Paramount Pictures considers Murcia
Paramount Pictures, the producers of Hollywood blockbusters like Shrek, Titanic, Gladiator, Iron Man, Tomb Raider and the Indiana Jones films has chosen the region of Murcia in southern Spain as a potential European location for the development of a giant theme park that could compete directly with Disneyland Paris in France.
Spain’s Minister of Culture, Pedro Cruz and Ramon Luis Valcarcel, the President of the region of Murcia, have been in talks with Executive Vice President of the licencing division of Paramount Pictures, Michael Bartok. The pair recently returned from a visit to Dubai with news that feasibility studies would be underway to consider a vast theme park project in the region of Murcia.
Murcia is considered to be an ideal choice due to the development of the new International Corvera Airport, due to open 2011, and the recently completed motorway links from other parts of Europe and Spain, as well as the new high-speed AVE rail lines currently under construction. With an average 300 days of sunshine a year, warm year-round climate and proximity to the beautiful beaches of the Mar Menor, Murcia has a lot to bring to the table for Spain’s tourism industry.
Michael Bartok and Hayan Merchant, CEO of Ruwaad Holdings, are believed to prefer the region of Murcia due of it's climatic conditions, over and above other popular Spanish regions including Catalunia and Andalucia, both of which have been considered for the project.
With investment plans due to be considered over the coming months, Cruz said that Murcia will become the “centre of leisure for Spain” with a complex of 2.5 square kilometres, creating over 20,000 jobs and providing an additional £3 million tourist visitors to Spain. As the project is expected to need over 15,000 hotel rooms, Murcia’s abundance of golf resorts home to luxury villas with pools, 5 star hotels and golf apartments will hopefully be a key factor for such a large scale development for the region.
The regional Government and the Ruwaad holding company, that represent Paramount in the construction of theme parks, will be looking for investment partners to make the project a reality. Executives and technicians of Ruwaad will move to the region in the coming months to undertake the study.
Such an extensive investment project in Murcia will provide a much-welcomed boost for the local economy as well as property owners at Polaris World Golf Resorts who have purchased holiday apartments or villas with pools in Murcia.
For more details, read the news article in Spanish on ABC News.
http://www.abc.es/20100227/cultura-/paramount-elige-murcia-para-201002271236.html
Date posted: 21 March 2010
