A Familiar Theme Now Coming To Campos

You are entitled to wonder "crisis, what crisis", given the sudden outbreak of development plans springing up left, right, centre and predominantly around the south-east of the island. The latest is an old theme, that of a theme park, long in the offing and long in the kicking into the tall grass of environmental objections.

We know of course that the tourism minister, well before he had been elected, had spoken of his wishes for there to be more theme parks, so the project conceived by the appropriately named Danish company, the Theme Park Group, comes as no surprise. The company has had its hopes dashed in the past, but it now must hope that it will be able to push ahead.

The plan is for there to be a park which occupies some 110 hectares of land. Exactly where is a secret, but only of sorts. It will be between the towns of Llucmajor and Campos. The company's website shows its location on the motorway between the two and north of Sa Ràpita where there are separate plans for a new 1250-place hotel.

The Danish theme park is not the only one in the area. Campos's neighbour, Ses Salines, has approved the idea for the Christian theme park. "Tierra Santa" was originally destined to be in Capdepera, but it may well now be heading to the town of the salt marshes. There has to be some allegory in all this. Lot's wife, pillar of salt and all that, though where Sodom and Gomorrah come into it, I'm not sure. The theme park will probably tell us.

Mention of Capdepera has some link with the Danish scheme. It is intended that one area with typical Mallorcan buildings will be included. The plan for the luxury hotel complex in Capdepera involves its being created in the style of a Mallorcan village. There is just one slight snag which has cropped up with this. No one seems to have met the Qatari sheikh said to be behind it all. Indeed, no one seems to be able to confirm that he exists. Even Hyatt, which would operate the hotel, is being somewhat circumspect about the project, though it has been associated with such a scheme for at least a couple of years.

If some scepticism has arisen in respect of Capdepera, there needn't be with the Danish scheme. As an idea, it has been doing the rounds for long enough to remove doubts, though there are the issues of permission (which should probably pose little problem with the new government) and of financing. The park will require 200 million euros of investment. A third of this would be forthcoming from the company itself together with tour operators said to be associates in the project. The rest would come from banks and financial institutions. One trusts that the banks will be more minded to release funds for the theme park than they otherwise appear to be.

Perhaps conscious of the environmental objections that have dashed previous theme park proposals, the company is careful to demonstrate the park's eco-credentials. Energy savings and limiting emissions, water savings, noise and light pollution, they are all there, alongside what the park will actually comprise: an adventure area, a fantasy world, a tropical world and pirates. Yes, really, yet more pirates. There will also be a lake and of course the Mallorcan buildings as part of a "Mallorca Experience".

It all sounds fair enough, but does it sound that original? What Mallorca could do with is a real attention-grabber, something which might say to the tourist that he should come to Mallorca, as opposed to it being an option he has for a day out that doesn't specifically influence the decision to holiday in Mallorca. One would have to wait and see. It might be highly original, but sorry, ever more pirates don't necessarily set the pulse racing.

I wish them the best of luck with it. Theme parks, and more of them, are good for tourism. But in one respect, the project may represent a missed opportunity. It would appear that it will only be open during the season. Or maybe I'm missing something. An all-year, all-weather theme park facility would mean a great deal more for Mallorca's tourism.

The company, in addition to pressing the environmental friendliness of the theme park, presses the right buttons in other ways. Mallorca has been chosen, it says, "because there is a need to improve the offer complementing sun and beach tourism". True enough, but the complements are necessary when the sun and beach are not on offer.

For more information, go to http://themeparkgroup.com


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.