parque is supplied by the ocean lion habitat that visitors encounter as quickly as they enter the water park via its magnificent temple-like entrance constructing. There’s additionally an aquarium they glide via on the park’s lazy river.
Ski-ing Siam Park
Kiessling recollects a gathering with Rick Hunter, chairman and CEO of ProSlide Expertise Inc., an industry leader in water ride manufacturing and design, earlier than Siam Park was inbuilt 2004.
“We walked up the mountain collectively at [what is now] the again of the park. It was like a desert. Rick began making actions like a skier. ‘I wanna have a slide right here, going left, proper, making an S-bend, a bounce’…’
“We ran up and down that mountain 100 occasions.”
This show of ardour from Hunter, a former Canadian nationwide ski racer, was sufficient to safe ProSlide the unique slide contract for Siam Park. Aside from the Misplaced Metropolis water playground, the agency has equipped each slide since. This consists of many hybrid and mixture water rides utilising the hillside terrain.
“The Kiesslings are unimaginable visionaries,” says Hunter. “I knew from day certainly one of assembly Christoph and Wolfgang in 2004 that Siam Park would change into a prime beacon on the earth water park business. The unimaginable topography of the positioning gave us a singular alternative to customized design some world-leading water rides that grew to become ‘a part of the mountain’.”
The world’s first TÜV-certified water park
“Once we designed Siam Park, I feel there have been 10 Twister [funnel slides] on the earth,” says Kiessling. “You had the in-run, the attraction, then the out-run. I needed greater than that. There needs to be mild, and darkish, moments of disorientation. On our Dragon trip, you speed up into the Twister, you may see your individuals, you undergo the funnel, after which we offer you one other push.”
Throughout the building of the park, the Kiessling household invited the German testing authority TÜV Sud to examine and certify its slides and points of interest.
“They stated they don’t certify waterparks,” recollects Christoph. “I stated, I do know, however I would like you to. They despatched their individuals to Canada to oversee the engineering and building of our slides. Then we invited them to Tenerife to oversee the set up and operation. These days the TÜV certifies water parks in America, China and everywhere in the world.”
World-class waves and rivers
Different signature Siam Park points of interest embody Singha (RocketBlast/FlyingSaucer45 combo), Kinnaree (Tornado24/TornadoWave60), Vulcano (BehemothBowl60) and the Tower of Energy, a 28m-long, 80km/h velocity slide. The Misplaced Metropolis, by WhiteWater, a leading waterpark manufacturer, encompasses a additional 15 household slides, towers, slides, bridges and water options.
At 1km in size, the Mai Thai River is without doubt one of the longest lazy rivers on the earth. It includes an 800m course, an elective 200m quick part and an 8-metre elevation change. Murphy’s Waves was chargeable for the waves in each the massive Siam Seashore space and smaller Coco Seashore. Different distributors embody Vanstone, which put in the tube-carrying conveyors on a number of the park’s bigger points of interest.
The following addition earmarked for Siam Park will probably be one other large-capacity attraction from ProSlide. Described internally as a duelling Singha, it has been chosen not only for its thrill quota but in addition for its people-eating potential. On a busy day, the water park can entertain as many as 9,000 visitors.
But not every part is unstoppable as it could appear in Kiessling’s kingdom.
The Siam Park 2 blues
This June, an attraction to proceed with a second water park in Gran Canaria was dismissed on the grounds that it did have adequate water provision. Christoph Kiessling refutes such claims. Nonetheless, it’s the newest of a number of setbacks for ‘Siam Park 2’, or Siam Park Gran Canaria as will probably be recognized. While Thai theming is once more central to Kiessling’s plans, he provides:
“It won’t be a clone [of the original Siam Park].”
A 189,000 sq m hillside web site has been secured in El Veril exterior the resort of Playa del Inglés. Solely as an alternative of a freeway operating alongside the underside of the park like in Costa Adeje, a highway runs alongside the highest of what’s a ravine. Supposed as the point of interest of the park is a ‘Tree of Life’ which Kiessling describes as, “Probably the tallest synthetic tree on the earth.”
Different proposed options embody saltwater snorkelling. The Kiessling household would additionally prefer to construct a Siam Park lodge. That is one thing it as soon as touted in Tenerife however deserted after the native authority sought compensation. ProSlide is already on board in terms of slides and attractions. However first, one other planning utility needs to be submitted and permitted.
One factor is for positive. Christoph Kiessling’s signature will probably be everywhere in the new park, at any time when it sees the sunshine of day.
The style of success at Loro Parque, Siam Park & Poema del Mar
Kiessling’s hands-on method to enterprise is seen in every single place. It extends from his selection of music in Siam Park (feel-good ’80s grooves) to the food he sells in every of his in-park eating places and kiosks.
“The bread, the cheese, the sausage; every part has to move alongside my desk,” he tells us. “I’m going for the look, the style, the sensation, however I don’t have a look at the model or the value. When individuals come to my parks and have an excellent expertise, they’re completely happy to spend once more.”
As we wrap up our dialog the following day at Siam Park, Christoph walks out of his workplace to find a number of containers of croissants and enchiladas delivered by a neighborhood baker. Regardless of the actual fact he’s on his strategy to dinner, he stops to pattern them. Some are discarded, and others are given the seal of approval.
Whether or not it’s pastries, water slides or animal habitats, Christoph Kiessling is a person who is aware of what he likes. Happily, over two million annual visitors seem to love the identical factor.
Photos courtesy of Siam Park, Loro Parque and Owen Ralph until acknowledged in any other case.
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