Two seasoned entrepreneurs embodying resilience, risk-taking, and perseverance headlined the annual Leadership Breakfast at IAAPA Expo Europe. The event is known for placing insight on the menu. In 2024, two leaders provided a look at the phenomenal growth their attractions have experienced—and the missteps.
“I think I am the CMO—which means the chief mistake officer,” says Gerro Vonk, director at Driestar Investments, owner of the Hof van Saksen holiday park in the Netherlands. “You have to make mistakes. You don’t learn by going to school and getting great advice. You have to make mistakes; making mistakes hurt. And those things that hurt will make you better.”
Vonk joined Jean Gelissen Jr., general manager of Toverland, to share best practices … and when both have felt in over their heads.
Driestar Finds Strength in Attractions
In 2018, Vonk visited IAAPA Expo Europe’s Leadership Breakfast for the first time. In 2024, he headlined the breakfast, sharing with attendees the importance how adding attractions at hotels and holiday parks can drive attendance. “It’s usually a quite profitable combination,” Vonk says. For more than 30 years, Driestar has managed innovative real estate properties, complete with water park elements that have gained the reputation as attractions in their own right.
At the Hof van Saksen holiday park, Driestar added a trampoline park, a soft play area, and a sewing attraction where adults and children can sit side-by-side and learn to sew on specially made sewing machines engineered for safety. The pool area also now sports water slides after Vonk saw how important a vacation with water slides became to his son.
The example led to changing Driestar’s marketing mantra. Previously, the hospitality group targeted sophisticated adults by catering to them with Michelin star dining. “Instead of rich people coming for Michelin star restaurants, we felt the kids had to be the pulling factor,” he says.
By changing the target group and adding one of Europe’s largest indoor water slides, Vonk became a self-described “play paradise” for families. Yet one thing did not change: the luxurious nature of the holiday homes on-site. Parents still wanted to feel pampered. Therefore, Vonk didn’t change his winning formula of rest, space (in the form of the private homes guests rent), and luxury. He found all three drive repeat visits.
“We have to do new things everyday otherwise we die,” Vonk says, a man who stared nine companies, with only three being reasonably successful. “We have to have no fear for mistakes. Go make mistakes and have fun with it.”
Inside Toverland’s Success
Jean Gelissen Jr. shared insights into the remarkable growth experienced by Toverland, his family-owned park. Over the past 20 years, Toverland has grown from an indoor amusement park into a respected outdoor European theme park with six themed worlds home to more than 40 attractions and shows. In 2023, the park welcomed 1.2 million guests (60% Dutch, 25% German, 15% Belgium) and 2024 is on par to be a record breaker. However, the reward came with risk.
In the beginning, Gelissen’s father—also named Jean—dreamed big. He knew when Toverland was first envisioned, that the future park wouldn’t be the biggest in the world, but he didn’t let that stop him.
“My dad knew when he first saw piece of land that he could build Toverland on that it would not stay at phase one,” Gelissen Jr. told attendees. Phase one opened in 2001. Today, Toverland’s growth plan has reached phase seven.
In 2018, the park opened a new themed land named Avalon. Gelissen Jr. shared Toverland’s biggest investment to date proved risky.
“The truth is, we invested so much and we had gotten so big from one day to the other, it took quite some time for the market and potential guests to actually get how big that we were,” he says. The goal of Avalon was to add 100,000 more guests. Yet, Gelissen Jr. says “the first two or three years, they did not come.”
“You don’t have to be the perfect businessman to understand that if you have a lack of revenues and generating a lot of costs it’s not the healthiest of situations,” he told the room. Gelissen Jr. explained that Toverland managed itself out of a tough situation by extending their season to an almost year-round operation.
“That is quite unique for a park our size. We close for only a really small amount of days a year,” Gelissen Jr. says. The park now entices guests to revisit with seasonal festivals in summer, winter, and around Halloween.
The plan worked. Today, Gelissen Jr. says Toverland is the second most visited theme park in the Netherlands and the park is on solid financial ground. So solvent, that the park formed its own bank.
“This gave us the financial power to make the steps as we wanted to make. And, at the same time, remain a family business,” Gelissen Jr. says.
