Last year 220,000 people from the Netherlands visited the Movie Park – that’s more than 20 percent of all visitors, as the “WAZ” announced shortly after the start of the season. Movie Park GM Wouter Dekkers, a Dutchman himself, knows best how to (...) read more
As mentioned a number of times in past issues of our newsletter, the NYSE had been threatening to delist the Six Flags stock for months already. Since September, the company’s market capitalisation had fallen significantly below the volume (...) read more
The private operator of the water park “Lagune” in Cottbus has registered for insolvency due to inability to pay on Ash Wednesday. However the bath operation is still continuing to run. Last year instead of the predicted 180,000 visitors, only (...) read more
At the beginning of March work began on two new Disney cruise liners at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg. The two ocean liners should be completed in 2011 and 2012. “When we built up our business in 1998, we recognised straightaway that there was a (...) read more
The Park which cost $400 million to set up, and was opened in March 2008 only to become insolvent 5 months later, will be sold to FPI MB Entertainment for $25 million. The unknown company is a newly founded joint venture between Freestyle Park (...) read more
After a two year delay and much toing and froing, the rollercoaster from the Russian manufacturer Pax will finally be delivered and constructed. The delay in delivery was caused by controversies which the manufacturer had to fight out with their (...) read more
Years of hard work have paid off: Ole Bested Hensing, manager of the “Tropical Islands”, is pleased with the unexpected influx of visitors and a successfully completed business year. For the business year that ended at the end of January an (...) read more
The well-known Dutch amusement park Efteling plans on staying open all year round in the future. Apart from an ice skating rink, numerous other attractions suitable for the different seasons are in preparation. The family amusement park Efteling (...) read more
The town of Salzburg planned a new facility in the area of Liefering (we have already reported in the print edition), instead of the traditional “Paracelsusbad” in the town centre. €50 million should have been invested in the new and attractive (...) read more
With a market share of roughly 24 percent, Vamed Vitality World, the number one Austrian thermal spa operator, recently drew a balance. Vamed was able to note an increase of three percent last year at the six thermal spas it runs, noting a total (...) read more
This past year was the most successful year ever for the sport and swimming facility Fildorado in Filderstadt since it reopened around three years ago. Fildorado’s managing director Wolfgang Hermle is “more than happy” with the positive (...) read more
Several things attracted attention: on the one hand the company settled in Sandusky/Ohio has hired a top quality partner in Merrill Lynch, in order to reduce the debts of the company by around $200 million through sales in the next three years. To (...) read more
Dramatic worsening of the future of the Six Flags group: the reason is the payment of $300 million to the owners of Six Flags preference shares, which Six Flags doesn’t have the money for. For months there have been internal discussions about (...) read more
Busch Entertainment and its investment partner Nakheel announced in early February that their collaborative, thoroughly ambitious project in Dubai, the “Worlds of Discovery”, has been “pigeonholed” for at least another year. The planned facility (...) read more
Keukenhof is opening its doors for the 60th international flower show on the 18th of March 2009. The show will run for eight weeks and around 800,000 visitors from all around the world are expected in Lisse during this time. Keukenhof will thus be (...) read more
The Disney Corporation (amusement parks, TV station and film studios) suffered a massive collapse in profits over the last quarter due to the global financial crisis. Compared to the previous quarter, profits dropped by around one-third to 845 (...) read more
Germany’s largest toy manufacturer attained its eighth turnover record in a row in 2008: Due to the (ongoing) booming business abroad, Playmobil’s proceeds could be increased by around six percent, climbing to 452 million euros. The sales trend (...) read more
On 4 February 2009, Professor Dr Horst W. Opaschowski (68) informed the trade public of the results of the 25th tourism analysis before handing over the academic direction of tourism research to Dr Ulrich Reinhardt (38, photo). Dr Reinhardt has made (...) read more
In October last year, Werner Stengel, the uncrowned “rollercoaster king”, was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by German President Horst Köhler upon nomination by the Bavarian prime minister and at the initiative of Wolfgang Schneider (Holiday (...) read more
Efteling, the largest Dutch family amusement park, is planning some ambitious investments over the next few years: 40 million euros are to be invested in the construction of three different projects, which should spur on the year-round use of the (...) read more
