S1E3 - Dollywood Harvest Fest Chat with President Eugene Naughton

A few closing questions here.

The heart of the whole show is, you know, there's a lot, as we've said throughout both of these episodes, that happen at Dollywood.

The rides, the food.

But really, those things are a vehicle to... creating the experiences where people come together and they feel that they're just in the park creating memories.

And so we've talked about this a little bit, but why is it important to you to preserve that continuing to happen for families over the years?

For me, it's the tradition of family memories.

trips, I often am talking to people on the Midway and they're so excited to ride the same coaster with their grandchildren that they rode with their parents when they first started coming.

And that really warms my heart because that's what our company really is built to do.

I mean, we're here to be a family fortifying experience and to give people a chance to be together Our ride selections, our attractions, our shows are all built to make sure that we, you know, have a wide variety of things for families to do together.

And, you know, for us, that's one of the benefits that we get to do.

And growing up as a kid, you know, I told you the last time we talked, I'm kid number seven of eight.

And to be honest with you, the only time that my family was together was at the dinner table.

And that's kind of the only, that's the only time.

So it kind of hints to why my undergraduate degrees in culinary services and why food is important to me because I realized that it can be a great time to just sit down with friends and family and break bread and pause in the day and to just be where your feet are and to have an opportunity to be together.

So I think food will always be an important component you know, in the park experience that we're trying to offer here.

Yeah, I love it.

Last year, the park celebrated its 40th anniversary, which is wild.

So if you were to zoom out and think about what you hope 40 years from now for Dollywood, what's a few glimpses of what that might look like?

We have a strategic plan that thinks outwardly about it.

And I did a rendering for our board of directors that showed in the 400 acres that I set aside for hospitality, there were five total resorts built out.

here on our property, each of them telling a different story to Dolly.

Obviously, Dream War built 11 years ago.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated our 11th anniversary.

It goes really, really fast.

But that's like visiting her home.