Germany: Center Parcs Presents New Brand Identity & Strategy
Center Parcs Europe, the vacation park provider from the Netherlands with vacation resorts in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, wants to drive its brand forward with a new strategic direction. The idea is to further focus on the connection between people and nature, which founder Piet Derksen established as a core value of the company under the motto “nature at your fingertip” as early as 1967. Several years of work have already gone into the renewal plan “Reinvention 2025”, which includes, among other things, the company’s new brand positioning including the visual appearance. In addition, the offer of existing vacation parks is planned to be supplemented by new experiences and sustainable as well as local projects and initiatives. Andres Neira de Back, Marketing Director at Center Parcs Europe, explains, “As vacation behavior moves more and more toward individual and sustainable vacations, authentic experiences and recreation closer to home are becoming more and more popular. Center Parcs is addressing these very needs even more strongly than before with its repositioning.”
The renewed brand identity of the vacation park pioneer is to include above all the areas of “education in nature”, “sustainability” and “locality”. The first includes the ambition to develop even more activities for guests in nature. For example, visitors to Center Parcs De Vossemeren (Belgium) and Center Parcs Bispinger Heide (Germany) can already go on a nature trail or participate in ranger activities. “With these activities, we want to attract the attention of our guests so that they learn more about nature & the environment in a fun and engaging way,” explains Frank Daemen, Managing Director at Center Parcs Germany. In addition to a more intensive connection to nature, Center Parcs wants to build an even stronger sustainability policy and embed the parks even better in their local environment. On the one hand, this move is intended to encourage guests to experience the direct surroundings and culture of the parks and, on the other hand, to encourage people from the immediate vicinity to treat themselves to some time out in the nearby park. In addition to the new brand identity and the expansion of existing facilities, further development is also taking place in the form of a new park project in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany and investments in the further digitalization of the company.
Incidentally, the Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs Group is now the sole owner of the Villages Nature® Paris vacation destination, which opened in 2017 as a joint venture with Euro Disney S.C.A. (owner and operator of Disneyland Paris), as Euro Disney has sold its shares in the facility to the group. Initial expansion plans for the vacation resort since the full takeover by Center Parcs have already been announced. By 2025, 193 new resort rooms are planned to be built, as well as a Wild River attraction for the associated Aqualagon water park. (eap)
