POSSIBLE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION OF AMUSEMENT PARKS IN LATVIA

Amusement parks have grown rapidly in Latvia over the last 20 years. The development of Latvian amusement parks is determined by several factors related to the economic, political, geopolitical and international market situation. According to the CSB data, the country has a population of 1.9 million and a total of 14 amusement parks or companies providing attractions and entertainment. Part of the problem that the authors emphasize in the paper is that in Latvia, data on amusement parks are not collected separately, but are included in overall data on the tourism industry. This topic has been little studied in all Baltic countries. The topicality of the research relates to the future directions of sustainable development of Latvian amusement parks, which would add value to the growth of this industry. The aim of the research study is to determine the possible directions of development of amusement parks and their main influencing aspects, which determine the future development of these aspects.

CONCEPTS FOR THE FORMATION OF PROGRAMME AND ENTERTAINMENT PARKS

This article examines the largest amusement parks, attracting many visitors of different ages and investors. The concepts of the formation of Disney parks, as well as the solution of regional identity in them on the examples of the USA, France and China are given. The characteristics of architectural and planning solutions in miniature parks from the earliest, Madurodam, to the most famous mini-parks franchise, Legoland, are described. The main principles of architectural and design solutions for programme and amusement parks are revealed.

Driving and Flying Simulators: A Review on Relevant Considerations and Trends

Flying and driving simulation has encouraged an enormous and growing community in a wide variety of areas such as research centers, driver or pilot training academies, vehicle-testing facilities, amusement parks, and even at home by household enthusiasts, providing carefully integrated visual and perceptual illusions of driving or flying real vehicles. The global research on this subject is explored during the period 2000 to 2019 from an interdisciplinary perspective based on a systematic methodology, providing both new and experienced researchers with broad guidance toward key aspects for further investigations and developments. Emphasis is given to the analysis of the findings and in particular to their applicability, to an extent not attempted earlier, by considering both human and machine aspects.

Service quality benchmarking of amusement parks using a hybrid approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for benchmarking the service quality of amusement parks.Design/methodology/approachA hybrid approach, which is a combination of AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), is applied for service quality benchmarking.FindingsAmusement parks are centers of attraction at various tourist destinations across the world. Their service quality is constituted by the attainment of certain quality attributes that varies with different parks. For sustaining in the industry, the managers of the parks need to have a good overview of the practices followed by them and their competitors that necessitate benchmarking of the service quality.Practical implicationsThe developed framework using the hybrid methodology of AHP and TOPSIS can be applied for comparing different amusement parks based on quality attributes, which will help the organizers in improving their service quality.Originality/valueThe paper identifies various service quality attributes of amusement parks and an evaluation scheme for those attributes had been developed. Based on these, a framework had been developed for benchmarking of service quality of different amusement parks.

POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT MODELS OF LATVIAN AMUSEMENT PARKS

There are more than 14 amusement parks in Latvia, located in different areas. Latvia's amusement parks have been little studied and there is not much information about their importance in the regional economy, as well as the contribution to the tourism and business sector. These are places that are widely used by tourists, often related to the regional business environment, as there are shops and hotels nearby, as well as other types of service that visitors need. Latvian amusement parks can be divided into three groups: terrestrial, water and technical scientific amusement parks. Many of them are located near cities, for example, amusement park "Lemberga Hute" near Ventspils, city by the Baltic Sea with 38059 residents in 2019 (according to PMLP data), "Livu water amusement park" located in Jurmala, which is a city with 56696 thousand residents 2020 (according to PMLP data). One of the determining factors of the development of amusement parks is the growth of cities and their adjacent territories, which enables them to form both in terms of infrastructure and population growth. Regional economic indicators are an important factor for regional growth.