KIRMES & Park REVUE (English) Special: Rouen (Vorschau)
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MAGAZINE<br />
TERRA MÍTICA<br />
At the end of 2011 the<br />
Valencia Administration<br />
announced that the theme<br />
park Terra Mitíca that opened<br />
in 2000 was for sale for an<br />
amount of 65 million Euro.<br />
The 40 hectare sized park,<br />
once the pride of the Spanish<br />
royal family, had to however<br />
go into protective insolvency<br />
by 2006 and sell bordering<br />
properties to reduce its debts,<br />
after Paramount had stepped<br />
back from its management<br />
contract at the end of 2004.<br />
The new owner is the Spanish-Italian<br />
company Aqualandia-Mundomar,<br />
the management<br />
of which had already<br />
leased and operated the park<br />
since July 2010. The City of<br />
Valencia also wants to sell the<br />
Luz Filmstudio and the Formula-1-track.<br />
■<br />
Text:<br />
Photos:<br />
PERSONALITY: DISNEY<br />
H. Jürgen Kagelmann<br />
Disney<br />
One of the most important personalities of the<br />
Disney <strong>Park</strong>s has surprisingly decided to retire<br />
at 58 years of age: Allen “Al” Weiss was President of<br />
Walt Disney <strong>Park</strong>s and Resorts, a division of the Walt<br />
Disney Co., in which the eleven theme parks as well<br />
as the touristic companies of Disney are pooled together.<br />
Moreover he also had the control over all<br />
plans for future parks and attractions. His career began<br />
as a minor employee in 1971 at Disney World,<br />
after which he worked his way up the professional<br />
ladder: in 39 years he had a total of 22 different<br />
positions, which is proof of his extensive operational<br />
Text:<br />
Photos:<br />
Frank Lanfer<br />
IAAPA, Universal<br />
“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” is going<br />
to California as well. The both in actual fact competing<br />
companies and Warner<br />
Bros. Entertainment and Universal<br />
Studios have founded a<br />
partnership in order to equip<br />
the second film park from<br />
Universal with this popular and<br />
attractive number as well.<br />
However there will be no own<br />
theme area in Hollywood, but<br />
only an attraction, and because<br />
free space has long been a<br />
scarce commodity at the<br />
Californian film park, the “Amity”<br />
area and with it the studio tour<br />
attraction “Jaws” (which was in<br />
capability. In 1994 he became Vice President, and in<br />
2005 President of Walt Disney World in Orlando. For<br />
him, all the staff was just as important as he himself,<br />
and he was well loved in return. He proved outstanding<br />
leadership qualities during the 9/11 crisis,<br />
when strongly reduced figures and takings at the US<br />
Disney parks forced deciding cost-cutting measures:<br />
Weiss took on the Disney boss of those times,<br />
Michael Eisner, and prevented a massive scale of redundancies<br />
– as an alternative he offered short-time<br />
work.<br />
And Robert Iger, successor to Michael Eisner since<br />
2005, has also announced that he will retire in March<br />
2015. However he wishes to remain Executive Chairman<br />
of the Walt Disney Company until June 2016.<br />
And with that, Disney loses two of its strongest and<br />
most popular Management personalities in the next<br />
couple of years.<br />
■<br />
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD: HARRY POTTER<br />
operation since the year of 1976) has to make<br />
way. A definite opening date has not been revealed.<br />
In the meanwhile though, the Harry<br />
Potter area at Orlando is officially to “be substantially<br />
extended”<br />
■<br />
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