From being authentic to your own brand to owning up to mistakes, Greg Yong, CEO of Coast Entertainment, the parent company of Australia’s Dreamworld theme park, WhiteWater World water park, and SkyPoint Observation Deck offering panoramic views of Australia’s Gold Coast, shares five ways attractions leaders can find success in their operation.
Speaking at the IAAPA Expo Asia Leadership Breakfast, Yong conveys that sharing insight only makes the global attractions industry stronger.
1. Boldly Move Forward with Your Own Brand
While Yong recognizes the value of a strong intellectual property (IP), he’s a believer of an attraction differentiating themselves from their competition with their own look and feel.
“We have worked with some incredible IP’s in our history. But the end of the day, when we looked around at our competitive landscape, a lot of our other competitors had the same kind of IP,” Yong tells Funworld.
To separate themselves from cartoon characters and superheroes, Yong’s team began to focus on what organic assets Dreamland already had. That led to a conversation that concluded with the phrase, “Let's be ourselves.”
“We spent a lot of time talking about us being a hometown favorite,” he says. “We have Kenny and Belinda, our famous mascots have been with us for over 40 years, and we really dug into that and it really resonated with that market—and with that team as well.”
2. Surround Yourself with Smart People
By nature, Yong is a humble man, whose sense of humor is often present. (He shared with attendees a photo of himself as an adolescent with a mullet haircut—an attribute he says is possibly responsible for first catching the eye of his future wife. They married when he was 19 years old).
The man who first envisioned a career as a pilot or saxophone teacher says successful attractions leaders will surround themselves with hard working people who know what they are doing.
“I make sure that I have surrounded myself with people smarter than me—that's very easy to do,” he says with a laugh. That includes having a senior leadership team with experience and who are self-starters.
“They don't need me to tell them what to do. So, I've really got to make sure that they have all the tools that they need,” Yong says.
3. Never Compromise on Safety
In October 2016, Dreamworld had an accident on its former river rapids ride. Four adults perished in the incident that gained global headlines. The event led to a drop in attendance and revenue.
“Many say safety is the most important thing in their organization,” he says. “I'm in an organization where we're a testament to the fact that it absolutely really is the case.”
At Dreamworld, the park sets aside capital dollars to invest in upgrades to existing infrastructure that can lead to greater safety. Whether that is enhancements to the wave pool found at WhiteWater World’s water park or to back-of-house facilities.
“We spend a lot of money on maintenance areas, things that don't sell tickets, but they make a huge difference, particularly for our team members and their safety as well, which has been a big part of our focus,” he says.
Today, Yong keeps a photo of the people involved in the accident on his desk as a reminder to always lead with safety. “You get a turnaround once in your career. I came to make sure what happened in Dreamworld in 2016 never happens again,” he says.
4. Be Transparent
The hardest thing Yong has done in his career to date? Invite the surviving family members of the 2016 accident to his own residence for a discussion on how Dreamworld could properly memorialize their loved ones. Although Yong was not the park’s leader at the time of the accident (he’s the fourth CEO for Dreamworld’s parent company since the accident), he and his team created a memorial in the park dedicated to those who lost their lives. A quiet reflective space now includes four benches displaying the names of the four guests who perished.
“A lot of people will try to think, ‘Well, how do we stay away from it? How do we hide it? How do we minimize what happened there?’ And there's no doing that,” he says. “In our view, this is part of our history; It's not a great part of our history, but we need to own what happened here.”
Yong recommends other attractions analyze their failures and learn from them. “The best thing that we can do is learn from it.”
5. Upgrade the Aesthetics and Refresh Infrastructure
From painting dull-looking water slides to replacing gravel with pavement, Dreamworld under Yong’s watch has made the commitment to refresh mature areas of the park.
“We had a lot to do in a small amount of time,” Yong tells attendees from the stage. “We are doing Australia’s biggest turnaround by heart.”
The property added several new rides between 2023-2024. A children’s coaster from Zamperla and a wave swinger from Zierer, the latter constructed as part of an interactive water fountain. As the swings rise overhead, water geysers spurt under the feet of riders. In addition, a new themed realm, complete with a new roller coaster, is expected to open around Christmas 2024.
The reinvestment conveys to guests that the park is clean, safe, and has moved forward.
“Our big focus at Dreamworld is making sure that we think about and learn from what happened here—not only to help the park ourselves, but also help our colleagues in the industry as well,” Yong concludes.
