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Next theme park to open in the UK

Neither of those will happen. The UK already has more theme parks than it really needs for its population. Given that Merlin seem to be struggling so much, who in their right mind would open a theme park here?

The best chance I think we have is a small park in Scotland, between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
 
Disney coming to the UK has been a long talked about topic and the likelihood of it happening is very slim that its nearly non existent. There's no way the UK theme park industry would be able to maintain the standards set by Disneyland in particular nor would be able to budget appropriately.

The same completely applies for Universal Studios unless they were just to do a British film industry exhibition i.e. BFI, South Bank, Harry Potter at Leavesden Studios.
 
Where would a UK Disney go anyway? It's not as if there are huge swathes of land available for theme park building a la Florida - especially with NIMBY's and planning regulations.
 
Disneyland Paris was originally planned for either a site in Britain or Spain I believe, in the very early days. And Universal seriously considered buying American Adventure at one point, but for one reason or another, decided it wasn't worth it.
 
I would love for Mack to build a UK park, or Disney or universal.
But due to UK restrictions and the smaller market, none of which will happen :(
 
I don't know, although it's unlikely we'll get a brand new park, it's possible we'll get a dying park bought out and rennovated to a better level. *hides hopes of Chessington becoming a Busch Gardens*. ;)
 
I think another could be built in Yorkshire in terms of catchment, but I can't see another major park being build - although what's going on with that Visions of China idea?

In terms of saturation, I don't think that's the case and certainly Alton Towers could use some competition.

I couldn't care less for Disney, and hope they do not appear in future.
 
It would be nice to see a big investment in Scotland, lots of land and barely any competition... It would have to be a resort though! :p

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Two big factors would have to be weather and catchment, both point to the south. I know there are a few decent sized parks in the south east south west would be good, just not too far west.

I can't see any of the big foreign companies coming in from scratch, the best we can hope for is the development of a film studio. Could the Harry Potter tour be the start of that?
 
Personally I think the only place they would build Disney is London area and I think between the two major city's would be a great location but I don't think merlin would start a new theme park in the uk I think they will do what they did with Thorpe and expand upon a small park
 
Warner wanted to build a park and studio just down the road from me in the early 90's, on the same site originally considered for the NEC before it ended up in Birmingham. The local NIMBYs freaked out, and the land is still unused to this day. It's a wasteland of no value or beauty, next to the A40... but they simply won't let anything be built there.
 
Now Disney have built a park in Paris, they will not build one in London. It'd be like them opening one in San Francisco when they already have Disneyland in LA.

While entire continents go without a Disney park, they will not build two within a few hundred miles of each other.
 
The closest we will ever get to London having a Disney park is the uninspiring shops and events/exhibitions. Warner Bros are already doing very well with Leavesden Studios seeing as Harry Potter is one of its biggest series next to Nolan's Batman saga.
 
There were talks (and actual plans!) for a theme park being built on the outskirts of Newport, at Magor in the late 90s. If it was built at the time it would have been the biggest theme park in Europe. Shame really, we could really do with a decent theme park in Wales. Oakwood just doesn't offer much.
 
All this talk of Disney/Universal etc building, whilst its true that's it's very unlikely to happen, I think it's also very sad that it won't. Yes, we have tight planning controls and large masses of green belt, but the controls are nearly almost as strict in Paris.

The UK is such a widely ignored country for these developments, and think of the money they would bring in if they were to happen. Tourism would shoot up, and decent parks can be built whilst still maintaining a 'British' feel. With the right mind, and the right people behind them, Disney and/r Universal could easily tap into the UK market, particularly as most Brits can't afford to travel half way across the globe for the experience.
 
Weren't Disney gonna build in Windsor(ish) before deciding on Paris in the end...

I doubt we'll get a major player over here really, the Nimbys and other issues with attendances and investment within some potentially awful planning areas would probably put them off...

Best bet is for some of the smaller parks to find some money behind the sofa and suddenly invest heavily...
 
I'd love a Universal park here in the UK. Just been to the resort in Orlando and it was simply amazing. IoA is just outstanding and I didn't want to leave! :p

If Universal came to the UK then Merlin wouldn't be too happy either, but this country needs competition. Desperately.
 
Fredward said:
It would be nice to see a big investment in Scotland, lots of land and barely any competition... It would have to be a resort though! :p

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As much as I would love this to happen, a large resort style park in Scotland is just not financially viable. To get the kinds of numbers Alton attracts, you would need 40% of the population of Scotland to visit the park. Some of the custom would come from across the border but it would have to be some amazing park for people to be prepared to travel 5 hours plus to get there rather than the likely shorter trip to Alton.

Alton's strength comes from the fact that it's easily within reach of most of the UK population. The most attended paid-for tourist attraction in Scotland is Edinburgh Castle which fetches around half of Alton's attendance.
 
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