Profile: Rollercoaster ride for Melanie as she takes over at Pleasure Island

Staff were told their employment had been terminated and speculation mounted whether the park would ever reopen. Two weeks later, it was business as usual at the site in Cleethorpes in North Lincolnshire.

Behind the scenes, director Melanie Wood, sister of Gordon Gibb, who runs Flamingo Land at Malton, North Yorkshire, was preparing to take complete ownership of the Cleethorpes site and said the park was closed to give the family time to sort out the deal.

She had run Pleasure Island for the last four years but the complexities of running both parks as part of the same enterprise had become too much for the family.

"The more people who are involved, the more complex it becomes," she said. "I wanted a challenge and I had become attached to Pleasure Island. I thought this was something I could do and develop for

my children."

Mrs Wood's father Robert Gibb opened Pleasure Island in 1993 – 15 years after he took over the running of Flamingo Land. He bought the site from a developer who had run out of money to finish the project

Mrs Wood, 37, said: "Things had gone so well at Flamingo Land that dad wanted another challenge. It was far enough away not to be too much of

a competitor."

The family theme park features 43 attractions, including seven white knuckle rides.

It has a 3m turnover and attracts an average of 180,000 visitors annually between April and October.

Mrs Wood now plans to increase annual visitor numbers to 250,000 within five years as well as lengthening the season from 29 weeks to 49 weeks.

She has also bought a mobile ice rink to put at the gate to attract visitors during the bleak winter months and plans to open up a function room for private hire.

"We're looking at what else we can do throughout the winter to attract people all year round," she said.

Another source of potential revenue is an 11-acre piece of land adjacent to the park which has planning permission for 100 static caravans. Mrs Wood hopes to open it in the next two or three years.

In addition, she wants to add a new attraction to the park every year.

"It depends how successful the season is," she said. "In the past, every other year has been more realistic."

Disappointing bank holiday weather and the distraction of the World Cup have all meant a slow start to the season for Pleasure Island this year.

"We haven't had a good year so far," Mrs Wood admitted. "Visitor numbers are 23 per cent down this year. We struggle when there is a very big football tournament on. Prior to that all the big holidays this year have been wet and cold. We're keeping everything crossed

for August.

"When the weather is good, people come out. It's not much more complex for that."

Mrs Wood was five years-old when her parents moved the family from Scotland to Yorkshire when her father bought Flamingo Land in 1978.

"Summer holidays were spent at Flamingo Land and when we were old enough, I worked in the gift shop, admissions and catering," she said.

"Because I was so young it felt pretty normal to grow up on a theme park.

"Dad would try out new rides on us first and ask our opinion on new attractions.

"My birthday was in May so it was easy to know what to do to celebrate. It was other people who made me realise it wasn't how everyone spent their childhood."

Mrs Wood hadn't planned a career at Flamingo Land. She wanted to get a marketing job in London after university. However, tragedy struck during the first term of her Masters degree in 1995 when her father died in a car crash.

Her brother Gordon rushed back home from university to help save the family business but Mrs Wood abandoned her course and followed her initial plan of getting a marketing job in London.

"A few months later, a job came up in the marketing department at Flamingo Land and I changed my mind and decided to stay in the family business," she said.

Mrs Wood became a director of Flamingo Land in 2000 before later concentrating her efforts on Pleasure Island, which was lagging behind in terms of visitor numbers.

In recent years it has benefited from the demise of attractions such as American Adventure in Derbyshire, which closed in 2006.

"We have redirected some of our marketing budget to the Nottinghamshire area because we are trying to pinch a bit of that market. Slowly we are starting to see pay back for that."

Mrs Wood knows that UK attractions could never compete with the huge American theme parks, but she believes that they don't need to.

"There are certain expectations when you go to America that

we could never compete with but we learn a lot from over there.

"They are very good at entertaining the queues, which is something we have taken

from them.

It doesn't have to be anything big and expensive but we adopt things that have a big impact, such as showing the queue times on rides."

Running a theme park should mean that Mrs Wood avoids other parks during her free time but with two children, Alexandra, 10, and Christopher, eight, it's an inevitable part of family life.

"A lot of parks do direct swaps so we take advantage of that," she said. "The kids love it, they never get sick of it.

"I also use them to test ideas out for Pleasure Island. The feedback they give me is priceless – I call them my market research team."

Mrs Wood admits that taking over sole control of a theme park is a daunting experience, particularly from a health and safety point of view.

"It's a massive change for me. If anything had happened at Flamingo Land there are other people to share the burden but now it's all down to me, which is quite a lot to take on board."

She is getting to grips with the business but commuting every day from the home she shares with her husband, Tim, and the children, doesn't make things easy.

"I find it difficult to switch off," she said. "In the past, we have had the financial safety net of Flamingo Land but now I need to know what's going on at all times.

"I'm enjoying it but I am living and breathing it at the moment."

MELANIE WOOD

Title: Managing director of Pleasure Island, Cleethorpes.

Date of birth: May 2, 1973.

Education: St Peter's School in York, social psychology degree at Loughborough University.

First job: Working in the gift shop at Flamingo Land.

Favourite song: Dignity, by Deacon Blue.

Car driven: Audi Q7.

Favourite film: The Color Purple.

Favourite holiday destination: Spain.

Last book read: The Return, by Victoria Hislop.

What I am most proud of: At the moment, being able to juggle my new position with the children.