Siam Park - how has it gone so wrong?
Tenerife could do with a tourism boost at the moment, instead it has the longest running mystery since The Mousetrap. I had a guided tour of the “not quite finished” water park on March 17 and did a story for The Tenerife Sun, giving a proposed opening date of May 1, already at least six months behind early predictions. That came and went to be replaced by “summer” as an opening time, I asked about a month ago, how things stood and was told maybe they could start test openings about mid July. Today I tried again but was told hopefully September for the soft opening (testing with limited numbers of agents etc).
Sadly that is too late for Scotlands Sunday Post, I had set up an article for them but they wanted it for their readers summer holiday time. About 2 months ago Diario de Avisos was inviting advertisers to book ads in a special pullout supplement to mark the opening, amd La Opinion even put contact details for people to apply to Siam Park to take part in a photo shoot day for advertsing literature. both are presumably on hold.
The phrase “oh well that’s Tenerife for you” covers a multitude of sins for us who live here but outside in the real world it doesn’t have the same effect. Even here now, the good will and patience is wearing thin, as papers eager for a share of the advertising budget, print vague deadlines without question. It’s all turning into a PR disaster, is the project being helped or hindered by the authorities in Tenerife, surely no one would want to put obstacles in the way of such a flagship attraction? All we can do is cross fingers and wait.
It’s good to see our site is getting noticed, there were 25 spam comments today, mostly for low price pharmacy products, it looked like Amy Winehouse’s shopping list.
The phrase TIT works just as well here as it did in my days in Thailand. This is Tenerife!
With Tenerife receiving a bit of a slagging off in the UK papers recently, the Neverending Story of Siam Park certainly doesn’t help the islands image at all. Still thank you for the new proposed date. Anyone taking bets?
Totally agree. Times have changed and humble approaches should to be taken from the “old tourism establishment”. Using the same word used by the sister “flashship” theme park in the north, these days proper PR is a “must” if you want to promote even the best product.