Cirque du Soleil and PortAventura might work together again after a successful summer show

Vila-seca/Salou (ACN).- Cirque du Soleil and PortAventura, a theme park located in the South of Catalonia, have announced that they are pleased with the success of the show 'Kooza', which the Canadial circus company has been performing at the Catalan resort every day this summer, and will consider future collaborations together. PortAventura was the first resort in Europe to host a show from the Canadian entertainment company. From July the 11^th this year up until last Saturday, more than 100,000 people attended the show performed by Cirque du Soleil.. As a result of this success, the two companies have agreed to meet again soon to talk about future collaborations. For PortAventura, with nearly 4 million attendees per year, this cooperation is a step towards achieving its overriding goal of attracting more international brands and consolidating its position as one of the best family entertainment destinations in Europe. As part of this goal, a new theme park linked to PortAventura, 'Ferrari land', is due to go under construction and finished in 2016. It will be the first amusement park based on the Italian car brand in Europe. This expansion of PortAventura is also be linked to the $6 billion megaresort project, BCN World, which will be created side by side this park, located in the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona and Salou.

These collaborations between specialised international companies is just one of the strategies which PortAventura is employing to attract more foreign tourists to the park as currently, international visitors represent 50% the total visitors. Since 2010, the park has invested €125 million in the internationalisation and the incorporation of new projects in order to have a more well-rounded season and increase its opening days throughout the year.

Indeed, earlier this year the Director of PortAventura, Sergio Feder, announced that the theme park wants to improve on its 4 million visitors per year, announcing that they have developed a long term strategy which links the park to "well-known international brands with the aim of increasing the number of visitors to reach five million per year".

'Ferrari Land' also part of PortAventura's international expansion

In addition to future collaborations with Cirque Soleil, PortAventura's development plan also involves the creation of a new theme park next to it named 'Ferrari Land'. Representatives from PortAventura reached an agreement with the Italian car manufacturer in March this year, and the new theme park is planned to open in 2016, following a €100 million investment.

This decision was made after the success of the 'Ferrari World' theme park in Abu Dhabi, and will contain a number of attractions designed for fans of the Italian brand. This includes the highest and fastest vertical accelerator in Europe as well as the first 5-star, Ferrari-themed hotel. This future amusement park will also become the only one in Europe focusing on Ferrari.

Linked to the creation of BCN world

The expansion of PortAventura and construction of Ferrari Land are part of the creation of the BCN World megaresort project. This is a $6 billion entertainment resort located near PortAventura, which will include hotels, conference centres, casinos, luxury shops, restaurants, theatre golf courses and technology institutes.

Melco, Value Retail, Melià Hotels, Hard Rock and Caesar's Entertainment are part of BCN World project, which will have 6 mega hotels, with some 1,000 rooms each and will come with a Las Vegas-style casino and shopping mall.

The BCN World side-project is expected to further increase PortAventura's visitor numbers, as well as transforming Catalonia's Costa Daurada and the surrounding area of Salou into Europe's major tourist centre.