► Work starts on Ferrari Land in Spain
► Due to open in 2016 in PortAventura
► World’s first Ferrari hotel is coming…
Maranello is collaborating with theme park operators to open Ferrari Land in Spain in 2016 – and the Scuderia’s driver Sebastian Vettel dropped in on construction work as he passed through his homeland for the weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
It’s not Ferrari’s first theme park; the company already operates Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, claimed to be the world’s largest indoor amusement park in the world.
Ferrari Land in Europe: what to expect
Plenty of high-octane thrills and spills are promised at the European Ferrari theme park – which is destined to host the highest and fastest vertical accelerator in Europe and the world’s first Ferrari-themed hotel. The mind boggles: will there be Enzo spa treatments available? And Berlinetta bedrooms?
Work has begun to build the park at PortAventura, an existing holiday resort to the south of Barcelona in the province of Tarragona. It already draws around 4 million visitors a year and organisers hope the Ferrari connection will bring a new breed of tourist to the site.
As part of the turf-cutting ceremony, Vettel turned up in a Ferrari California, bearing the gift of a piston from his 2014 race car as well as a brick from Enzo Ferrari’s house in Maranello which will be used in a monument on site.
Is Ferrari selling out?
Maurizio Arrivabene, principal of the Ferrari F1 team, is adamant Maranello is not rinsing its brand for all its worth. ‘Ferrari Land is a project that surely offers the opportunity to bring the Ferrari allure to Spain where there are a lot of supporters and fans,’ he said at the launch. ‘I’m sure Ferrari Land will further strengthen the Ferrari brand in the region, because it’s not only a project for Formula One supporters but for everybody. They will love it.’
The brand extension is clearly a lucrative side line for Ferrari, which made £292 million on revenues of £2.1 billion in 2014, the last financial year for which results are available. But merchandising makes up less of that total than you might think.
Research by CAR magazine and analysts at Bernstein recently revealed that 80% of Ferrari’s revenues and 90% of its profits came from supercar manufacturing. Merch accounted for just 4% of income, although it is wildly profitable with a margin of 50%.
Will Ferrari devalue its brand with extensions such as Ferrari Land? Let us know in the comments below!