“European Destination Resort”
The new trademark of PortAventura
With this strategy, the company seeks international position as a holiday resort, which had an international market growth of 21% in 2012
To strengthen its strategy, PortAventura plans take advantage of SésamoAventura and Shambhala and this season invest 10 million in new projects
PortAventura, March 12th, 2013.- PortAventura raises an international big bet this year: positioning as the best holiday and familiar resort in Europe. From now it is going to present as PortAventura: European Destination Resort. Under this concept, the company wants to release his wide range of options, these make it a unique holiday destination: a theme park, a water park, four hotels of four stars each one, with 2,000 rooms and a convention center with capacity for over 4,000 people, all along the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea.
Investindustrial is the only shareholder of PortAventura since last November. After the success in domestic market, Investindustrial wants to get a more international profile in order to achieve, in the coming years, more than 50% of visitors are international.
Assessment 2012: international development
3, 8 million people visited PortAventura in 2012, keeping the growth trend started with the arrival of Investindustrial in 2009. As happened in 2011 with the opening of the new family area SésamoAventura - which represented an increase of more than half a million visitors in regards to 2010 - the construction of Shambhala consolidated this growth.
Shambhala has reinforced the internationalization’s strategy of the company by becoming an important model in the theme park’s industry. In the same way, and besides the big public’s success, Shambhala was recognized with the “Kirmes & Parks” award for best attraction of the year, and the “World of Parks” award for the best novelty of the year. In addition, profession associations and online communities have placed PortAventura in the best places of international rankings.
As a result of this strategy, 35% of visitors were internationals in 2012. This means an increase of 21% compared to the previous season, thanks to the partnership with the support of the main tour operators and the tourism institutions in Europe.
France is the first international market of PortAventura and represents around 45% of international visitors. Most of French clients come from the south of the country and they usually repeat. They usually are families who choose Port Aventura as a destination for their summer holidays and special weeks like All Saint’s Day.
Russia is the second most important international market of PortAventura and represents more than 25% of the international visitors. It is the fastest growing market in the last few years with an increase of 75% compared with 2012, with more than 300,000 visitors. The commercial work in this market has been focused on the closest regions to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and also in the neighbor Ukraine.
United Kingdom and Ireland are also an important market for the resort. In 2012 contribute the 20% of the international visitors. The company works with the main tour operators and tries to maximize the direct sales through the online channel.
During the last year PortAventura has also worked with other European markets as Benelux and Germany. These markets’s increase was 19%.
Season 2013
PortAventura will be open next March, 22th with two new investments: Shambhala and the extension of Costa Caribe Aquatic Park, the aquatic park placed next to the theme park PortAventura.
The its first eight months more than 1,7 million people ridded Shambhala, which places it as the most successful project of the history of PortAventura. This was shown by the fact that it is the most valued attraction of the park's history. Shambhala was an investment of 25 million euros and has three European records: the tallest roller coaster, the largest fall and the fastest hypercoaster.
This year is also planned an investment 10 million euros on the expansion of Costa Caribe Aquatic Park. The aquatic park will have an extension of 14000m2 with new facilities, covering 50.000m2 of total area.
Costa Caribe Aquatic Park will become a European reference with the tallest free fall toboggan in Europe. With a height similar to the 12 –floors building (31 meters), the adventurers who dare to try it, will find a dizzying slope of 55 ° and a descent speed of 6 meters per second. In addition, the park will have one toboggan multi bump with a tour undulating and two fast changes of gradient¸ a height of 19 meters and a distance of over 100 meters. Another novelty will be one toboggan with 6 lanes where children and adults will compete to each other. To fall they will need to lie down on a sort of carpet-sled and they will be projected at full speed.
Besides these three big attractions, the enlargement is designed for the family public who will also have two big swimming pools. The swimming pool for children will be full of interactive elements, where especially a pirate ship with the Sesame Street characters, where to enjoy walking or sliding through the toboggans.
Next to this swimming pool there is a second pool with a tropical ambience designed to provide a peaceful place with waterfalls, water beds and invigorating water effects. The park will provide a careful theming with more than 50 species of plants and palms. All decoration will make the visitors feel like being in the Caribbean.
The new aquatic park will open its doors in May. This project is part of the investment plan of 75 million euros for the next five years approved by Investindustrial in November 2012.
Since the entry of the shareholder in 2009, 200 million euros had been invested in new projects. Along with Shambhala in 2012 other projects were presented: a children driving school in the area of China, the renovation of the 500 rooms at the hotel PortAventura, and the caravan parking.
Nowadays, PortAventura has become a European Destination Resort. In the future the resort development will grow in the company’s 70 hectares of land available. The objective for the next years is to increase visitors until 5 million and achieve that the 50% were international.
