Park News
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Marineland expands Fifth park-within-a-park planned
comprises a marine park, waterpark (Aquasplash), mini-golf course (Adventure Golf) and kids’ entertainment area (Kids Island). Marineland is the only park in Europe to feature killer whales in its collection and to allow guests to swim with dolphins or dive among sharks.
Orca Spectacular at Marineland
What’s the largest marine life park in Europe? Marineland in Antibes, France – and it’s set to get even larger thanks to a planned €30m investment from owner Parques Reunidos.
The Spanish-based group will invest the money over the next three years, allowing it to develop the facility on the Côte d'Azur into Marineland Resort. Already the region’s most visited attraction with around 1.2 million guests a year, it currently
As part of the expansion plans, a fifth park- within-a-park will be created by the name of Paradise Creek. Immersing guests in a sub-aquatic island adventure it will be an extension of the existing dolphin lagoon featuring turtles, killer whales, rays, tropical fish and many marine creatures. The park will also get a new 3D 360° attraction called A Turtle Odyssey, where audiences will be able to trace the life of a turtle, from birth to adulthood and through its oceanic routes. Sound familiar, SeaWorld fans? Opening next year, a 3-star Marineland Resort hotel will
Polin’s first Twin Turbolance opens in Spain
Spain’s Aqualand Maspalomas kicked off its second season with the installation of one of the biggest waterslides in Europe and the first of its kind in Spain, a Racer Twin Turbolance from Polin. Starting with two circular, racing tube slides, this high-capacity attraction consists of two tunnels configured side by side. Riders, two per tube, follow a circular path, racing each other along a series of twists and turns before leaving the tunnel section and plummeting down
an almost vertical drop, propelling the tube and their passengers uphill. Riders then experience a reverse path as their race continues backward over a hill, into a valley and ending in a dry-out.
Aqualand Maspalomas is operated by the Aspro group and located in Las Palmas, a beach-resort city on the southernmost tip of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.
Skara slides into summer The Swedish park Skara Sommarland kicked off its 30th anniversary season last month with
the opening of a new water attraction. Cobra is a 116m-long Tornado Wave by ProSlide accommodating up to 500 guests an hour in four-person “cloverleaf’ rafts. Impressive isn’t it? Last year the park in Axvall added an 82m ProSlide speed slide featuring a Big Drop launch capsule and with part of the tube submerged beneath the ground for an added thrill. Skara will also resume its concert programme this year.
sommarland.se 10 Artist’s impression of the planned Paradise Creek
comprise
90 rooms and five suites spread across buildings dedicated to a dolphin, killer whale, shark, turtle and bear. “The hotel completes the park experience by offering visitors the chance to totally immerse in the Marineland world and extend the length of their visit,” notes manager Bernard Giampaolo. “Marineland is a strategic park for the group [due to] its high potential for growth,” says Parques Reunidos CEO Yann Caillère. “That is why we will be investing €30 million, looking to improve the experience of our visitors.” The target is to reach 2 million annual guests by the time the improvements are complete in 2017.
marineland.fr
Legoland Japan Merlin Entertainments has confirmed that it is to open a
Legoland park in Nagoya, Japan. The new park, its second in Asia, will open in 2017. Representing an investment of ¥32 billion ($315/€230 million), the park will be built under Merlin’s ‘operated and leased’ model, with the infrastructure funded by a third party. Merlin will directly invest ¥9.2 billion ($90/€65m/£53m) over the next three years and lease the balance of the assets from a company owned by KIRKBI Invest, a subsidiary of KIRKBI A/S, the privately held investment and holding company that owns a 75% share of the Lego Group and 29.9% of Merlin.
Nagoya was chosen as it is ideally located in the centre of Japan, approximately two hours from Tokyo and one hour from Osaka, with a potential catchment area in excess of 20 million people. The park will be located on a site close to the port, with excellent road and rail links. The initial development will focus on the theme park, with potential options available for further park expansion and the development of on-site, themed accommodation over future periods. The City of Nagoya has agreed to support the development with the required local travel infrastructure, including a 5,000 space multi-storey car park and improved road connectivity to the park. Merlin dipped its toes in the country with the Legoland brand in 2012 when it opened an indoor Legoland Discovery Centre in Tokyo. The full sized Legoland Japan, which will be of a similar scale to the recently opened Legoland parks in Malaysia and Florida, will debut in the second quarter of 2017. Before that, Legoland Dubai will open in 2016. “Long term, we continue to believe that there is significant opportunity for the Legoland brand, with the potential for up to 20 parks across the world and we remain committed to our target of opening a new park every two to three years,” says Merlin CEO Nick Varney.
JULY 2014
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