Wednesday September 14 saw the return of the Park World Excellence Awards at The Landmark Hotel, London. Organised by Datateam Business Media, the evening event gathered some of the best premier operators, suppliers, manufacturers and entertainment specialists from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The awards ceremony kicked-off with the Best Roller Coaster of the Year, which was won by Fønix at Fårup Sommerland supplied by Vekoma.
This was followed by the Best Ride (s) of the Year – Limited Budget which was awarded to Les Draisines at Fraispertuis City supplied by Technical Park. The two highly commended in this category were La Lion at Le Pal supplied by Pro Urba, and SKALMANS FLYGSKOLA: at Kolmården supplied by Zamperla and Jora Vision
The Best Waterpark Experience went to Waterslides in The Aquadome at Lalandia Sondervig supplied by ProSlide.
Next came the Best Ride(s) of the Year which was won by Biberburg at Family Park supplied by Intamin, which was followed by the Best Large Park of the Year award. This accolade was taken home by Europa-park.
FunPlanet Kids at FunPlanet Rennaz (Switzerland) were the winners of the Best FEC project of the Year and ValoArena at Hi-Fly Hilden (Germany) were highly commended in the category.
Tomb Raider: The Live Experience took home the FEC of the Year trophy and Les Draisines – Fraispertuis City from Technical Park took the award for the Best Use of Theming.
The Best Regional Park of the Year award, was presented to Fårup Sommerland which was followed by the Best Dark Ride or Media-based Attraction of the Year, won by Chasseurs de Tornades – Futuroscope from Dynamic Attractions.
Siam Park won the award for the Best Waterpark of the Year; then came the Best Marketing Initiative of the Year which was taken home by EdHopkinsPR – Tulleys Shocktober Fest 2021. The highly commended in this category was Rulantica: Storytelling Based Marketing.
There were plenty of finalists in the running for the Best Live Entertainment of the Year award but Disney D-Light – Disneyland Paris overcame the competition and took home first place.
The next award was the Best Product Innovation (guest experience/park operations) of the Year and this accolade was presented to Smart Blast at Aquaventure Waterpark – WhiteWater with CmdCentr – First Option Software being highly commended.
This year, Hotel Station Cosmos – Futuroscope left with the Best Green Initiative of the Year award while Bright Vision were highly commended andChasseurs de Tornades – Dynamic Attractions at Futuroscope went home with Best Product Innovation of the year award.
Best Rollercoaster – limited budget of the Year was presented to TONNERRE 2 ZEUS – Parc Asterix supplied by The Gravity Group; followed by the Best Supplier of the Year award which went to Whitewater.
Next came the two Industry Icon Awards. Robert Löffelhardt, owner of Phantasialand took home the Operator award and Richard D. Hunter of ProSlide took home the Supplier award.
Finally, the last award of the evening, the Best of the Best Award which was won by The London Eye.
We would like to send our congratulations once again to all our winners and thank all who attended for making this year’s Park World Excellence Awards ceremony as memorable as it was.
We look forward to seeing you all on September 29 2023 in Vienna for next year’s awards!
