Netherlands: Toverland Welcomes Millionth Visitor
(v.l.n.r.): Pien Polman, Jean Gelissen sen., Janou Gelissen, Jean Gelissen jr., Stephan Satijn und Toverland-Charaktere.
Located in Sevenum, the Netherlands, near the border with Germany, Toverland welcomed its millionth visitor of the year last weekend (Saturday) during its winter opening – a first for the theme park, which has never before been able to reach this milestone. Nine-year-old Pien Polman from Voorburg in the Netherlands was honored as the millionth visitor, and she and her family were presented with an annual pass for the park, among other gifts, by Stephan Satijn, member of the Provincial Committee Gedeputeerde Staten van Limburg, and Toverland CEO Jean Gelissen Jr. “We are so incredibly pleased and proud that we’ve welcomed more than one million visitors this year”, says Jean Gelissen jr. ”A dream we held as a family business ever since we opened on 19 May 2001. Thanks to a huge expansion that we carried out in 2018, this special moment came closer and closer and now, after a few difficult corona years, we can celebrate a wonderful victory that we achieved with our entire Toverteam!”
Last year (2021, the park’s 20th anniversary year), despite pandemic-related closures and restrictions, Toverland saw 717,500 visitors, a 34 percent increase over the previous year (2020). The last visitor record of 862,000 guests was set in 2019. Indications are that some park in Europe could break their previous attendance records in 2022. Read more about this in our next March/April issue, where our Park Report will highlight these developments.
The year’s winter opening at Toverland under the motto “Winter Feelings” is also a first for it, with the parks’ entrance area decorated for winter and an outdoor ice skating and tubing track. All the park’s attractions are open. For the coming season, the Dutch theme park has already announced four new attractions. (eap)
