In today’s travel/tourism market, destination resorts are looking to increase the length of stay and improve the guest experience. Many are looking for attractions that can add value during guests’ stay and increase bookings. A number of these vacation resorts are in emerging markets such as the Caribbean or Latin America. Here, the attractions industry is less mature and hungry for IP-driven, entertainment experiences.
Falcon’s Beyond is bridging this gap, bringing together the travel/tourism world with small footprint themed entertainment through connected guest experiences. In a joint venture with leading luxury resort company Meliá Hotels International, Falcon’s Beyond is developing themed entertainment destinations connected to select Meliá resorts.
However, this is just part of the web of connected experiences that are changing how guests will interact inside the parks, through personalised, gamified experiences and how they will consume content outside the park through games, apps and animation.
The latest development in the joint venture is the Katmandu Park in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, alongside the Falcon’s Resort by Meliá.
I recently got to experience the park and resort myself. I also caught up with Falcon’s Beyond executive vice president of global licensing & business development, Daryl White.
With big plans including future joint parks and developments, content creation and IP and the small task of taking Falcon’s Beyond public on the stock exchange, the company has an exciting time ahead of it.
The birth of Katmandu
The first Katmandu experience in Mallorca, Spain, began as an upside-down house sensory attraction, with visual trickery and an attached mini golf experience. It was developed by Falcon’s Beyond executive chairman Scott Demerau.
Demerau expanded the experience into a themed entertainment centre district, including a Quest attraction and 4D experience. Together with his wife Juli and son Cory, the family created the initial story and characters of their proprietary franchise ‘The Hidden Realms of Katmandu’.
The mythical universe centres around Kilgore Goode, inventor of wonders and explorer of the hidden realms. Whilst exploring Nepal, Kilgore discovers the Desirata stone, connecting our world to hidden realms across the universe. In its wake, it turns the magical house Jadu upside down. This becomes the entrance gate to Katmandu Park.
Steampunk meets fantasy
The IP brings together a host of characters. This includes Hira the Elder, mermaid Merala, Rani of the Realm of Azurlan, Boro the Yeti, Busby the Robot, Kumar and Maiya. The characters and story are steampunk-meets-fantasy. With its various realms, the content is rich for future expansion, storylines and development.
The Mallorca attraction was doing well and quickly caught the attention of its neighbour.
“It was adjacent to one of Meliá’s Sol brand hotels in Magaluf. Scott and Meliá executives got along well” said White. “They said hey, what happens if we overflow some of this theming and entertainment into the hotel?”
The result was an immediate lift in occupancy and guest ratings. So much so, the pair formed a joint venture called Sol Katmandu Park and Resort.
“This was the birth of the Katmandu brand relationship with Meliá. That hotel went on to become one of the top-performing hotels in the Sol brand” said White. “Meliá said ‘If you can do that with one of our lowest performing hotels, what can you do with one of our best?’”
A new term – Resortainment
So, the team began developing the Paradisus Grand Cana in Punta Cana, transforming it into a new brand, Falcon’s Resort by Meliá. The team developed the adjacent theme park: Katmandu Park Punta Cana which opened to the public 15th March 2023.
Falcon’s Resort by Meliá is an all-inclusive, all suites resort. A favourite of US, Latin America and Spanish-speaking European visitors, the hotel is beautiful with an open airy design from architect Alvaro Sans in the shape of a circle. The hotel has themed scents, (the lobby smells of chocolate) and friendly, Caribbean hospitality and staff throughout the resort.
The hotel has premium offerings for guests in its MeliáRewards tiers and Circle members. For example, exclusive dining and premium amenities and spaces. For BEYOND guests, they can expect swim-up/whirlpool suites, private check-in and a personalised concierge. They can also enjoy unlimited Katmandu Park visits during their trip.
The resort has a variety of eating spots. From the Peruvian cevichería Machu to the experiential Tori Japanese teppanyaki and sushi restaurant, there is high-quality dining to suit all tastes. There is also a state-of-the-art gym and a robust programme of activities to do throughout the day. This spans everything from underwater spinning to Zumba classes to cigar making, VR activities and a beautiful spa, MAIA.
The pristine white sand beach is just a 10 min walk or shuttle bus away. Plus, guests can make use of the sister hotel’s splash pad and small waterpark, ‘Blast’.
Entertaining moments at Katmandu Park
Falcon’s Beyond worked with Meliá’s team to infuse entertainment and experiences throughout the resort, coining the term ‘resortainment’. The approach opts for smaller “guerilla” style surprising entertainment moments such as live saxophone players and circus performers in the pool for an intimate experience, rather than a huge one-off show. In fact, many of the same performers also rotate into the theme park’s entertainment too.
The largest piece of ‘resortainment’ was the $83 million development of Katmandu Park Punta Cana, the Caribbean’s first world-class theme park. Falcon’s Resorts guests have complimentary access to the park during their stay. It is also open to the wider public and local resorts.
“We are always looking for ways to offer genuinely distinctive experiences for our guests around the globe. That’s why partnering with Falcon’s Beyond, a company that has such an impressive track record of building outstanding experiences, has been so important for us” said Sara Ranghi, marketing and brand management America director, Meliá Hotels International.
“From the debut of Falcon’s Resort by Meliá to the grand opening of Katmandu Park, our recent progress with our Punta Cana destination is only just the beginning of our work integrating immersive and interactive entertainment seamlessly within resort experiences”.
From designers to owners/operators
Falcon’s Beyond is a partnership between experience design company Falcon’s Creative Group, and Katmundu Group which brings years of experience owning and operating parks and attractions. The partnership allows Falcon’s Beyond to continue to hone its skills in the theme park planning arena according to White:
“We’ve been able to look back and poke holes in some of our older design assumptions. But we’ve also been able to pat ourselves on the back for developing some really amazing story-driven experiences.”
“The key here is to keep challenging what you think you know and what you think works. If it ain’t broke, break it and make it better.”
Katmundu Park – big experience, small footprint
Falcon’s Beyond’s goal with Katmundu Park Punta Cana was to rethink the mega-park attraction, delivering a big experience on a small footprint. At 4.2 acres it includes 9 attractions, a robust F&B offering, merchandise opportunities and event space. It has a capacity of 2000 guests.
“The park was designed for a half-day stay. Guests are here on the beautiful island, we are here to complement that. Spend half a day at the beach and half a day at the park” said White.
The park’s dark ride ‘Legend of the Desirata’ tells the story of Katmandu through projection, effects and show scenes. The ride introduces the main characters and context for Katmandu Park and the IP. The dark ride vehicles are from Oceaneering and Barco is the projector partner (although one was being replaced during my visit due to a power surge, a unique challenge of operating on a Caribbean island!)
The ‘Voyage of the Fathom Wanderer’ is a suspended theatre including Falcon’s patented Reveal technology. The show starts with a large format widescreen. This lifts guests up over into the 14-metre diameter spherical screen for the main experience. Falcon’s partnered with Kraftwerk Living Technologies for AV and the screen is from Endurescreens.
Real-time interactive experiences
The park has two attractions that use Unreal Engine to allow guests to interact in real-time for the experience. On the ‘Challenge of Mad Mage’ at various points in the story, by majority ‘shoot’, guests can choose which realm they want to go to next, deciding in real time the environment and where the story goes.
The attraction has multiple different experiences depending on guest choices and encourages repeat rides to try them all. At the end of the ride, the top three scoring guest’s avatars will celebrate on the screen.
The second real-time experience was the ‘EtherQuest’, the park’s interactive walkthrough attraction. After walking through a portal, Ethermetal is let loose and sends Jadu: The Hall of Magic house into the Hidden Realms. After taking cover in the fireplace, guests need to fight the Explorer Mages through various different rooms using interactive objects.
On small stations, guests point and interact with the content on the projection-mapped walls for example using lamp lights to shine onto evil baddies to kill them. In the next room, we were zapping bugs.
The content was quick-paced, responsive and good fun. After the experience, guests leave through a mirror maze. They end up in Kilgore’s, which has some really fun science-based interactives.
Ropes courses, adventure golf and more at Katmandu Park
Other attractions include a 3-story KristallTurm ropes course. This has some thrilling elements like a zipline in a bucket, ninja footholds, and an epic view of the Punta Cana beach and resorts. The park has a carousel from Concept 1900 which includes some bespoke characters and elements from the Katmandu IP. There is also a Giant Swing with 360 video camera, an indoor Quadrogon assault course and a play centre for younger guests.
The area had theming throughout with exterior theming from Line-X based in Spain, and interior theming from Thematik based locally in the Dominican Republic and Spot-Productions. The Nepalese mountains and ice caves around the 36-hole Expedition Golf course were intricate and looked great lit up at night time.
Connected digital experiences
Alongside the development of the park, the free-to-use, fan loyalty and online gaming platform BeyondME was created. This allows fans to collect experience points (XP) on the rides via tapping in on their ticket or RFID bands. The park partnered with Intercard for the POS and scan points. Meanwhile, Belgian company BMI Leisure was the overall ticketing vendor.
The BeyondME platform extends outside of the theme park and resort. Fans can collect XP in two digital-based experiences with more to come.
BEYONDLAND is a Roblox game that allows users to explore a virtual hub. The first brand activation on the platform is a digital version of Katmandu Park. This features social areas, as well as a variety of games, activities, digital products and collectables. Fans can construct and share their own rollercoaster with their friends too. The game has an impressive 5.4 million visits so far.
The second digital experience linking to the Katmandu brand is the simple to pick up, and highly addictive, merging mobile game EtherMerge. Think Candy Crush style, but with mystical elements. The app has a 4.7 score on the App Store to date.
Katmandu Park and the global entertainment market
Falcon’s Beyond has worked with Epic Story Media to launch Katmandu into the global entertainment market with these two digital activations, as well as consumer goods like the Age of Artefacts card trading game, colouring books, and themed park merchandise for both the Mallorca and Punta Cana parks. Katmandu aims to become a household name, with a future animated series planned and more mobile games to be announced.
This layer of interactivity is all part of Falcon’s Beyond’s wider vision for the Katmandu IP to provide a touch point into various digital and physical mediums for today’s consumers and guests.
During our visit, the team were programming interactive walls in the hotel lobby that will respond to guests as they pass. There are various layers of personalisation in the park and hotel experience that are in development right now. For example, the team is working on a project that will combine merchandising with the BeyondME app. When physical merchandise is purchased at the store in the park, it will appear as a digital version of the guest’s BeyondME avatar.
Falcon’s Central
Falcon’s Beyond and Meliá have several projects in development including further expansion on the Punta Cana site.
“One of the next projects is building out Falcon’s Central here in Punta Cana. On the land between the resort and the theme park, we will have some themed location-based entertainment, bringing in some individual brands that we are working with, as well as some of our own custom brands and we will bring in restaurants and retail as well” said White.
This retail/entertainment complex will be within walking distance of several local Meliá hotels. But Katmandu Park and this new area will provide entertainment for the local tourism market, with more than 45,000 hotel rooms in the immediate area.
“People come here for a beach vacation. We don’t want to compete with that, we want to complement it. With an average stay of 6.9 nights, if you are here for a week, you may be looking for other things to do than sit on the beach all day,” said White.
Katmandu Park – Tenerife
Another Falcon’s Resort / Katmandu project is planned for another Meliá resort in Tenerife, Spain.
“That is a hotel we are planning for renovating and revamping, as well with the goal to bring in entertainment there also” said White.
The company has announced planned development on a Meliá property in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It is also working on other new locations to be announced soon.
Punta Cana has succeeded as proof of concept for ‘resortainment’. And, with 347 properties in 40 countries in the Meliá portfolio, there is a lot of opportunity to expand the Falcon’s Resort brand and bring more Katmandu Parks to more locations globally.
Falcon’s taking flight
There is huge momentum behind Falcon’s Beyond at the moment, with its recent hire of former Disney, Marvel and Moonbug executive Simon Philips joining as president. Philips brings with him a wealth of experience in licensing and brand building as the company expands into the wider entertainment industry.
Falcon’s Beyond opened its Manilla, Philippines office earlier this year. Now, it is currently in the process of taking the company public. It has ambitious plans to develop new parks, digital layered experiences, brand and licensing deals and IP & content. Its success is dependent on the connectivity of these projects, so the public offering will allow Falcon’s Beyond the funds and resources to develop them all simultaneously in a cohesive and connected IP universe.
