Germany: A Vacation Home Park as Future Business Model for Fort Fun

Just a few weeks ago, the French operator group Compagnie des Alpes (CdA) revoked the sale of Germany’s amusement park Fort Fun, after extensive investigations had been initiated by the police due to fraud against the buyer (we reported on this on February 1, 2012). Since then, the park has focused on the preparations for the coming season starting on April 6, 2012 and furthermore on finding solutions for the park’s future. Ralf Péus (mayor), Olivier Garaïalde (CdA), Jan Reuvers (CdA) and Gordon Kosa (Fort Fun) recently met in order to discuss the future development of Fort Fun. It was made clear that the park is to be fully integrated into the group again. Additionally, it was decided that the management will continue to pay the wages of the 30 permanent employees of the park. Concerning the park’s future, the plans of a Dutch investor including the construction of a vacation home park in the district of Andreasberg have been reconsidered by the persons in charge. “We think that this is a brilliant business model for the future … We clearly support these plans and are generally convinced that this is a good approach to add overnight accommodation of this kind to an amusement park,” explained Olivier Garaïalde. (eap)