Holiday World wins six Golden Ticket Awards

I wish the Golden Tickets would stop pretending to be an international poll. There's absolutely no way that it classifies as such when every single winner is in the same country; the United States doesn't have a monopoly on top rides :)

Against that, it's good to see the Voyage getting the recognition it deserves. I really like that ride.

I agree wholeheartedly, Richard.

Congrats to all the winners!

One word... "Dirty". My job affords me the opportunity to visit many foreign parks. While these winners are all deserving, there are indeed many places and rides across the ponds that deserve to win as well.

They really need to have a US top and Foreign/abroad top list.

I always like reading the golden Tickets but there always seem to be attraction and parks that surprise me.

[Insert annual rant about awards being a scam to sell advertising to companies that wouldn't ordinarily buy it...]

Hehe, some traditions are timeless. Its like when Mitch has his poll results and we go into a lengthy debate over statistics.

I see that my original post in the general buzz section was deleted. Well I would have put it in here, but couldn't for some reason ( not like the 2009 golden ticket awards are in the general buzz section right now :) )

Anyways the most interesting stat for me is that 20 of the top 25 steel roller coasters are either B&M or Intamin Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder if we would care about these at all if it weren't for Holiday World.

Are these awards endorsed in anyway by IAAPA or similar trade organizations?

I just also noticed how the advertisement rates are prominently displayed on the front page of their website... A bit tacky I must say...

Carrie M. said:
I wonder if we would care about these at all if it weren't for Holiday World.

And even then it only matters because they pretend it does write up a little press release each year.

If you see that issue (I think they used to have it in PDF form on the site), it's filled with ads from the various parks mostly. Given that it's an industry targeted trade rag, they normally wouldn't advertise there. But the industry plays along, and it's like an unspoken agreement that the winners will buy ads in return for the marketing angle that the awards give them.

I suppose my point isn't that it's immoral in some way, and I know that trade rags all do this, but it does in my eyes water down the meaning of the awards.

I think we're all suckers myself.

Case in point:

The company I work for writes medical practice management software (the code that your local hospital/doctor's office uses to house your records etc), and we have just signed a deal with a 700+ location major provider.

We wrote a very generic press release announcing this and all three major niche rags that serve the clients we cater to would not print it, we were informed that we could take out an advert to announce it however.

The next month our competitor had their press release published (without an advert tag).

The main difference betwixt us is that we don't use the rags to advertise and they do...

Biased reporting? I agree with Jeff and use the term "Dirty".

Lord Gonchar said:

Carrie M. said:
I wonder if we would care about these at all if it weren't for Holiday World.

And even then it only matters because they pretend it does write up a little press release each year.

Nah, I'm here for Knoebels. :)

Do you really believe that any of the parks who win really don't care about the free PR tool placed in their laps all tied up with a pretty bow? Yeah, they just put out those press releases because they have nothing else to do that day. On a Sunday no less. So they blow their own horns. So what? The GP who we all know doesn't care about the details will be impressed by first place for this or that. The local press isn't going to check that deeply into what Golden Tickets are, but they'll print an article about how the local parks won so many awards.

RatherGoodBear said:
Do you really believe that any of the parks who win really don't care about the free PR tool placed in their laps all tied up with a pretty bow? Yeah, they just put out those press releases because they have nothing else to do that day. On a Sunday no less. So they blow their own horns. So what? The GP who we all know doesn't care about the details will be impressed by first place for this or that. The local press isn't going to check that deeply into what Golden Tickets are, but they'll print an article about how the local parks won so many awards.

In other words they pretend the awards matter and put out press releases. :)

I have always wanted to go to holiday world and I'm not saying it isn't a good park but does one park really ever deserve 6 awards I mean like look at the other hundreads of parks around the globe to.

Will G said:
I have always wanted to go to holiday world and I'm not saying it isn't a good park but does one park really ever deserve 6 awards I mean like look at the other hundreads of parks around the globe to.

There's only one way for you find out for sure, isn't there?

Will G, Cleanest & Friendliest parks, YES to both of those. Voyage, if not #1 it certainly is right up there. I think it is #1 especially a front row night ride. Wildebeest, I can see that too. Will Koch being honored, yep that one works for me.

So yes, I do think that all of these awards are warranted. Holiday World is that good.