Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Holy Land Experience Under New Management

I have loved the fact that we have such an experience here in Orlando. If you have never been, then it is a must see. The difficulty for HLE is that it lacked return visitors. For many of us locals it qualifies as a "been there, done that" park. Not that the musicals were not amazing, the Tabernacle was not cool, the Temple model was not exquisite, and the Scriptorium not vast. But it could never convince me why I should pay $32 to return.

It was announced Tuesday that TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network), the largest Christian TV network with over 12,000 TV stations is buying the property. They will increase its development to be more like a theme park. A dream that Marv Rosenthal originally had for the property, but unable to accomplish financially or personally. I do not say this to deride Marv, but he was very conservative in his views and would not have promoted the park in such a way as it would have harmed the integrity of the park in his eyes. He desired that the park should be attractive on its own merits, not through TV promotion etc. In the end I believe that the Holy Land Experience will be salvaged and for that Marv and I should be happy. The marriage of TV Networks and Theme parks is a well proven business model, and as American as apple pie. Just ask our friends at Disney and Universal and they will tell you that this is a match made in heaven. You can read more on this here.