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Using Climbers and Slides to Cater to Young Guests
Neighborhood playgrounds have always been a source of entertainment for kids—and now they’re moving on to cruise ships and into vacation resorts.
According to Travel Industry of America’s website, www.tia.org, one in five trips in the United States (23%) include children under 18. About 87% of these trips with children are for leisure, nearly half of which are taken to visit friends or relatives. About 42% of overnight trips with children include a hotel stay. Since 1994 there has been a 13.6% increase in domestic pleasure trips involving adults with kids; and 98.6 million of those trips were taken in 2001. Currently, about 8% off all business trips involve children—a 20.6% increase since 1994.
Why the increase in kid travel? One explanation could be that many resorts now offer special activities and amenities for children, ranging from swimming activities to movies to supervised play areas. Ron Derk, Sales and Marketing Manager for Playworld Systems, Inc.®, a playground manufacturer based in Lewisburg, PA says, “We’ve found that many resorts are catering to this market by offering Kid’s Clubs and other amenities for children. They’ve also begun to highlight playgrounds in their brochures because they know parents are looking for supervised, outdoor activities for their children.”
The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain offers a program for young vacationers called the “Ritz Kids Program.” The program at the Ritz-Carlton, Rose Hall in Jamaica, includes variety of indoor and outdoor activities, including arts and crafts, making sandcastles, and telling stories of old Jamaica. One of the program’s highlights is the supervised Playworld Systems playground. The playground area is located in an area close to the beach so parents can lounge on the beach and still watch their children play. In fact, many resorts build their playgrounds on prime locations so that parents can watch their children while having some relaxation time of their own.
How can you make your playground stand out and become a place where kids want to hang out during their stay? An easy way to attract kids to the playground is through the use of color and most playground manufacturers offer an extensive color palette. Studies show that there is a connection between color and emotion. For example, warm colors, such as red, orange and yellow, speed up the perception of time and produce warm, inviting feelings. According to Derk, Playworld Systems has found that tropical resorts tend to choose warm colors, such as peaches, yellows, and oranges, for their playgrounds.
But the latest trend in playgrounds involves customizing, or personalizing. Resorts can now transform their play areas into jungles, oceans or far-a-way lands through the use of color and images. Their young guests will stretch their imaginations and pretend to be pirates on the high seas, an explorer in the rain forest or maybe a princess in a castle.
Customizing playgrounds is a specialty for Playworld Systems. Using post tops, arches, canopy roofs, banners, panels and decks—a playground can be transformed into almost any theme. Benches and signs can also create a personalized atmosphere. “The great thing about customizing,” says Derk, “is that the possibilities are endless. No two playgrounds have to look the same.”
So what exactly is customizing and how does it work? Customization is a fun way to honor a sponsor, reflect a theme, or celebrate your hotel or resort with your own original artwork or with pre-designed images. Customizing a playground can also bring your resort “family” together. You can incorporate an employee’s drawings into panels and signs, or spell out a unique message of inspiration throughout your play area. A custom made sign welcoming guests to the playground can proudly display your logo and provide a creative and fun way to display on-site safety guidelines.
As the number of adults traveling with children continues to increase, resorts need to find new and exciting ways to cater to and entertain those children in order to remain competitive. A fun, supervised playground with inviting colors, challenging activities and an interesting theme can easily create a place where kids can escape from the “real world” to a world of fantasy and imagination. And at the same time, provide their parents with a few hours of escape as well. For more information about Playworld Systems, please call 1-800-233-8404, or visit www.playworldsystems.com.