Yawnus Lagoon -
Post-Accident PR
This work was made to complete Introduction to Public Relation SM108 group assignment in UCSI University Kuala Lumpur, and the event used was post-accident in a largest theme park in Malaysia, Yawnus Lagoon.
The assignment was to create a problem solving campaign and press release.
Press Release: Grief Sticken Yawnus Lagoon
With more than 80 rides and attractions, Yawnus Lagoon has become an attractive place that provides 6 different theme parks in one destination. Since the time it was founded on 1994, Yawnus Lagoon has invited big crowds and has been awarded as the Asia’s Best Attraction by the International Association of High Spirits Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) for four consecutive years (2007 – 2010).
Yawnus Lagoon is a good place for getting a pleasurable and enjoyable time with families, friends, loved ones and alike. To be consistent with its safety recreation concept and keep winning over as the Malaysian tourism attraction, the 6 best theme parks, which are Evil Park, High Spirits Park, Liberty Park, Wildlife Park, Wonderful Park and Water Park have always been maintained since the first day they opened.
Sarena Cheah Yean Tih, Executive Director of Yawnus Lagoon Club Berhad said, “We would like to reiterate that enjoyment and the safety of our customers is our priority. There might be unpredicted technical problem that cause this fatal accident. We are sincerely sorry for the families and loved ones of the victims. We promise to be responsible for the victims, the families and the loved ones, and our professional team is allocated to the scene to investigate what is the main factor of this tragedy.”
The recent unfortunate has brought Yawnus Lagoon to its deepest condolence. Until now the professional team is working hard to figure out whether it was human error or mechanical error. And to prevent any hazard of customers’ safety, High Spirit Park will be closed for uncertain period of times due to the whole system investigation and maintenance.
Apology Speech
Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen, first of all I want to thank all of you who have given your time to be here with us, in this deepest condolence moment we’ve ever had as a big Yawnus Family.
Yawnus Lagoon has become one of the biggest attractions in Malaysia since nineteen ninety-four (1994). For almost twenty years, we have tried our best to satisfy our beloved customers with 6 big parks with more than eighty rides and attractions. And since the first day Yawnus Lagoon was opened, we put our biggest effort to maintain all of the rides because customers’ safety is the priority in our list.
But unfortunately, things didn’t work as well as we expected. I know all of you are shocked, upset and angry about this tragic accident that we had last Saturday afternoon, even my self is. Thirty innocent people dead, fell down from the roller coaster. But somehow in another way I believe, everything that we do and everything that we meet, is put in our path for a purpose. Life is a gamble, and the casino is never closed. People die, people get hurts, and some people just go on. No child wants to fall off a jungle gym or slide. We didn’t want it to happen. We never look forward to have this tragedy and we are truly sorry for this accident.
I have this quote from Steve Jobs, he said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.” Once again, of course, we never expected this accident and we, as a big Yawnus Family are truly sorry. Since the accident happened, our professional team has immediately been conducting an investigation to analyze the main causes of this accident. Furthermore, we also will proceed to the victims’ identities input, so we can give the insurance and compensation to their family members. We promise to settle everything as soon as possible. Again, we are really sorry.
Thank you. God Bless us. God bless Yawnus.
Company Background: 6 Amazing Themed Parks in 1 Amazing Destination
Yawnus Lagoon is one of the best things that ever existed in Malaysia; and it is the brainchild of Dato' Tony Branson, the CEO of Air Continental and Virgolicious Group. Yawnus Lagoon is an unlike any other theme parks because it reaches over 35 hectares and there are a lot of big spaces for all people who want to hold their own party, events, celebrations and many more. Since the year it was founded in 1994, Yawnus has ben becoming one of the popular attractions and boosting the rate of tourism in Malaysia. It is proven succeed as Yawnus Lagoon has been pulling a stable crowd ever since it’s opened.
YAWNUS LAGOON AS SPOT CENTERPIECE
All these excitements are just within 10 minutes reach from Kuala Lumpur city center, easily accessed through a network of expressways - the Federal Highway, Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP), New Pantai Expressway (NPE) and the KESAS Highway.
YAWNUS LAGOON AS AN UNSHAKABLE AWARDS RECEIVER
Yawnus Lagoon is Southeast Asia’s Best Attraction. The International Association of High Spirits Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) as Southeast Asia’s Best Attraction recognize this multi-award winning attraction for four consecutive years (2009 – 2012). Yawnus Lagoon is also the place for any greatest events in Malaysia. Chic, stylish and glimmer, or trendy, funky, groovy and hip, Yawnus Lagoon has anchored the most looking-for events in the region such as the Malaysia Music Festival (2009, 2010 & 2012), International Kids Day Celebration, Surfer Girl Goes Up and Billabong Revolution Camp.
LEISURE PARKS IN ONE LAND
Yawnus Lagoon provides places for everyone who is looking to chill and to light up moods during this sweltering sun at Southeast Asia's Best Water Park, looking for a frightening experience at Evil Park, enjoying the excitement of rides at High Spirits Park, getting adrenaline pumping at Liberty Park, enjoying a happy childhood for the kids in Wonderland Park or getting up close and personal with favorite animals at Creature Park. Yawnus Lagoon is a place for all people from kids to grannies.
Action Plan:
On last 1st June 2013, Yawnus Lagoon, the Southeast Asia’s Best Attraction got an accident of one of the best selling and most anticipated roller coaster rides - X-2000 - which boasts a tagline of 'The Fastest Roller Coaster in South East Asia'. During the mid day, exactly at 12.30 pm when it was such a busy day with crowds up to 1000 at a time, the safety buckle and harness of the ride suddenly gave way and became loose as a result - resulting in the unexpected release of the safety harness for all of its 30 passengers. Fate would have it that all 30 individuals would meet their demise on that very moment as they flew out of their rides and fell flat on a plot unused land.
Since the accident happened, there is riot happening especially on social media. A lot of images and videos showing the victims were lying on the ground with the bloods pouring out of his body. There was also a report from the uploader telling that the employees of Yawnus Lagoon were being too relax and unconcerned when the accident happened. By then all of the bad news are spread out and shared among the other users. This social media riot almost reached 2000 shares in Facebook and they also created a group for Yawnus Lagoon asking to demand answers and demand Yawnus Lagoon to be closed permanently. Things went as bad as Facebook on Twitter, the trending topic with #YawnusHorrorScene, #RIPYawnusVictims and #BanYawnus4Life hash tags appeared and it looks like nobody will trust Yawnus Lagoon anymore.
So from these entire riot’s judgments and complains, Yawnus Lagoon needs to apologize and need to clarify the reason of this accident. To get people’s trust back on track again, Yawnus Lagoon will apology and will announce that Yawnus is willing to approach and give personal apology to the victims’ families and the decomposition according to the deaths of the victims to the family. For the pubic itself, Yawnus will close the High Spirit Park for uncertain time and will open the other 5 parks (Liberty Park, Wonderland Park, Evil Park, Water Park and Creature Park) for free in 30 days. These thirty days will be marked as the tribute to the 30 victims of the roller coaster accident so people will not judge that Yawnus just forgets and doesn’t care about the accident. At least, before its reaching 30 days of free parks, Yawnus need to clarify and confirm the reason behind the accident so they can proceed, fix, and announce it to the public and take the further plan. Not just that, Yawnus itself will give a free team building training at Liberty Park, targeting the workers and adult employers and their employees. The main objective of this promotion is to get the trust back and to keep the good impression from internal and external stakeholders, so the bad news about the accident will be deflected.
However, frequent questions and answers will be provided for the media as stated below:
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How this accident could happen?
We manage to investigate and figure out the main problems as soon as possible. So far due to the technical aspects, it was because the safety buckle and harness of the ride suddenly gave way and became loose.
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So before then, Yawnus Lagoon had not ever checked all of the wires properly, hadn’t you?
Since the first day Yawnus Lagoon was opened, we put our biggest effort to maintain all of the rides because customers’ safety is the priority in our list. But unfortunately, things didn’t work as well as we expected. That’s why the investigation team is working hard right now to go into the main causes.
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How do you react to the family’s victim?
First of all we are sorry to this tragic accident especially to the family and loved ones of the victims. We will be responsible to the death by giving the compensation, as it is the insurance stated on the ride ticket itself. We will talk personally to the families about this.
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Will Yawnus Lagoon be closed as people are commanding so?
Definitely yes, we estimate a week maintenance to check on everything to make sure this accident will not be happening anymore. This is applied for High-Spirit Park and the other parks.
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So Yawnus Lagoon will be opened as a usual day, time and price?
Yawnus Lagoon will be opened as a usual day and time after 7 days maintenance, but for this upcoming 30 days, start from tomorrow; the entrance fee for all parks are free. 30 days symbolize the number of victims on the accident and the condolence of Yawnus Lagoon. We don’t want the public to be stuck in this remorseful mood so we want to bring happiness to them by giving the tickets for free.
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Is there any regulation for this free entrance?
Yes. To prevent the over crowds, we will provide online ticket reservation as our priority. The online form needs to be filled and submitted through the website. On a 24 hours time, we will send the reserved tickets with a stated barcode.
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Any kind of unrelated questions
Based of all, we are not concerning about that particular issue right now. We want to focus on this accident case as our priority.
To measure the acceptance from the public for the apology and 30 days free entrance promotion, we can use the numbers of visitors to Yawnus Lagoon and the decrease of social media riot. It these strategies are not working, another plan such as giving more promotion, stating the reasons of the accidents, and spin another issue that relates to CSR activities such as donation ot awareness to homeless kids might possible.
9 weeks plan of post-accident in Yawnus Lagoon.
