New ‘Ferrari Land’ amusement park to open in Catalonia by 2016

Vila-seca / Salou (ACN).- Catalonia’s PortAventura and Ferrari have reached an agreement to build a new area dedicated to the illustrious sports cars, expanding the current amusement park located near Salou, in the Costa Daurada (Southern Catalonia). Thanks to an over €100 million investment, ‘Ferrari Land’ will open in 2016 with 75, 00 m² at its disposal. Visitors will discover several attractions designed for fans of the Italian brand, including a vertical accelerator announced as the highest and fastest in Europe. ‘Ferrari Land’ will also host the first Ferrari themed hotel, which will offer 5-star accommodation and 250 rooms. The Italian company had already opened a dedicated theme park in Abu Dhabi named ‘Ferrari World’, which was met with much success among fans of the prancing horse. The new amusement facilities will be built next to 'BCN World', a $6 billion resort that will open next to PortAventura, with hotels, conference centres, casinos, luxury shops, theatres, golf courses, residential areas, parks and beach clubs.

The Valencia Autonomous Community had first tried to lure the project to the surroundings of its Xest (Cheste) racetracks. However, the negotiations with an Arab investment fund were broken at the end of 2012 because the Valencia Government was not willing to assume any building costs. And so, it was PortAventura - now owned by the Italian investment group Investindustrial - which eventually reached a licensing agreement to build the new ‘Ferrari Land’ within its theme park located near Tarragona and Salou, on the Costa Daurada.

Next to 'BCN World'

The new ‘Ferrari Land’ will also be located right next to the future ‘BCN World’; a $6 billion entertainment resort which will dispose ofhotels, conference centres, casinos, luxury shops, restaurants, theatres, golf courses, residential areas, parks and beach clubs. Three international groups have already confirmed they will built one of the 6 mega hotels of 'BCN World', which will have some 1,000 rooms and will come with a Las Vegas style casino and a shopping mall. In addition, PortAventura also confirmed it will build and manage 3,000 of the total 6,000 hotel rooms of the 'BCN World' project. Now, the Catalan Parliament is finishing discussing the final details of the project's urban plan and the new gaming law, which should be ready by the summer. Then, it is expected that further investors will be announced and the construction of 'BCN World' could start, in order to become Europe's largest leisure resort.

Following Abu Dhabi's success

After the success of their ‘Ferrari World’, which was unveiled in November 2010 in Abu Dhabi, the Directors of Ferrari explained they had received “many requests” to open other amusement parks. “We have carefully selected the various proposals and we decided to accept Investindustrial’s, since it is a solid project designed by a very professional team and it provides an opportunity to bring the spirit of Ferrari in Spain, where we have many fans and followers, including many tourists attracted by the appeal of PortAventura”, said the Managing Director of Ferrari, Andrea Perrone.

Strengthening PortAventura’s leading position to reach 5 million visitors a year

“This new agreement will strengthen the brand in Europe and ‘Ferrari Land’ will appeal to all family members and fans of Formula 1”, added Perrone. The Italian company is willing to evaluate other proposals for theme parks outside of Europe, although they explained they weren’t in any “rush”.

Meanwhile, the Director of PortAventura, Sergio Feder said that the Catalan theme park “has always wished to develop a long term plan linked to well-known international brands with the aim of increasing the number of visitors to reach five million a year”. According to him, Ferrari was an “obvious” choice, not only for the brand values ​​it represents, but also “for its experience consolidated in the ‘Ferrari World’ park in Abu Dhabi.” The new agreement between Ferrari - ranked the most valuable brand in the world for the second consecutive year by the ‘Global 500’ report - and PortAventura, the second company in the sector in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean, “will enable to strengthen its leading position”.

Currently, PortAventura welcomes nearly four million visitors a year, nearly half of which come from foreign countries. Moreover, the theme park plans on opening a new aquatic attraction this year: ‘‘Angkor: Adventure in the Lost Kingdom’, which will allow visitors to embark on a 300 meter boat trip through the Asian jungle, designed to simulate the historic Cambodian temple: Angkor Wat. The company also recently announced an agreement to offer Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Kooza’ show during the summer months, which should attract around 2,400 daily spectators.