Mythologies of a theme park: An icon of modern family life

Abstract

This study took the view that visitors perceive theme parks in terms of hedonic experience rather than simply as commercial service offerings, and respond to emotional content rather than to the utility of tourism service provision. The study took place at Legoland, at Billund in Denmark. The views of 35 customers were solicited through indepth interviews and these were analysed in two diferent ways in order to investigate customer perceptions and satisfaction. Grounded theory was employed to identify basic concepts that cropped up in the interview transcripts, and a linguistic analysis of ‘mythologies’ underlying visitors' discourse was also used, providing important reference points to visitors' choice, expectation, perception and evaluation of the theme park. The two techniques were in broad agreement that the park catered well for children's needs, but left adults with a feeling that they were ‘babysitting’. The paper suggests various ways in which Legoland might address this disparity.