The Shenzhen OCT Holding is held as China’s principal amusement park builder and operator. According to Liu Pingchun, Chairman of OCT’s supervisory board, the company “wants to have an amusement park in most of China’s provinces”. However, OCT (...) read more
SeaWorld’s Aquatica which opened its doors in January 2008 in Orlando (we reported in EAP 5/2007) comes up with a new ride: Two years after its opening, the water park adds its first attraction – the “Omaka Rocka” which means “rocking river”. This (...) read more
In September 2010 Merlin Entertainments will open its tenth Madame Tussauds worldwide in Bangkok. The 15 million dollar attraction will be installed at Siam Discovery, a shopping mall. Besides the two existing Madame Tussauds in Hongkong and (...) read more
According to the media, the American company Cedar Fair and its eleven amusement parks were to be acquired by Apollo Global Management at approximately 2.4 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros). Shareholders would receive 11.50 dollars per share. (...) read more
At the 2009 IAAPA Show in Las Vegas in November, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) announced the Heineken Experience as recipient of the “Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Brand Experience”. The Heineken Experience (...) read more
At the end of December 2009 the ownership group of KeyLime Grove that operates the KeyLime resort in Gurnee / Illinois, USA with a hotel and indoor water park filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This means that the company filed for a reorganization (...) read more
Roy Edward Disney, the nephew of Disney founder Walt Disney, died in December at the age of 79. He died from cancer at the Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach, California. His father, Roy O. Disney, founded the Disney Company together with (...) read more
Since mid-November the Belgian company Alterface has been welcoming its visitors in its new offices just about one kilometer away from the former location, now within the Axis Parc in Mont-Saint-Guibert / Belgium. On 1,000 square meters and spread (...) read more
In mid-November the biggest science center of South Germany, the “Experimenta”, was opened in Heilbronn. 150 exhibits invite guests to wonder and to have a try themselves on an area of 7,500 square metres. The construction took 18 months until (...) read more
Despite a new record attendance of 15.4 million guests, Euro Disney’s sales volume decreased in the business year of 2008/2009, contrary to the European trend, with considerable seven per cent down to 1.23 billion euros. The net loss duplicated (...) read more
The Philand Ranch Ltd. has begun with the realization of a multi-billion dollar development program in the province of Quang Nam / Central Vietnam. The construction of a 48-large hectare bathing resort in the district of Nui-Thanh has just (...) read more
The 35,000 square metre-large Blub (“Berliner Luft- und Badeparadies”) in Berlin-Britz reappears: The wip Willmeroth Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH purchased the property as well as the recreational bath Blub from the Property Fund Berlin and (...) read more
The Meersburg-Therme at Lake Constance operated by GMF (Gesellschaft für Entwicklung und Management von Freizeitsystemen) records an operative profit of about 400,000 euros for the business year 2009 – a little bit more than in the previous year. (...) read more
At the end of November Tropical Islands in Brandenburg announced “the race is on” and finally started the construction of the first holiday houses. The investor is the German-Danish Planet-Group, one of the biggest vacation homes suppliers of (...) read more
According to “Rhein-Zeitung” the Staatsbad Bad Dürkheim GmbH intends to publish an Europe-wide call for tenders in order to win investors for the new construction of a thermal spa. As the media report it is both the operation of the new bathing (...) read more
The thermal spa Aqualux, which opened its doors two years ago and which is very much estimated for its architecture and equipment, is threatened to become a money pit. The Austrian “Kleine Zeitung” reported at the end of November: “Without new (...) read more
During a recent trip to Germany, the world-famous magicians Siegfried & Roy paid a visit to Phantasialand Bruehl. They were invited by park founder Gottlieb Löffelhardt and his son Robert Löffelhardt, CEO. The relationship between the amusement (...) read more
As a symbol for the completion of the building shell, a green crown was put onto the roof of the “Tropenhalle Gondwanaland” at Leipzig Zoo at the end of October. Gondwanaland is by now the sixth themed area at the Zoo Leipzig and will be opened by (...) read more
After long lasting negotiations, Disney was recently given green light for the construction of Disneyland Shanghai. With the blessing of authorities, Americans and Chinese will just continue to bargain for finances before the realization of the (...) read more
On the first in-house exhibition of Disney, the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, presented future plans of Disney for new attractions and themings. The Star Tours attraction in the Hollywood Studios will (...) read more
