Governments, Cities & Communities
Programs and projects related to regional and community development, innovation infrastructure, tourism, family initiatives, research, events, and stakeholder collaboration.
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT RESEARCH
Family Entertainment Research
Research, data, and practical frameworks by Maksim Godovykh on family entertainment centers and activity parks, family behavior, repeat visitation, experience design, development strategy, operations, and new concepts.
RESEARCH LIBRARY
Research and Insights
Individual research pages organize the publications in a consistent format and provide access to the original article and PDF when available.
FEC GAPS
The FEC Gap: What Family Entertainment Parks Leave Unresolved
Family entertainment parks can have great attractions and still deliver a weak overall experience. The FEC Gap framework looks beyond individual equipment to identify the deeper problems that affect repeat visits, family value, development, and long-term performance.
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SCIENCE OF PLAY
The Neuroscience of Play: Why Children Climb, Jump, Slide, Explore, and Repeat
Why are children naturally attracted to climbing, jumping, slides, obstacles, exploration, and repetition? Developmental science helps explain why physical play is so powerful—and how family entertainment parks can make it even more valuable.
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INVESTMENT
Invest in the Parks of the Future, Not the Outdated Parks of the Past
Family entertainment can move beyond novelty decay, static attractions, passive parent experiences, fragmented layouts, weak programming, and underused technology toward a more adaptive, development-rich model built for repeat visitation.
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PARENT INTERVIEWS
What Parents Want from Family Entertainment Centers: Beyond More Attractions
What makes families return to an entertainment center again and again? Preliminary interview findings suggest that the answer is much broader than simply adding more rides, trampolines, games, or attractions.
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FUTURE OF FEC
The Family Entertainment Park of the Future
The next generation of family entertainment parks will not be defined by more screens, robots, or futuristic decoration. The real transformation is from a fixed attraction venue into an adaptive family experience platform.
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REPEAT VISITS
Novelty Decay: Why Children Get Bored With the Same Family Entertainment Park
An attraction can remain mechanically perfect while becoming psychologically old. Novelty decay explains why repeat visitors lose interest—and how parks can create something new without constantly replacing equipment.
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COMMUNITIES
The Importance of Family Entertainment Centers and Family Events for Communities
Family entertainment centers and family events can become part of community infrastructure by helping attract family residents, strengthen attachment, support child development, and create repeatable reasons for families to participate.
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WHOLE FAMILY
The Passive Parent Problem
Many activity parks are designed around a simple assumption: children play while parents wait. Better family entertainment should create value for both sides of the family.
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EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Beyond Equipment-Centered Design
Family entertainment parks should be designed as journeys, not collections of equipment. Every attraction should have a role in the larger family experience.
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FAMILY HOSPITALITY
Family-Friendly Hotels: How Child-Centered Experiences Increase Satisfaction, Loyalty, Revisit Intentions, and Positive Reviews
Child-centered amenities and experiences can strengthen family satisfaction, positive emotions, reviews, revisit intentions, and loyalty when they are integrated into the whole hotel experience.
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BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
Behavioral Economics of Family Entertainment Parks
Families do not choose parks, tickets, food, memberships, and return visits through perfectly rational calculations. Understanding real decision-making can make FEC pricing and experiences simpler and better.
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FAMILY BEHAVIOR
The Dual-Loyalty Model
A family entertainment park has at least two customers: the child who wants to return and the parent who decides whether the family actually will.
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RESEARCH METHODS
The Family Entertainment Park as a Living Laboratory
Family entertainment parks constantly change prices, layouts, attractions, programs, and packages. Treating these changes as structured experiments can turn everyday operations into a continuous improvement system.
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LOCATION STRATEGY
Where Should a Family Entertainment Park Be Located?
There is no universally perfect FEC location. The best property is the one that fits the specific concept, target family, visit frequency, attraction mix, building, and capital model.
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ATTRACTION ECONOMICS
The Economics of FEC Attractions
What is the best FEC attraction? There is no reliable universal answer. Attractions should be compared across demand, capacity, space, investment, labor, repeat use, and their contribution to the total family experience.
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FOOD & OPERATIONS
Pizza Wins? Food in Family Entertainment Parks
Families often say they want healthier and more diverse food, yet familiar choices remain powerful. The best FEC menu must balance what families buy with quality, kitchen complexity, party operations, and parent experience.
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FAMILY TRAFFIC
Bringing Families Back: How Properties Can Build Family Traffic Through Experiences
Malls, hotels, resorts, multifamily communities, downtowns, and tourism destinations do not always need a full FEC. They can attract families through a connected system of events, programming, smaller concepts, and recurring experiences.
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FEC GAPS
The Progression Gap: Why Repeat Visits Should Build on What Came Before
Repeat visits become more valuable when children can continue projects, advance through challenges, develop mastery, and see visible progress instead of restarting the same experience every time.
Read research →SELECTED BOOKS
Books by Maksim Godovykh
Selected books cover management, research, innovation development, family-friendly experiences, and many other topics.
Research Acceleration
Strategies and Tools for Fostering Research Impact.
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Empowering Innovation
A Guide to Innovation Initiatives, Activities, and Events.
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Kid-Friendly World
How to Make Communities, Destinations, Hotels, Events, and Experiences More Welcoming for Children and Their Families.
Read the full book →
How to Build the Best Activity Park
A Complete Guide for Owners, Operators, Investors, and Franchisees.
Read the full book →Other books: Event Evaluation, Tourism Impacts, Measuring Patient Experience in Healthcare, Events by Kids, Booking Experience, Event Experience, Parents & Kids, U-Shape of Life
CONTACT
Discuss Collaboration
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