Dark rides are archetypal theme park attractions that provide compelling experiences through carefully structured experience designs. In a literature review, we follow and slightly modify Langhof and Güldenberg’s conceptualization of the dark ride experience (DRE) and suggest that the DRE mostly consists of narrative transportation, presence, flow, and emotions. However, to what extent these conceptualizations match actual dark ride supply remains unexamined. Therefore, we evaluate 238 dark rides in the EMEA region on product determinants of the DRE and compare literature-based conceptualizations of the DRE against actual dark ride supply. Findings indicate that dark rides highly vary in terms of storytelling, theming, and pervasive interactivity, thus questioning whether all components of the DRE always apply to the full dark ride spectrum. Proposing the Dark Ride Cube as a dark ride typology, Langhof and Güldenberg’s conceptualization of the DRE is largely confirmed, as well as the currently suggested modifications.
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During this presentation, attendees will gain insights into how three years of intensive scientific research on dark rides, led by Dr. Wim Strijbosch and Dr. Pieter Cornelis, translate into practical implications. Through the examination of 250 dark rides across 75 criteria, attendees will grasp how the dark ride experience is carefully crafted as a staged experience for guests. Additionally, they will delve into a qualitative inquiry revealing two primary experiential trajectories, inward-driven and outward-driven, and learn how guests navigate these trajectories based on their motivations, opportunities, and abilities. Attendees will also discover key components shaping the dark ride experience, including emotion, imagery, and narrative-related states such as narrative transportation, presence and flow.
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Dark rides embody a noteworthy phenomenon in theme park destinations and beyond, serving as a textbook example of structured experiences. They therefore offer valuable insights for knowledge development on structured experiences in the broader realm of tourism and leisure experiences. Despite various conceptualizations of the dark ride experience, the visitor's perspective has been largely overseen. Through qualitative interviews we explored 16 distinct dark rides, unveiling key constituent components of their experience and identifying contributing factors. Results indicate that dark rides are primarily appreciated for their ability to generate here-and-now experiences, characterized by imagery, imagery-based states, and emotions. However, visitors may inadvertently shift their focus to internal thoughts and cognitions based on motivation, opportunity, and ability-related switch factors, risking mental disengagement.
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This research concerning the experience and future of zoos was carried out from 2011-2012 and takes regional ideas concerning Zoo Emmen as well as global visions into account. The research focuses partly on Zoo Emmen, its present attractions and visitors while also comparing and contrasting visions on the future in relationship to other international zoos in the world. In this way, remarkable experiences and ideas will be identified and in the light of them, it can serve as inspiration for stakeholders of zoos at large. The main research subject is a look at the future zoos in view of: The Zoo Experience – an international experience benchmark; The Zoo of the Future – a Scenario Planning approach towards the future; The virtual zoo - zoo’s in the internet domain.
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The results of this study indicate that whole body metabolic and cardiovascular responses to 140 min of either steady state or variable intensity exercise at the same average intensity are similar, despite differences in skeletal muscle carbohydrate metabolism and recruitment
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Many, many comparisons have been drawn in recent years between the current rise of (right-wing) populism and the financial crisis of 2008 that shook and continues to shake Europe to its core, and the tumultuous and horrifying events of the 1930s, which in the end resulted in the Second World War. A number of recent studies which (partially) focus on this decade carry ominous titles like To Hell and Back, The Age of Catastrophe and The Triumph of the Dark. Referred to by some historians as the second Thirty Years’ War, the period from the First World War to the end of the Second still continues to draw much academic and indeed public attention. In many cases, Germany deservedly plays a central role in the analysis, either in the form of the Kaiserreich or the ill-fated Weimar Republic and, of course, Nazi Germany. The five books under review here discuss European history between 1914 and 1950 in general, and that of Germany in particular, in this period. What do these books tell us about Europe’s and Germany’s path in the first half of the twentieth century, and what new insights do they provide? https://doi.org/10.1177/0265691418777981 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-lak-71793013/
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