International Theme Park Services (ITPS) Withdraws from Theme Park Project in Istanbul

US-based International Theme Park Services (ITPS) announced its withdrawal from the mixed-use leisure project owned by Turkish investor ORA Istanbul near Istanbul at the end of May. ITPS was responsible for the operation and management of Landora, a theme park which was opened as first part of the whole complex (shopping mall, conference center and other recreational offers) last year (we reported on this earlier). After 3.5 years of providing operational, management, and design support to this project, Dennis Speigel, President of ITPS, explained that his company “can no longer continue to provide services to this failing project.” Besides construction issues and the undermining of the contracts on the part of the owners, Dennis Speigel also complains about the premature opening of the theme park, an arena, and retail areas as “an incomplete product with incomplete services.” According to Speigel, the owners have taken over the operation of the theme park themselves now. He believes that the saddest part of all is the failure of a project in the emerging market of Turkey, which offers a lot of opportunity for the leisure industry. (eap)