Ferrari Land coming to Spain

If you thought Disney had a monopoly on theme parks, think again.

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is about to be joined by a second theme park, Ferrari Land in Spain, and plans are afoot to develop even more adrenaline-pumping attractions.

Scheduled to open in 2016 and featuring Europe's "highest and fastest vertical accelerator" ride, Ferrari Land will cost 100 million euros or about $153 million to develop.

Located 100km from Barcelona, inside the sprawling PortAventura resort on Spain's north eastern coast, the new theme park will be built on a 75,000 square-metre plot of land, offering "a variety of new and exciting attractions for Prancing Horse enthusiasts of all ages," according to Ferrari.

It's not yet clear how much a ticket to Ferrari Land will cost, but it will be a lot less than the price of admission to a brand-new Ferrari 458 Italia super-coupe.

As a guide, it costs roughly $72 for an adult general admission ticket to the Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi.

A Ferrari-themed five-star luxury hotel will be constructed alongside the theme park, though it's not clear if the beds will feature prancing horse-embroidered doonas.

Ferrari says it is always inundated with requests to develop more theme parks, but that venture capital company Investindustrial, which owns the PortAventura resort and also has shares in Aston Martin and Ducati, showed the most promise.

Andrea Perrone, CEO of Ferrari Brand, explained.

"After the success of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, we received many, many requests to develop new amusement parks.

“We carefully sifted through the various proposals and decided to accept Investindustrial’s because it is a very solid plan developed by competent people that will bring the magic of Ferrari to Spain, a nation where we have many supporters and enthusiasts, and to which large numbers of tourists flock each year, in part thanks to PortAventura," he said.

The operator of PortAventura claims the resort currently attracts around four million visitors per year and the addition of Ferrari Land is expected to take that number closer to five million from 2016.

Perrone noted that Ferrari is looking to establish more theme parks, but in a way that will "enhance its [brand] value without diluting it".

Don’t hold your breath for a Ferrari Land to come to a Luna Park near you any time soon though.

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