Date Published: 09/09/2010

ARCHIVED - Murcia Regional Govt confirms support for Paramount theme park project

Murcia Regional news, The Government of Murcia is not investing money in this Paramount Theme Park Project

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Murcia Regional Govt confirms support for Paramount theme park project 2010-09-10

The Murcian regional government has this afternoon confirmed its participation in the talks to open a Paramount Studios theme park in the Region.

The spokesperson for the region, María Pedro Reverte, said in a press statement today that there are several partners who are investing in the project, only one of which is Santa Mónica Financial Services owned by Jesús Samper, who is also the owner and President of the Real Murcia Football Club.

She declined to name any of the other investors, but confirmed that they would be meeting with the President of the Region, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, in the near future, together with representatives from the Paramount development team.

She was adamant that the Region of Murcia was not one of the investors, and said that it would not be putting any public money into what is, essentially, a private enterprise project.

She also declined to give any details about where the park would be located,its size, or structure, saying only that , " the park would be pioneering and innovative" and would be " a far cry from the traditional formula which has been tried in other locations."

The cynic almost dreads asking exactly how innovative, giving the current penchant for Non-typical innovation in Murcia at the moment

The Concejal of Culture and tourism, Pedro Cruz, sent a communication which said that, " the government of the region understands that one of the routes which offers the most possibilities for development and the creation of employment is the development and promotion of tourism , which is destined to be the economic motor of the region."

Rafael González Tovar, the Government of Spains delegate in the region of Murcia, said that the announcements were " very good news" and that Murcia was an " attractive" region for this type of investment. He also said that this project had the full support of the National Government.

Vice opposition spokesperson, Begoña García Retegui, said that any investment into Murcia was welcome provided it generated wealth and employment, and said that she was very keen to obtain an interview with the Concejal for tourism to " find out all the details of the investment, " as " as socialists we understand fully that we need more investment to create employment, but without taking on more costs, because the Region cant assume any more costs at the moment."

On the Spanish forums, the response has been muted, with many unsure as to whether a theme park is what Murcia needs to develop as a tourism destination, and of course, the biggest question here as well is where is it going to be.

There have been disgruntled posts from many in the North and North-West, adamant that whilst it should be going to the north to assure a more equal distribution of wealth, it will probably end up in the south.

There have been some quite interesting suggestions of where it should go, most of which are unprintable, the consensus being that although an area like Lorca, which has vast tracts of unused land would very much like this project, the infrastructure and recent negotiations following the Polaris world financial problems, favours an area such as Alhama, which has an excellent transport infrastructure and a more favourable climate than Lorca.

Its surprising how much colder it can be in the winter across different zones of the region, and as the investment is now known to be private, the park will go where it is likely to generate the largest volum of traffic, so some are saying closer to Murcia.

Well find out soon enough..