March 17, that was the day I was shown around Siam Park, the water kingdom theme park in Costa Adeje, that was already well over a year late to open. There was clearly quite a bit left to do, none of the rides were ready to board, although I did get to go to the top of the Tower of Power, where a workman was still on all fours cementing the tower edging. I was quite happy to report the stated May 1 opening date, but that soon came and went.

Now the headlines in the local press are proudly announcing the September 15 official inauguration of the park, complete with guest of honour, the Princess of Thailand. Sadly it’s another false dawn, the inauguration is behind closed doors for dignitaries, politicians etc and it will not signal the opening to the public. Given the usual vague nature of the latest press release, I contacted the press department to clarify things and got a reply saying “We are planning on doing a soft opening after the inauguration ceremony and then open to the public. We will notify when we have an exact date.”

The soft opening is the vital testing period by invited parties of people, ticket sales agents, tour operators etc, to try out the facilities. No matter how good any plans are, there are always practical problems once in use, in the building trade they always have to deal with a “snagging list” of such problems, once a place is in use.Until that hurdle is jumped, there can be no proper opening date, if the soft opening discovers problems, then there could be even more delay.

It’s not good for the image of Tenerife, holiday makers that felt let down at not being able to visit Siam Park, are now coming back for their next holiday and finding it still “nearly ready” you would think someone might be keen to recoup some of the 55 million euros (Siam Parks figure) it has cost to build.Oh well, roll on christmas.

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