Spain & theme parks; what’s the problem?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. After hearing numerous reports from Parque de Atracciones de Madrid and Parque Warner Madrid recently where the reviewers writing them commented on the parks being absolutely deserted, it got me thinking; Spain seems to have a bit of a problem making major theme parks work, and I’m struggling to pinpoint why. So my question to you today is; what issue does the Spanish theme park industry have, in your opinion?


I should probably clarify what I mean by Spain having an “issue” with theme parks.


On paper, Spain seems like an ideal place to host major European theme parks. It’s hot for much of the year, has a huge tourism industry particularly in coastal areas, and has a lot of flat desert land ripe for development; on paper, Spain has it all, and many major US operators like Disney & Universal have heavily considered the prospect of building European resorts in Spain. Many of the theme parks planned for and eventually built in Spain have been quite grand-scale, masterplanned affairs; Spain certainly has a greater proportion of these types of parks than other European countries. It looks like the closest thing we have here in Europe to Orlando, and it could have come close to Orlando had some of the planned resorts come to fruition.


However, many of these considered resorts never got off the ground, and the ones that did often struggled. Some of Spain’s older theme parks also seem to be struggling a bit, or have been somewhat stagnant in recent years; not too much seems to be happening in Spain’s theme park industry these days, and many parks are struggling. In terms of some major examples I can think of, they include:

• PortAventura: PortAventura is certainly Spain’s biggest theme park success story, and I’m certainly not going to deny that it’s a very popular park; according to the TEA report, 3,750,000 guests went through the gates of PortAventura Park alone in 2019, making it the 6th most popular park in Europe. However, the original targets for the resort were allegedly much loftier than this, and many of its previous benefactors, particularly Universal, supposedly backed out due to the park’s disappointing performance and financial problems. The recent major investment into Ferrari Land also doesn’t seem to have done terribly well for them in spite of having Europe’s tallest & fastest roller coaster within it; while PortAventura Park is 6th in Europe, Ferrari Land doesn’t even scratch the top 25, and many trip reports paint it as deserted. Given this resort was once the Universal Studios of Europe, and many had rather high hopes for it, attendance is seemingly lower than expected.
• Parque Warner Madrid: 4 fairly large coasters, lavish theming, famous IPs, and a location fairly close to Spain’s capital city seems like the recipe for a theme park success story, right? Sadly, however, Parque Warner Madrid never seems to have prospered too much since its opening in 2002; from what I’ve heard, this is another one that was built with very high hopes in terms of attendance, but never really lived up to expectations, with the park often being absolutely deserted. The fact that the park in 2002 is fairly similar to the park nearly 20 years later in 2021 aside from a Mack YoungStar Coaster and a small water park is perhaps rather telling with regard to the park’s overall success as a venture. The park’s 2019 guest figure of 2.2 million does seem somewhat low for a year-round park with Parque Warner’s ride selection. However, this one does admittedly show some promise; in spite of guest figures being somewhat on the low side for a year-round park, they have skyrocketed within the last 5-10 years (which as amazing as that is, is perhaps even more inexplicable than the park’s initial failure given that not much has really happened in that time), with the park having gained over a million additional guests per year since 2013, and a new coaster rumoured for 2023 should really help to inject some new zest into the park!
• Terra Mitica: This is another one that I’m led to believe was billed as a major up and coming European resort prior to its opening, and had it all in theory; a pretty good ride selection, very elaborate theming, resort hotels (I think?), a water park, and a prime location close to Benidorm, one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations. Weren’t Paramount even involved with it at some stage? However, you never hear much from it these days, and what you do hear is rarely good news; since I started following theme park news when I was 10, the place has always seemingly been in various states of turmoil, whether that be financial turmoil (I seem to remember the place going bankrupt numerous times, and I also remember hearing about their operating season having been slashed hugely), safety turmoil (when that boy fell out of their ZacSpin and died) or some other kind of turmoil entirely (attendance seems cripplingly low, from what I can gather, and hasn’t the park’s main coaster, Magnus Colossus, not operated in years?). Reports from people who’ve been to Terra Mitica suggest that it offers a very surreal experience, with the park containing infrastructure built to withstand millions and millions of guests a year, and the park generally having the vibe of a pretty major park, with lavish theming and fairly high-end ride hardware, but there barely being any guests visiting at all, even during peak tourism season; every report I’ve ever read paints the park as being absolutely deserted.
• Parque de Atracciones de Madrid: Now this one I’ll admit I’m a little more unsure on, but yet again, I’ve heard reports of the park being pretty quiet most of the time, and the last new thing they built was a small family coaster in 2012. PdA have also disappeared from TEA’s top 25 most visited European theme parks in recent years, and visitor numbers seem oddly low given the park’s fairly expansive ride selection and prime location within Madrid.

So my question to you today is; what do you think the problem is that’s seemingly facing Spain’s theme park industry? Why do so many Spanish parks struggle, and why haven’t they been able to capitalise on Spain’s many redeeming features that would really lend themselves to a thriving theme park industry?


I’d be really keen to know some of your thoughts, as I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a head scratcher for me…

 

[Benzin]

Culture.

It's a fairly laid back country at the best of times. That will obviously transfer into the wider systems as a whole. Look at the customer service of the Americans or the efficiency of the Germans as examples.

Location is an issue primarily with Parque Warner. Whilst near Madrid, its not exactly easy to get to (the unfinished train line doesn't help). Then a lack of development over the years meant that it stagnated.

Terra Mitica suffered after the incident. That simple. We've seen here what mismanagement of a park after a serious incident can do for a park's reputation.

PA also had this issue in terms of a lack of development over the years. However ownership meant it was in a fairly decent position. Its just operated like crap which comes back to the Spanish culture (if you need Fastrack to have a good time then there's something wrong with the park).

PdMA is just an inner city park. Think it fits that fairly well and doesn't really struggle beyond standard operating fair.

Missed out Tibidabo. But again that's a smallish inner city park. Great customer service for disabled people mind.

 

[JAperson]

Very interesting topic idea.
Okay so I'd say one of the key reasons is Spain's ever changing economy. Spain's economy relies on tourism particular from Britain and Germany. This sounds great for a theme park however most of these holidaymakers are going to spain to sit on a sunbed and drink booze in bars. I think it's just that the majority of people visiting spain are not there to visit theme parks as they are just not well known enough. The population of spain have never been that intersted and those who are seem to not think highly of there theme parks. This doesn't mean spain shouldn't have successful theme parks and a lot of it is just down to individual cases that are completely unrelated but just happen to all happen in spain
Let's talk about them
Terra Mitica - should be in a great location to attract tourists from Benidorm as well as the local population however they have some grave issues that need solving that nobody seems to do. It's biggest and probably best ride is SBNO and has been since 2015. Also the owners of Terra Mitica are a bank who are in a lot of debt. Terra Mitica could be fixed if someone wanted to buy the place. They could RMC Magnus Colossus and then add something tall that could be seen from Benidorm to attract people. Like an icon something like Big One at Blackpool. Could be a drop tower or something. To me Terra Mitica seems like the biggest waste, just like Drayton Manor did here. I think someone like Looping Group could come along and buy Terra Mitica and it could be one of the best parks in Spain. It just needs an owner with drive and with a bit of cash to sort it out.
Port adventure - To be fair this park is fairly successful although could also do with being sold as it's owners are also a bank. What is it with Spain's poor banks buying theme parks?
parque Warner Madrid - Also an ownership problem. Parque Rendos don't really seem to want to do anything with this park and seem to find it a burden. This maybe due to the fact they also own the other big park in Madrid Parque De atracciones. This means they don't have the drive to add anything to either of them as there is no competition.

To me it's a mixture of the fact that the tourists visiting Spain Aren't interesting in going to theme parks and a decent chunk of the Spanish population aren't either and bad ownership among their biggest parks.

 

[Rick]

Location is an issue primarily with Parque Warner. Whilst near Madrid, its not exactly easy to get to (the unfinished train line doesn't help). Then a lack of development over the years meant that it stagnated.

It's not unfinished, it ran for the best part of a decade and was then abandoned because nobody used it.

 

[Craig]

There's loads of reasons really that have just culminated into why they're pretty much a failure. As mentioned already, tourism in Spain is very much a sun, sea and sand destination to visitors - standing in queues just isn't what they're going for. I see the struggling parks are a bit of a failure in proper market research and overinflated guest projections. Parque Warner too far out of the way to capitalise on coastal tourism, meanwhile Terra Mitica is in Benidorm, a town which has an ever ageing visiting population with fewer and fewer families visiting as they're barely modernising. You also had the low cost airlines continuing to push package holidays to the side - along with greater use of the internet for research that was opening up so many new destinations to travellers.

On the financial side, the newer parks were built right at the turn of the millennium, during Spain's construction boom. September 11th and the dot com bubble bursting dented the confidence of the banks and tourism, meaning either higher borrowing costs or banks being far less flexible with extending or adjusting borrowing terms. You then had the euro coming in, which increased people's confidence with travelling elsewhere too. Of course further down the line there was then the construction/housing bubble which burst in 2008, that further devalued things and scared banks off from lending further (and is why said banks have ended up so many of these places!). That also all but destroyed the park's domestic market due to ever rising unemployment rate, which was already high but skyrocketed post 2008. Then there's also the American park owners such as Universal and Six Flags were trying to gain a foothold in Europe in the early 00's too, and 9/11 scared them off continuing those ownership and management ventures while they tried to save their domestic divisions, which only added to the park's woes.

Nick Varney often said that starting a park from scratch was financial suicide, and that's definitely true, especially of Terra Mitica. It was barely 4 years before they were pretty much filing for bankruptcy!

 

[Rick]

Great post @Craig

Nick Varney often said that starting a park from scratch was financial suicide, and that's definitely true, especially of Terra Mitica. It was barely 4 years before they were pretty much filing for bankruptcy!

I think he did qualify that to say it's suicide unless it's a Lego park ... which really does illustrate the power of IPs and that brand in particular.

 

[JAperson]

I think the only reason on the financial side that Port Adventura worked was that when it was being built you had the American company who was trying to expand into Europe in Busch you then had the Spanish company as in the current owners who also provided the financial backing and then you had the mediators and the sensible ones with experience of operating attractions in europe in Tussauds you didn't have the issue of having a big finance company and an American company with no idea of how to run attractions in europe.. This is really what happen with a lot of the Europe expansion and particularly with some of the parks in Spain.

 

[Jb85]

Went to Terra Mitica this weekend - been to a stag party in Benidorm.

Been a few times before but have to say this park is pointless. Very few families seemed to be visiting and the stag / hen parties aren’t interested in it. The majority of visitors seemed to be locals.I cannot see this business ever being a success. Very quiet.

Also wish they would re open Colossus. Seems criminal to just let it rot.

I think the only way they may make money is by doing a package deal with Terra Natura and the accompanying water park (not Aqualandia - which was heaving and is great!)

Shame but the park is in the wrong place….

On another note - Benidorm seems to be starting to clean its act up. A lot of the old hotels are being renovated. Some of the beach bars were closing at 12…. And away from ‘The Strip’ it seem a far more pleasant town. A lot of tours now are pushing the old town…. Not sure if this is good or not….

 

[Poisson]

PdAdM and PWM were pretty quiet on our weekend visit earlier this year, especially obvious in PWM where the throughputs were enough to show how it was so quiet

 

[Enter Valhalla]

No major issues with Spain’s theme parks at all as far as I can see based on my experience (Terra Mitica being the one exception)

Whenever I’ve visited PortAventura, Tibidabo, Paraue Warner, Parque de Atracciones Madrid, and Isla Magica, all have been pretty busy.. not always heaving, but certainly not dead. Families in Spain, in particular seem to love the theme parks. All looked to be doing pretty good business on my visits, at various different times of year.

The exception of course, is Terra Mitica. I’ve been twice and it was dead both times. They picked the wrong location, seemingly aiming at tourists but only really attracting a handful of locals.