Aragonia: 17 billion Euro for desert project

Just because Las Vegas was a success from a purely economic point of view (without reference to ecological implications) does not mean that it is not possible to lose money in the sand by investing in a desert project somewhere else, like Aragonia, Spain’s driest region, with extensive plains and desert-like areas. But that’s exactly where a megaproject called ‘Gran Scala’ – a type of Las Vegas 2.0 – is to be built for an immense 17 billion Euro. A UK-based consortium, comprising 12 companies (‘International Leisure Development’, the major shareholders of which are reported to be Aristocrat Technologies, UFA Insurance, Ultragroup, Inc. Atlanta, Europtima and Tranchant Group), is planning to build 32 hotel casinos, 232 restaurants, 500 shops, a bull-fighting arena, a horse racing track, golf courses, five theme parks and museums on an area of 2,000 hectares. The ‘Spyland’ theme park project ghosting around the industry community for some time is also to be realised there.  Thematically, the plans for Gran Scala are to map the history periods of mankind – even the casinos are to be included in the theme. A binding Letter of Intent on this was signed by the involved parties, the aforementioned consortium ‘International Leisure Development’ and ‘SpacePort Leisure’, a South Africa based company specialising in the ‘Space’ theme. Also gigantic are the expectations of the investors and the political establishment, which has already ‘winked through’ the project because of the promise of 30,000 to 65,000 new jobs: the investor pool is anticipating up to 25 million visitors p.a., with a calculated potential total capacity of allegedly 35 million visitors. As comparison: Las Vegas has about 40 million visitors per year. The start of the construction work in Aragonia is scheduled for next year – the completion and opening of the then largest European leisure and gambling park is scheduled for 2023. (eap)