IAAPA president and CEO Paul Noland has said he wants the body to become the “premiere go-to resource” for people seeking statistical data and information on the attractions sector.

Speaking to Attractions Management, Noland said that amidst IAAPA’s planned move to the attractions capital – Orlando – it wants to continue investing in research and statistics to make it one of the strongest services the organisation provides.

“A couple of years ago with the support of the board we made a fundamental investment in data and information,” he said.

“Historically we would all agree we lagged and did not invest enough in that area but now we have a multi-year plan to provide good economic and benchmark data for the media, government officials and our members.

“We should be the one-stop-shop for credible information on the industry.” he added. “We’re putting a lot into research, surveys are going on and lots of different things to collect that data.”

In August 2015, IAAPA created a new position within the organisation, appointing research expert Melissa Teates to initiate, conduct, and manage worldwide market research and data analysis.

Since her appointment, IAAPA has recently completed a year-long member assessment of member needs, while the body is also putting together a 20-year plan for research.

“As part of the assessment, we have also developed a list of possible studies for the future including a labour and compensation study and a consumer study,” Teates told Attractions Management.

Research for 2017 includes global benchmarking studies for amusement parks, FECs and waterparks, as well as a studies for market penetration in the US/Canada region, and for Middle East/Africa. A study on economic impact for the Asia-Pacific region is also scheduled.