PortAventura

41.0847222222221.1513888888889Koordinaten: 41 ° 5 ' 5 " N, 1 ° 9' 5" E

Port Aventura is the biggest annual Spanish leisure resort with about 3.5 million visitors. It is located in the south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast at Salou ( Costa Dorada, Tarragona Province ).

At the resort include the time of the theme park Port Aventura, the water park Costa Caribe and the four hotels in El Paso, PortAventura Caribe Resort and Gold River.

Company History

On 1 May 1995, the theme park Port Aventura has been on a site that had been considered for the present Disneyland Resort Paris into account opened. It was developed by a consortium of Spanish investors, led by the Catalan savings bank La Caixa, and the U.S. brewer and leisure park operators Anheuser Busch built, to which the British Tussauds Group met during the construction phase that almost 40 % of the shares and the management of the parks took over. A total of 48 billion pesetas (about 290 million euros ) was invested in funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya project. Under its General Luis Rullán the park attracted 2.7 million visitors in the first season. In the following years the ownership and the park's name changed several times. 1997 Universal Studios took over the shares of the Tussauds Group and the management of the park and named it 1999 in Universal's Port Aventura and 2000 in Universal Studios Port Aventura has to offer. He was part of the Universal Mediterranea complex, which also included the water park Costa Caribe and Port Aventura hotels and El Paso in 2002 as a theme park Universal Port Aventura. 2004 sold the company to NBC Universal, which had been formed after the merger with NBC Universal Studios, Universal 's stake in the largest shareholder la Caixa, which thus almost 80 % held and also the management took over. Also in 2004, took over la Caixa, the shares of Anheuser Busch and thus became practically the sole owner. Since 2005, the park resumed using its original name, but for reasons of trademark protection without spaces (Port Aventura ). After the park had been run over several years losses, he came under the guidance of the new Director-General Mercedes de Pablo 2004 back into profit in 2007 reached the previous record attendance of 4.1 million. 2007 sees la Caixa participation in Port Aventura in his newly formed holding company Criteria CaixaCorp SA one. After Port Aventura had made 14.4 million euro loss in the first half of 2009 due to the beginning of the Euro crisis and the number of visitors had fallen to 3.3 million in 2009, at the end involved in 2009, the Investment Company Invest Industrial of living in Spain Italian businessman, Carlo Bonomi at the park. As part of this transaction, the previous company Port Aventura SA split into two separate companies. The largest part of the land, including golf course and beach club and some of the hotels went to the Mediterranea Beach & Golf Resort SA ( MBGRSA ), which remained in the exclusive possession of Criteria, which since 2011 as CaixaBank SA operates; the actual amusement parks and the rest of the hotel went to the Port Aventura Entertainment SA ( PAESA ) at the Industrial Invest in the way of the capital increase 50 % acquired. Invest Industrial also took over the management of the entire complex and announced for the next four years to invest 80 million euros for the modernization and expansion of the park and new attractions. 2010 took over Fernando Aldecoa and Enrique Fontecha the management of the park. After MBGRSA had sold its remaining hotels in September 2012 to PAESA, acquired Industrial Invest in November of that year, the remaining 50 % stake in PAESA and thus became the sole owner of Port Aventura. A year later, on December 6, 2013, Port Aventura announced that the U.S. venture capital firm KKR, with effect from January 2014 49.9% of PAESA Invest Industrial assumes that still retains a stake of 50.1 %. The aim is a further expansion of the theme parks and greater internationalization of clientele.

Amusement Park

Recreational Park include the roller coaster Dragon Khan, the track was at its opening in 1995 the world with the most inversions. It is also home to two traveling parallel wooden roller coasters Stampida, as well as many shows and in the high season, the award-winning show Fiestaventura. One of the newer attractions is the free-fall tower Hurakan Condor, which was opened in the 2005 season. It is 103 m high, the drop height is 86 m and the highest rate of fall is 115 km / h The roller coaster Furius Baco was founded in 2007 and was 135 km / h this time, the fastest in Europe. Nowadays, this prototype of the Wing Riders still the second fastest in Europe is behind the ring racer. To date, she is the only of this type worldwide. In 2012, the theme park opened the roller coaster Shambhala, which changed the skyline. This Hypercoaster about offers three records: he is high with 76 meters height roller coaster in Europe, he also has 78 meters, the longest run of a roller coaster in Europe and is also Europe's fastest Hypercoaster 134 km / h

Number of

Sources:

1995-2005: Clavé, Salvador Anton: The Global Theme Park Industry. 2007, p.65

2006-2011: Global Attractions Attendance Report 2006-2011 (2006, 2007 (PDF, 1.1 MB ), 2008 (PDF, 979 kB ), 2009 (PDF, 3.4 MB ), 2010, 2011, PDF, 616 kB)

Accidents

On June 6, 2012 occurred on the water coaster " Tutuki Splash" within a short time two accidents. After one of the boats was shut down the descent, it was so strong front lifted by the wave motion that the left front guide rollers from the guide channel jumped and touched down on him. The boat got wedged in the channel and thus got stuck. Immediately after the passengers had left the boat, the following boat went on unabated. In the course of accidents and then crashed at least 2 people in the water.