Legoland Will Use New Marketing Tack

Down the road in Carlsbad, Legoland California has a new president and a new marketing approach, with more emphasis on details of what the park has to offer and more joint promotions with nearby attractions.

The new boss is Mark Germyn, 48, a Vancouver, B.C., native and veteran amusement park executive who most recently worked at the Warner Bros. movie-themed parks in Australia and Germany.

He replaces the first-year management team of Bill Haviluk and Bob Montgomery, who move on to roles creating new attractions and researching prospective park sites for Global Family Attractions, a division of Lego Co. The parent company also has parks in Denmark and England. A fourth Legoland will open in 2003 in Germany.

Though Legoland is mainly a regional attraction, Germyn said he thinks it can draw visitors from farther away if promoted along with other San Diego-area attractions. About 60% of current visitors come from Southern California, with most of the rest from nearby parts of the country.

The $130-million Legoland, which opened in March, has a kinder, gentler mix of rides and play areas designed to appeal to families with 5- to 11-year-old children.

It fell short of its first-year attendance goal of 1.8 million visitors, instead attracting 1.45 million. But customer spending was high, and the park sold 67,000 annual passes, far more than the 25,000 projected.

The challenge now is repeat business. Germyn said he plans to spend $25 million over the next two to three years on improvements and will move the marketing approach beyond awareness advertising.

“The consumer knows where we are,” he said. “Now the focus needs to be on what we have to offer.”

E. Scott Reckard covers tourism for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com.