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Following months of uncertainty over the future of Benalmadena’s Tivoli World theme park, officials from Malaga Provincial Council, unions representing employees and suppliers and Benalmadena council are urging those in charge of the park to open it before the end of June and secure the jobs of all those who work in the installations both directly and indirectly.

 

The park was first opened 49 years ago in 1972 by Danish entrepreneur Bernt Olsen and throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s was the epicentre of theme park entertainment in the Costa del Sol, with millions of locals and visitors passing through its doors.

 

But its problems began during the period of the economic crash following the collapse of the property market in 2008, and the theme park management company entered bankruptcy proceedings last August after debts of more than €11 million came to light.

There are two distinct issues, but these have merged into one horrible mess due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought the whole question of the future of the park itself into sharp focus.

 

The first issue is who actually owns the land on which the park is located.

 

Ownership of the land is a complex issue and is the topic of a legal dispute; businessman Rafael Gómez Sánchez,(known as Sandokán), and who was convicted within the largest case of urban corruption in Spain, the Caso Malaya, (who purchased the park in 2004) and the real estate group Tremón, to whom the Cordovan businessman sold it within the umbrella of another real estate operation through his Arenal 2000 business in 2007 are in a bitter dispute which has finally reached the Supreme Court.

 

Gómez claims that he was not paid for the park when he was forced to sell a large part of his 600 million euros worth of holdings following the court hearings of the caso Malaya, but Tremón insist that the park, and the land on which it is located, belong to them.

 

The original sale agreement established that the takeover of Tivoli would take place a few months after the deed of sale, but it was never carried out.

In a long “judicial pilgrimage”, the Torremolinos court and the Malaga Provincial Court agreed with Tremón that the park was theirs, but Gómez - on probation after entering prison in 2017 - appealed to the highest court in the land and took the case to the Supreme Court.

 

The bankruptcy administrator, lawyer Juan Antonio Sánchez, has now asked the judge hearing the Cipasa bankruptcy process for authorization to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court. "My intention is to desist from the appeal and give the park to its rightful owner, Tremón," explains Juan Antonio Sánchez.

 

Between allegations and procedures, it will take several months before the handover can be made effective. "I have asked them to take over the park, but they will not make a decision until they take possession of the facilities," says the lawyer.

 

He has admitted to the local media to being pessimistic about the future of the park: everything indicates that this summer the amusement park will remain closed. Sánchez has prepared a detailed report relating to the fiscal status of Tivoli which includes the existence of a Cipasa debt of more than 11.2 million euros, of which almost 10 million is owed to the Tax Agency and Social Security, the balance owed to the town hall in unpaid taxes and a number of privately owned companies.

 

He also analyzed the accounts of the only two months that the space was able to open in 2020 and, despite the drop in tourism and the problems caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the income generated was sufficient to cover the day-to-day running costs. "The park is viable, but in the long term its situation is very complicated due to the large existing debt," adds the administrator, who insists that after auditing Cipasa, his obligation is the orderly closure of the company and the handing over of the park to Tremón.

 

Although the park could theoretically re-open, the long period of enforced closure due to covid has allowed the debts to accumulate, making it almost impossible for the park to generate sufficient profit to pay off its historic debts and continue to function as normal, given that major funds are also required for ongoing maintenance and improvements.

 

The park employees - most of them who have reached the end of their social security benefit entitlements are anxious about what the future holds, their strong belief being that the 65,000 meters of prime building land in the heart of Benalmádena is too valuable for the company as a development site to maintain the park as a going concern.

 

The town hall has been involved in the negotiations throughout, as has the regional government, the Junta de Andalucía and the regional tourism board and the council has said that it is willing to reclassify the valuable land for leisure and cultural use in order to prevent the land being re-used for residential development and to protect the park.

 

But although their agendas are undoubtedly political and relate to securing jobs for the local area and maintaining a privately financed tourism attraction, the majority of the debt lies with Hacienda and the Social Security, who are always at the front of the queue should there be any saleable equity in a bankruptcy case.

 

Although the unions representing the park workers have added their voices to those of local residents and the park workers themselves, who have protested regularly in front of the park demanding that it re-open, the scenario is complicated, and there is a very distinct possibility that the already complex legal situation will only finally be resolved by the bankruptcy of the management company, caused by the enforced covid closures of the last 14 months.

 

Whether it is possible for the park to re-open this summer with all of these issues requiring resolution remains to be seen.

 

Other attractions across Andalucia have been reopening as tourists begin to come back to the region after the Spanish government confirmed that UK travellers can visit Spain this summer, but times are hard for those in the theme park sector and it is not unlikely that some of the smaller parks will struggle to remain solvent due to the long-term effects of the tourism downturn.

 

Just a small illustration of the scale of loss can be seen in the April tourism figures which were published on June 2: Spanish tourism has lost 4 billion euros of revenue due to absence of British tourists so far this year.