resort

Intense snow in the Pyrenees during the week sees activity return after tough 2020-2021 season

Catalan Pyrenees awoke on Thursday to the first snowfall of the year, making ski resorts "very optimistic" about the imminent new season

Tens of thousands were drawn to the Lleida and Girona Pyrenees over Christmas, with snowfalls forecast in coming days

With four days off from December 6 to 9, mountain, country and coastal areas are looking forward to a bumper year

The Recreational and Tourist Centre of Vila-seca and Salou, the project which was originally named ‘BCN World’, will start to be built in summer 2017. The resort will be located between these two villages – Vila-seca and Salou – on the Costa Daurada, near PortAventura theme park. After numerous reorganisations and changes in the legislation, the project’s hotel surface area will decrease by 29.2% in comparison with the urban plan approved in 2015. The surface area designated for gambling and amusement activities will ultimately be 30,000 m² instead of 60,000 m². The surface area for commercial use and that designated for theatres and congresses has been kept the same. Thus, the total surface area of the project will be 750,000 m² rather than 1,000,000m². The project is expected to receive €2,500 million in private investment and will generate 10,000 jobs when fully operational.

Ferrari Land, the international brand’s first theme park in Europe, is closer to its opening in Vila-Seca, a town in the southern Catalan region of Tarragona. Over the next few weeks the operators will carry out the urbanisation of 60,000 square metres of the amusement resort, located next to the Port Aventura theme park. Ferrari Land represented a €100 million investment and will include simulators, shops, restaurants, as well as replicas of Italian buildings. However, one of its main attractions will be ‘Cavallino Rampante’, Europe’s tallest rollercoaster, reaching 112 metres high. The attraction should allow visitors to feel the acceleration experienced by a F1 driver, reaching 180 km/h in 5 seconds.Ferrari Land is set to increase by 20% the number of visitors to Port Aventura, which will break all records achieved since it opened in May 1995.

Hard Rock’s president Hamish Dodds and the company’s vice president, Nelson Parker, met this Wednesday with Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and the Catalan government’s vice president, Oriol Junqueras, in order to outline to them the multinational’s aim to set up a Tourist Integrated Centre in BCN World which would represent a 2.5-billion-euro investment. However, the BCN World project, which is set to be built on the 800 hectares surrounding the Port Aventura theme park (on the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona), is currently on ‘stand-by’. The government is trying to find the greatest consensus possible amongst the different parties and institutions involved and President Puigdemont announced this week that a consultation may be set up to get to know the locals’ opinions. 

Veremonte has walked out on the BCN World project, the largest holiday resort in Europe based in the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona, as first announced by the Catalan Business Minister, Felip Puig, on Thursday and later confirmed by the company itself. However, Puig has assured that this will not impede the project's continuation as companies such as Melco, Hard Rock, Grup Peralada and Value Retail remain committed to it. Veremonte did not provide any further details about its decision. The investment company was initially leading the initiative and had reached an agreement with La Caixa bank to buy 500 hectares of land in 2012. However, it missed the final deadline last December to do so and the Catalan Government had to jump in to guarantee the project's continuation, reaching an agreement with La Caixa for the land. However, Veremonte was still linked to the initiative through the casino licences' tender, which it bidding for in partnership with Hard Rock and Melco.

Veremonte has added additional uncertainty to the future of the BCN World project, the largest holiday resort in Europe based in the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona. After a $6 billion investment, it will include – among other facilities – 6 mega-casino hotels, amusement parks and shopping malls. Veremonte – which was initially leading the project – announced that it could leave, depending on how the Catalan Government will develop the final Urban Plan and how it will set the conditions for the second phase of the casino licences' tender. In 2012, Veremonte had already reached an agreement with La Caixa bank to buy 500 hectares of the land. However, the company missed the first deadline and did not meet the second one (last December) to do so, arguing that the final Urban Plan had not yet been approved. The Catalan Government then jumped in and reached an agreement with La Caixa for the rights to buy the land and guarantee the project's continuation. Veremonte still continues to be linked to the project through the casino licence tender, for which it is running with Hard Rock and Melco.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari Formula One Team Driver, together with the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, have set on Thursday the symbolic first stone of the company’s first theme park in Europe, which will be an expansion of PortAventura, the main amusement resort in Catalonia, located on the Costa Daurada and near Tarragona. Ferrari Land is expected to be ready by the end of 2016, after an initial investment of €100 million. It is likely to become PortAventura’s main attraction and is expected to make the Catalan holiday and amusement resort reach 5 million visitors per year. Once Ferrari Land is operational, it will employ about 150 people, in addition to PortAventura’s staff. The project also includes a 5-star hotel themed around the Ferrari brand, but this will be built during a second stage.

PortAventura announced it will start the construction of the amusement area devoted to Ferrari in May, with the objective of finishing work around a year-and-half later. FerrariLand will be part of PortAventura and will also be the first theme park of the Italian car brand in Europe, adding to the park it has in Abu Dhabi. It will be built in Salou, located in Catalonia’s Costa Daurada, near Tarragona and Reus. The new area will come after a €100 million investment. In addition, in the coming  months it should be confirmed whether the $6 billion BCN World resort, with Las Vegas-style hotels and casinos, but also with theatres and conference centres, is to be developed in the area. PortAventura also announced it is about to unveil its first 5-star hotel, coinciding with the theme park’s 20^th anniversary.

‘Lucy’s Mansion’, an independent building inside the Gold River Hotel at the amusement park PortAventura in Tarragona, will be adapted into a five-star hotel.  PortAventura will be twenty years old this season and the theme park wants to celebrate it by moving into the highest level.  The new hotel will be inaugurated on 2^nd April  with twenty-eight deluxe rooms and two suites. At the same time, PortAventura will build a new building inside the Gold River Hotel named ‘Callaghan’. This new four-star hotel will be the biggest establishment of the park with seventy-eight rooms and will be inaugurated on 1^st June. The development of the hotel complex confirms the strategy of PortAventura to consolidate its position as the best familiar leisure destination in Europe.

The Catalan Government presented this week a first draft of the urban plan that is developing for the 800 hectares surrounding PortAventura theme park, in the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona. The $6 billion holiday resort BCN World is supposed to be built in this area, which is now being promoted by the Catalan Executive itself after the private investor Veremonte did not meet the final deadline for buying the land in December. The urban plan foresees towers of 20 to 25 floors and the construction of 500,000 square metres of tourist and residential-use areas between the Las Vegas style casinos and the beach. Veremonte and its partners Melco, Hard Rock, Caesar’s Entertainment, Melià and Value Retail continue to be involved in the project, along with other investors such as Investindusrial (which owns PortAventura), Ferrari (which wants to build its first European theme park there) and Perelada (which owns other casinos and luxury hotels in Catalonia).