From wild land to fun paradise

Everland evolves into world-class amusement park

By Kang Seung-woo

Everland, the largest amusement park in Korea, marked its 35th anniversary on April 17.

The park was established on April 17 1976 under the name of Natural Farm as part of a pilot program of land development. It has been offering a variety of entertainment and special events for families, friends and couples to emerge as the nation’s iconic amusement park.

The number of cumulative visitors to the theme park reached 160 million as of March 2011 and its annual attendance has averaged 8.5 million, the seventh highest in the world, with about 20,000 on a daily basis, since 2000.

In addition, visitors from outside Korea have been a rising trend.

In 1997, about 110,000 foreigners visited the park, accounting for 1.5 percent of the total admissions, but the number has increased to about 550,000, which represents 7.9 percent, as of the end of last year.

Although Korea was a wasteland for leisure industries in the 1970s, just focusing on economic development, Everland has continued to come up with different attractions ― Safari World in 1976, Snow Sled in 1987 and Caribbean Bay in 1996 along with Aesop’s Village, the first Aesop theme park in the world, in 2005 ― to guide local leisure culture.

Caribbean Bay opened the eyes of a country used to standard swimming pools to water parks while generating a rush of rival facilities. There are now 22 water parks operating across the nation.

Everland once again lived up to its billing as foremost local theme parks, opening T-Express in 2008, the first wooden roller coaster in Korea with a thrilling vertical angle of 77 degrees.

Right after its debut the ride topped the 2010 list by the Theme Park Review of the world’s most thrilling roller coasters and was also ranked first in the best wooden-tracked roller coaster poll by Mitch Hawker in 2008 and 2010.

Not content with just being a big hit with its rides and zoo, the resort turned its sights to flower-themed events, launching a rose festival in 1985.

It was open at night as well as during the day, a rare case back then, drawing more people.

Following the success of the rose festival Everland put on similar events displaying tulips in 1992, chrysanthemums in 1993 and lilies in 1994 and each emulated the success of the forerunner.

On the back of its impressive performances, Everland has earned its stripes in and out of Korea.

It was awarded the Innovative Operation for Customer Satisfaction for five straight years from 1996 to 2000 and ranked seventh out of 100 brands of Korea in November 2003. It was selected as the top enterprise in the theme park sector for its service quality index for seven consecutive years by the Korea Standard Association in 2005.

Internationally, Everland was picked as one of six major amusement parks in the world by the magazine Amusement Business of America in 2000, while claiming the grand prize from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) in the parade sector in November 2005.

Forbes also picked Everland as one of the world’s four major theme parks in April 2006.