For over 100 years, Ripley Entertainment Inc. has been a world leader in providing family attractions. Over the years, it has grown from a small daily newspaper cartoon drawn by Robert Ripley, which first appeared in 1918, to a global entertainment business. Today, it operates more than 100 attractions under a dozen brands worldwide. This includes Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Ripley’s Aquariums, Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks, Ripley’s Haunted Adventure, Guinness World Record Attractions and many more.
Ripley Entertainment is part of the Jim Pattison Group, Canada’s second-largest privately owned company. With more than 49,500 employees, 605 locations across the globe, and $15 billion in sales, The Jim Pattison Group provides financial backing for the growth of Ripley Entertainment and its family of attractions.
To find out more about the evolution of the company, blooloop speaks to Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley Entertainment and current chair of the Board of Directors for IAAPA, the global association for the attractions industry.
Developing Ripley Entertainment
The Jim Pattison Group bought Ripley Entertainment in 1985.
“At that time, it was a smaller business with a variety of small attractions, mostly in the US, Canada and Denmark,” says Pattison. “There were probably somewhere around 14 attractions. I took on the role of president in 2008. But my predecessor, Bob Masterson, former chair of IAAPA, is the guy who really built the company up. He is also the person who taught me a lot about how the attraction industry works.
“When we bought the company, it had a lot of small attractions, like wax museums and Believe It or Not! venues, but we wanted to try something new. Bob and I travelled all over the world looking at aquariums and decided that we wanted to present a different take on an aquarium. We built our first aquarium, which opened in 1997, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“It was one of those things where if we knew then what we know now, maybe we wouldn’t have built it, but long story short, it turned out to be successful. One of the legends of our industry, Buzz Price, helped do the feasibility work for that project.”
The company then built a second aquarium, Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which opened in 2000.
“From there, we built a Great Wolf Lodge hotel, up in Niagara Falls, with a water park and 406 rooms. That opened in 2006, and then we built Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto, which opened in 2013.
“So, we changed the company quite a bit, from being more of an impulse type of business to also having the ability to be destination-oriented. Now, there is a wide variety of different things that we have expertise in. We moved into 10 countries, and we have 118 attractions.”
The enduring fascination of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Ripley Entertainment is perhaps best known for its Ripley’s Believe It or Not! venues, of which there are now 27 locations around the world. These attractions showcase unusual artefacts and curiosities and allow guests to get hands-on with interesting interactives.
Speaking about the enduring appeal of this model, Pattison says that, ultimately, truth is stranger than fiction:
“People are fascinated by other people’s dreams, wishes, quirks, strange ideas, travels, art and different things that they like to do. It gives everyone an opportunity to participate in the world differently.”
While it is important to take into account local differences, it’s a model that has proved to be successful in all different regions. It has a universal power to attract visitors:
“I can’t think of anywhere that we’ve been that people haven’t appreciated our product. We must be culturally sensitive, of course. Wherever we’re going, we need to ensure that we understand things like religion, politics and history. But everywhere we’ve been people are fascinated with some of the stuff we do. I’m fascinated with it; we see incredible stuff coming in every day.”
Curious objects and oddities
The Ripley Entertainment warehouse in Orlando is one of the places where these curious objects and oddities are collected:
“It’s a very interesting place! You’re never sure what’s going to be in here on any given day. We have a lot of pop culture things, but the company is 105 years old, so we also have some original authentic artefacts. We have things like lightsabers from Star Wars and we have other movie props from Disney. Also, our sister company is Guinness World Records. So, they help us get things as well, we work with them every day.
“We just built a new warehouse in Orlando. This is about 70,000 square feet, and we are already moving in, which we are excited about. We’re going to set it up a little bit differently so we can take people around – we’re in the business of show business after all, so even our warehouse is going to have some surprise elements. The plan is to be able to bring in some groups and to hold events in the new space, which will be fun.”
The company’s collection made headlines recently when Kim Kardashian borrowed Marilyn Monroe‘s dress for an event.
“She was pretty committed to trying to fit into that dress. It certainly created a lot of publicity and some controversy, but the dress is fine!”
Entertainment meets education
When it comes to the aquarium side of the business, there is another element to consider as well as entertainment, as this needs to be balanced with conservation and animal welfare.
“All three of our aquariums are AZA accredited. So, we adhere to the policies of that organisation around looking after the animals, and the topics of conservation, sustainability, and education. But what we try to do is we try to add a little more entertainment to it, particularly on the education side. We want to make learning fun.”
“We have all kinds of events and activities, things like school groups and camps. Also, we now do overnight events, like Sleep with the Sharks. The fish are there 24/7 and we’re looking after them 24/7; we do spend a lot of time and effort making sure animals are well cared for. People are just fascinated with fish.”
Speaking about whether the company would consider adding further animal attractions to the portfolio in coming years, he adds:
“I think we will certainly look at adding more aquariums, and we’re always working on new projects; it’s a busy company! We always have new ideas.”
Adopting new technology at Ripley Entertainment
Having started as a fairly low-tech concept, Ripley’s has not been shy about adopting new technology to support the guest experience.
“You have to keep looking at technology,” says Pattison. “If you don’t, you’re going to get left behind. Things like VR and AI have lots of potential, and we’ve found too that there are lots of things we can do with projection now.”
“People want interactivity. I think with our collections, people want to see them a little bit differently now. So, there’s a lot more technology involved in displays. It’s not just looking at everything through a glass case. People feel they want to push a button and see something happen, or they want to learn a little bit more history.
“They also want to have things at their fingertips, they want to buy tickets on their phones. Technology also helps everything behind the scenes. It helps you with the quality of the guest experience. It helps you to reach people online now. You have to be where your guest wants to see you.”
Jim Pattison and IAAPA
In addition to his role as president of Ripley Entertainment, Pattison is also currently serving as chair of the Board of Directors for IAAPA. Talking about what’s new with the association, he says:
“We have made some changes to reduce and restructure some of our committees and moved a lot more from committees to task forces. We also have got a new management set and a new CEO.
“IAAPA came through COVID very strongly and members were tremendously supportive of the association. Now what we’re trying to do is make sure that we can move a little faster. Our technology needs to be better, and we need to be able to communicate with people in multiple languages around the world better than we do now.”
“We made a couple of changes. For instance, if you’re a manufacturer or supplier, you can now be a chair of IAAPA. That’s roughly 45% of our membership. A lot of our M&S people are very global, because they have to deal with multiple countries, and they’ve got a lot of knowledge.
“The whole idea is to be open to change. There are 195 countries in the world, give or take. We probably have some kind of member in every one of them. We have offices in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America, but we want to expand that even further.
“I’ve travelled to 20 countries so far this year and I’ve talked to our members wherever I go.”
Supporting the global attractions business
When it comes to the main challenges that the global attractions industry faces, Pattison says these are often political:
“It’s for sure things like tariffs and taxes. When you go on a trip somewhere, you might be going to see heritage and history. But people want to spend time doing other things too. They want to have a little bit of fun, and a break in the action if you will. I think governments should learn and pay more attention to what a huge opportunity tourism brings.
“For instance, if you go to South America, they have everything. They’ve got mountains so you can go skiing, and they’ve got beaches, lakes, jungles, attractions, great food, and fun people. However, then you have some government distractions, things like currency issues, taxes and tariffs and important things like that. These create obstacles for people to grow our industry in those countries. Even though it’s a proven fact that the people who are visiting love what we do.
“I think if governments and businesses can come together and say ‘OK, tourism and family entertainment is really a huge opportunity for the world and we should embrace it together’, then we could grow our industry even much bigger than it is today.”
Ripley Entertainment and the evolution of attractions
The industry has changed in the years that Ripley Entertainment has grown, with attractions no longer neatly fitting into one category and offering more diverse and immersive experiences. Talking about where he sees the industry going, Pattison says:
“What excites me is watching the family businesses grow. They have to adjust and deal with whatever is coming. For instance, with COVID, everybody had to change their business just to survive, and most did, which was impressive.”
“Family entertainment centre is a catch-all; it can be indoor or outdoor, it’s not only a tourist location, but also, it’s part of a local community. Those folks have impressed me with how they’ve embraced technology, like VR and AR, and how they’ve added a variety of new experiences from go-kart tracks to zip lines.”
He identifies adventure parks as another strong trend:
“People like being outside; they want to be in nature. So, we see a lot of that kind of activity now. We’re seeing that people want to combine their entertainment with something that is maybe a little bit exercise-based and active.
“All I see is a big canvas now that entertainment is just getting wider. Nothing’s off the table and you’re not confined anymore. You’re only limited by your imagination.”
Changing guest expectations
The pandemic has also contributed to some of the recent changes, he adds, with the industry showing itself to be resilient and capable of pivoting to meet changing audience expectations:
“After the lockdown, people tried to reprioritise their lives. They were saying, ‘Okay, it’s really important now that I spend time with family and friends, in an environment where we can have fun and get away from our problems and issues.’
“And that’s continued. Now you’re seeing everybody jumping on aeroplanes and the international trips are back, the cruise ship businesses have come back very strong. That desire for exploration and sense of people not wanting to wait to do things when they have the opportunity because you never know when something like that may happen again.”
Ripley Entertainment on the road
In terms of what’s new and next for Ripley Entertainment, Pattison says:
“We’re making a lot of our galleries more movable and changeable now so that we can move things around a lot more easily, especially when we’re designing and building things. So that helps us to keep our shows very current and offer fresh opportunities for our customers.”
“We also have a Believe It or Not! travelling show that mostly goes to science museums or children’s museums and then we have a Guinness World Records exhibition that also travels, which is very successful. We have had a show at the Global Village in Dubai every year for the last five years or so, and we change that out all the time. It’s quite incredible.
“What I love about what we do at Ripley’s is that truth is stranger than fiction. All over the world, people build things because they think somebody’s going to be interested in that collection. And quite often they are.”
