IAAPA, the global association for the attractions industry, has announced that the winner of the 2024 Applause Award will be revealed at the IAAPA Honors ceremony.
Since 1980, Swedish theme park Liseberg has presented the coveted Applause Award every two years to recognize a park whose operations, management, and creative achievements have influenced the industry through strong planning, innovation, and strategic business development.
The title was awarded for the 20th time in 2022, and was presented to Tokyo DisneySea in Japan, which entered the ranks of some world’s leading parks.
Evolving award
In 2024, two significant changes will be made to the award.
Firstly, beginning in 2024, the Applause Award will become a yearly honour. In addition, the award’s scope will be expanded to include additional types of attractions that fit its criteria, such as water parks, zoos, and resorts.
Andreas Veilstrup Andersen, president and CEO, Liseberg Group and chairman of The Applause Award Board of Governors, says: “The Applause Award was one of the first awards celebrating the amusement- and theme park industry. With the transition into an annual award, and with a somewhat broader definition of what an amusement or theme park can look like in the 21st century, the award will continue to stay relevant and even better reflect the ever-evolving attractions industry.”
Secondly, the Applause Award will be moved from an IAAPA Expo time slot and will take place in the new IAAPA Honors ceremony. This new event will take place for the first time on 3 March 2024 in Las Vegas. IAAPA Honors will recognise the 2024 IAAPA Hall of Fame honourees, 2024 IAAPA Service and Young Professional recipients, and IAAPA Brass Ring Award winners.
Jakob Wahl, CEO & president of IAAPA, comments: “We are very excited that the Applause Award will join IAAPA Honors. The idea with this new event is to celebrate excellence in the global attractions industry but also put an emphasis on what each one of the attendees can learn from the award winners to improve their own business.”
The expansion of Liseberg’s collaboration with the global association for the attraction industry reflects the continued development of the attractions sector.
Tickets for the IAAPA Honors ceremony are now available to book.
Previous recipients of The Applause Award include:
- 1980 Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, USA
- 1982 Opryland, USA
- 1986 Epcot Center, USA
- 1988 Knott´s Berry Farm, USA
- 1990 EuropaPark, Germany
- 1992 Efteling, the Netherlands
- 1994 Universal Studios, Florida, USA
- 1996 Cedar Point, USA
- 1998 Silver Dollar City, USA
- 2000 Hershey Park, USA
- 2002 Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, USA
- 2004 Holiday World & Splashing Safari, USA
- 2006 Universal´s Islands of Adventure, USA
- 2008 Xetulul, Guatemala
- 2010 Dollywood, USA
- 2012 Ocean Park, Hong Kong
- 2014 Puy du Fou, France
- 2018 Xcaret, Mexico
- 2022 Tokyo DisneySea, Japan
IAAPA has been celebrating the success of this year’s IAAPA Expo, which took place in Orlando, Florida, from 13 – 17 November. The event welcomed 36,173 attraction professionals to the floor from a total registration of 41,236.
