Aqua Magica Waterpark Is Latest Example of Lucrative Trend

Reviewing the recent activities of the Looping Group is like peering at a microcosm of the European theme park industry as a whole. The growing company, with headquarters in Merlimont, France, is closely examining what features its parks will require to keep guests consistently returning year after year. And, like the most successful parks around the world-but particularly in Europe right now-that answer involves the expansion or addition of a waterpark.

The management team at Looping Group, which owns nine leisure parks in Europe, explains its plan as "combining an organic and dynamic external-growth strategy." The management team isn''t shy about letting competitors know what the goal of that strategy is, either: to become one of the leading European management groups in the regional parks sector.

Recently, Looping Group proved its commitment to that strategy when-for the second straight year-it inaugurated a new waterpark addition to one of its facilities, this time at Isla Magica in Seville, Spain.

Dipping in to the pool of waterslides

The Looping Group kickstarted is focus on aquatic attractions last year when it expanded its Avonturenpark in Hellendoorn, Netherlands, to include the new Aquaventura Slidepark. Designed and installed by Polin Waterparks, the new waterpark features were part of a more than $4 million (€3 million), 16,404-square-foot (5,000-square-meter) expansion of the facility.

This year, the Looping Group again partnered with Polin for its $6.5 million (€5 million) expansion of Isla Magica, a facility of which it gained ownership in 2013. Open since 1997, the theme park - which is divided into seven different themes that represent various eras in Spanish history during the 16th century - offers comedy theaters; live entertainment with water, lasers, fire and music; sail-boat rides; and two-story carousels. At the time Looping Group took over, however, the park was in danger of closing. The Looping Group determined that it could revitalize the themepark by adapting some new management techniques, controlling the budget more closely and, most importantly, introducing an innovative waterpark to regain guests'' interest.