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Home > USA > Focus On
The amusement park? Made in Italy
Rome - (Ign) - There is something paradoxical about the fact that an industrial sector, clearly a niche sector dedicated to highly specific products, in which Italy is an undisputed world leader, has its origins in poverty, misery and the desperation that sometimes drives people to rebuild their lives. This is the case of the amusement park industry, of those small and medium-sized companies which, in the area straddling the provinces of Rovigo, Ferrara and Verona, along the banks of the Po and whose epicentre is Bergantino (www.museodellagiostra.it), now account for more than half of the world market in the sector. The origin of this flourishing industrial district dates back to the 1920s, when Italy, which had just fallen in to the whirlpool of fascism, suffered terribly the consequences of the great crisis which had recently hit the United States. And the people of Polesine, the area of the great Po delta, already extremely poor, fell into almost total misery. Some families of craftsmen and farmers left their land and started a life on the road, offering amusements at the many small fairs and markets of nearby regions. So, almost by chance, there were formed entire families of merry-go-round and amusement park organisers who also began to need machines for amusements, merry-go-rounds and wheels, big dippers and countless other entertainment systems. And precisely in Polesine there were established the first craftsmen's workshops specialised in building these machines. The products were continuously improved, and began to make a name for themselves first in Italy, then in Europe, and then throughout the world.
Today, the industrial district of Bergantino is composed of over 100 companies, and accounts for more than 1500 jobs, for an annual turnover of over € 150 million, 90% of which is realised on foreign markets. 70% of the machines for amusement parks sold in the world are built in Europe and three-quarters of these are made in Italy, for a world market share that oscillates around 50%. This, then, is a solid incomparable business success, which seems even greater in the light of the contrast with its humble and modest origins. Behind these results there are various important factors. First of all, the great business ability of those who understood that from simple craft it was possible to construct an integrated industrial fabric, able to be projected onto and conquer international markets and maintain a firm leadership over time. This is the case of many companies in the area, some of which have achieved significant size and importance. Secondly, continuous product innovation, developed on two fronts: on one hand, that of the invention of continuously new and increasingly attractive amusements, and on the other, that of safety, a fundamental element in the success achieved by Italian machines for amusement and amusement parks. This is an extremely delicate question: the safety of a system or machine used for entertainment, especially for children, is in fact a vital need which can be guaranteed only by continuous investment in research and the development of increasingly refined and reliable technologies. Within this framework there is also the work of ANCASVI, the Association of Manufacturers in the sector, which is actively working together with the European regulatory bodies to define new, definitive European technical regulations dedicated specifically to the sector of machines and structures for fairs and amusement parks.
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