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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 />

76

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