Europa-Park


Europa-Park is a theme park in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Covering a total area of 95 hectares, twenty themed areas offer around a hundred attractions, including shows and fourteen roller coasters. The park also includes six hotels, a camping site, a tepee village, a cinema and a conference center.
According to the AECOM Theme Index 2020, Europa-Park is ranked 19th out of the 25 most visited theme parks in the world and is the third most visited theme park in Europe after Disneyland Paris and Efteling, as well as the most visited seasonal theme park in the world.
The park received 5.4 million visitors in 2022. Alongside Rulantica, the resort had over six million visitors. Also that year, the Golden Ticket Award jury of the US magazine Amusement Today voted Europa-Park the "best theme park in the world" for the eighth year in a row.

History

Background and founding

In 1958, Franz Mack took over the family firm, Mack GmbH & Co. KG, together with his brothers. Along with his son Roland, he visited the US in 1972 and was inspired to open a theme park in Germany as an exhibition site for his company's built amusement rides, including flat rides, dark rides, log flumes, tow boat rides and roller coasters. At first, the park was planned to be located in Breisach. It was named "Europa-Park" after Breisach's nearby Europaweiher, a small artificial lake which commemorates a historical pilot poll held in Breisach in 1950, in which 95.6% of voters were in favor of European unification. The Breisach site was deemed unsuitable because of flooding hazard, and the project moved some further north, where the Macks bought the park of the Balthasar castle in Rust. An adjacent fairy-tale park was acquired as an additional site.
The park opened on 12 July 1975 with an area of 16 hectares. Initially, the park was managed by Franz Mack. Later his sons Roland and Jürgen joined the management. It counted 250,000 visitors in the first year; 700,000 in the second; and passed the million mark in 1978.

Themed areas and growth (1980s–2012)

In 1982, the first country-themed section opened featuring Italy. Like most of the original themed areas at Europa-Park, it was designed by Ulrich Damrau. Later, the Alpenexpress "Enzian" and Schweizer Bobbahn rides opened in 1984 and 1985, respectively. The European theme was pursued further with the opening of the sections Holland, England, France, Scandinavia, Spain and the German Alley. In 1991, for the first time the park counted over 2 million visitors. With El Andaluz in 1995, the first hotel in a German theme park was opened. An increase in the length of stay resulting from growing number of attractions in the park led to an increase in the demand for overnight accommodation. In its first year, the hotel was booked to 87% of its capacity. In 1999, it was followed by the construction of the hotel Castillo Alcazar. By 2001, the number of visitors had risen to 3.1 million. The same year, Europa-Park was the first theme park in Germany operating in winter as well, with 180,000 visitors in that season. In order to strengthen its own brand and initiate the park's business activities in digital formats, Michael Mack founded MackMedia in 2002. The company shoots image and advertising films, produces music videos, games and special films. After a continuous increase of visitors the following years, in 2011, the park counted 4.5 million visitors, and by 2012 the park encompassed an area of, featuring eleven roller-coasters, five themed hotels with a turnover of close to EUR 300 million and more than 3,000 employees.

Further expansion and fire incident (2012–2018)

In 2012, the water park project Rulantica was initiated. Two years later, the Rulantica brand was registered by Europa-Park GmbH & Co Mack KG. In 2017, Europa-Park opened the attraction Voletarium, the biggest flight motion simulator theater in Europe. The flying theater features a queue line with multiple pre-show elements culminating in the main ride section: a film showcasing European landmarks which lasts for 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
On 26 May 2018, a fire broke out in a building complex near to the park's Holland and Scandinavia areas. Despite the efforts of the fire department, the building was destroyed, along with parts of the neighboring Scandinavia section. According to the operators, the incident resulted in tens of millions of Euros in property damage. No visitors or employees were injured, but seven firefighters suffered minor injuries during firefighting operations. With the exception of a few hot spots, the fire was mostly extinguished and the park reopened the very next morning. Only the destroyed Pirates of Batavia ride, a restaurant, a theatre, a few shops, the fjørd ride, as well as the neighboring attraction Koffiekopjes, remained closed for refurbishment. On 6 June 2018, the Offenburg police stated that the fire broke out due to a technical failure in the fjørd water ride. The Scandinavian village area and Pirates ''Batavia ride were both rebuilt based on their original designs with certain additions and modernizations, and reopened in July 2020.
Further, in 2019 the new dark ride Snorri Tours was established in this area, which has taken the water world of Rulantica and its mascot Snorri as its theme. Snorri Tours was the prototype of a media dark ride by Tacumeon Rides'', a newly founded sister company of Mack Rides that specializes in marketing media-based attractions.

Opening of Rulantica and COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2021)

After several years of construction, Europa-Park's water park Rulantica was completed in October 2019, and was opened on 28 November 2019. Until then, the total cost was estimated at EUR 180 million. After initial speculations, the park is located near the Europa-Park, but operates separately from the latter. Rulantica contains the actual water park with more than 30 slides and attractions, the Krønasår hotel, the Hyggedal sauna and relax area, as well as car parks. The park includes 13 themed areas with a total square footage of of which more than are indoors.
In 2019, before the COVID-19-pandemic, the Europa-Park had over 5.7 million people visiting. Due to the pandemic the park had to shut down operations temporarily. As a result, the park registered significant declines in visitors in 2020 and 2021. On average, in 2020 and 2021, around 2.75 million visitors were counted. In addition, the pandemic strained the staff situation. As a result, the park had to cap the number of daily visitors temporarily in 2022.

Recent development (2022 onwards)

In 2017, Europa-Park acknowledged allegations of racial and cultural insensitivities; some attractions in the Adventure Land featured potentially offensive portrayals of African people as "tribal". However, no major changes were made to the attraction until 2021, only minor changes such as changing the name of the Colonial Food Station to Adventure Food Station. The reason given for the delay was the Covid pandemic. In January 2022, it was announced that the Jungle Rafts ride would be closed until the start of the 2023 season, to be completely renovated and rethemed as a new part of the Austria area. In March 2022, the Jungle Rafts ride reopened under the new name Josefina’s Magical Imperial Journey, with all references to colonial Africa removed. The final reconstruction will take place in several phases in the next years.
In 2022, the resort, including Rulantica, surpassed the threshold of 6 million visitors for the first time. In November of the same year, the new restaurant experience Eatrenalin opened. Further, construction work began on the new Croatia themed area. Its main attraction, Voltron Nevera, was announced be a further development of the Big Dipper ride model from Mack Rides, dubbed a "Stryker Coaster" - a roller coaster that allows direction changes in a tight radius - set to be arranged around a replica of the Wardenclyffe Tower. Initially scheduled to open in 2023, it was postponed to 2024 due to supply difficulties.
On 19 June 2023, a fire broke out in a control room. It was believed to be caused by corroded wiring. The fire caused the park to be evacuated and drew 450 firefighters and emergency personnel to the scene. The blaze was brought under control with only two firefighters lightly injured, and the park reopened the next day.
On 26 April 2024, Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac opened to the public. This roller coaster, inspired by the Croatian electric super car Rimac Nevera, is located in the Croatian area, which is the 17th themed zone of the park.

Operator

Europa-Park is operated by Europa-Park GmbH & Co Mack KG. The Mack family has been producing roller coasters and attractions for eight generations since 1880. Managing directors of the park are Roland Mack, his brother Jürgen Mack and Roland Mack's sons Thomas Mack and Michael Mack. In the fiscal year 2020/2021, the operating company generated revenues of EUR 149.665 million and employed around 4'500 people.
Further, with the subsidiary Mack Media & Brands GmbH & Co KG Europa-Park ventures beyond the theme park business and produces films, video games and operates a music label.

Attendance

Infrastructure

The park is divided into 20 thematic areas, 17 of which are European countries/regions and are designed to be authentically featuring the respective region. They are intended to give visitors the feeling of being able to discover several European countries within one day. The first themed area was Italy in 1982. The Swiss mountain village of Grimentz served as the structural model for area Switzerland. Chocoland was a themed area with no direct connection to the country. In 2010 it was abandoned and the attractions added to the English area. Other themed areas with no connection to a country are Adventure Land, Grimm's Fairytale Forest and Kingdom of the Minimoys.
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