By Humphrey Carter
SINCE Festival Park opened its doors to the public seven months ago, one million people have passed under the giant welcome sign over the entrance to the complex, although those who have visited the park over the past few days have, albeit unknowingly, been accompanied by 6.000 reptiles. Today the park's Reptilarium Mallorca will be officially unveiled to the public and yesterday, the park's two main investors Steve Morgan and Peter Thomas toured the Green Planet complex with its Majorcan chief investor, Juan Miguel Ferrer. Since the park opened last October, much has changed and both Thomas and Morgan are pleased with what they have seen, although they were both keen to stress that the park is a long-term investment which has only just begun.
The 7 million-euro reptile complex is part of phase two and phase three will involve a large area of the car park being converted into an underground car park with the extra space being used for even more shops and restaurants. But as the complex stands Peter Thomas said from the lay-out of the park I think it's absolutely stunning. It certainly meets our expectations, but we've got a lot of work still to do with regards to further promoting the park. There are some strategic areas, but this (the reptilearium) is going to be one of the main catalysts to the future success of the park. The attractions are here, but it's like everything else in life, you'd have liked it to have happened yesterday, but life's not like that and it takes a little longer. But that gives you the time to choose quality, prime example being the quality that has gone into the reptilearium and we're looking forward to a good summer.
Steve Morgan, ranked 105th in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, which estimated his wealth at £362 million, echoed Thomas's expectancy for the summer, but added that he firmly believes in Majorca's good future. Despite the global economic instability and recession Morgan said the whole world's going through a hic-cup at the moment with problems like terrorism etc. But Majorca is one of the places people can come to from Britain and across the world and feel safe because Majorca's an island. It's far less likely to be a target of a terrorist attack and we feel very confident that the island of Majorca is a haven for families and people to come and that Festival Park being on the island is a huge, huge attraction. The Green Planet is just the latest and very important part of the park and the whole project is coming together very nicely.
Majorca's a great, beautiful island and will always be a number one tourist destination, he added.
With regards to the future, Peter Thomas, also on the Rich List, ranked 169th with a wealth of £169 million, was quick to dispel rumours of the park being up for sale.
We are businessmen, we have come in and looked at this from a long term investment point of view.
We haven't really started here yet and this is something that we're very proud of.
As we speak, every single retail shop has been accounted for and between now and September big names like Cortefiel and Dickers are coming here.
We're looking at turning one of the units here into a really high-class department store with all the top Italian brands. We want to make the upstairs a festival de noche with live music.
No, it's not for sale, we're only just starting, Thomas said.
Both Morgan and Thomas are pleased to be moving forward with support and co-operation from Majorcan companies and business people, such as Juan Miguel Ferrer who is behind the reptilearium.
This also marks the start of a new Majorcan friendship, they said.
The Green Planet opens to the public on Saturday, full feature on inside the complex in tomorrow's Bulletin.