Chinese investors reportedly want to create a big amusement theme park on the island of Crete, similar to Disneyland. According to local media, the investors have already contacted the Greek government on this issue and had a meeting with minister of state, Alekos Flabouraris, on May 16.
In a statement, the government confirmed the meeting with representatives from investment company Shanghai Andersen Paradise Co.
The company’s executives informed the minister about the “planned investment for the creation of a Cultural-Touristic Theme Park and Exhibition Area on Crete,” Flabouraris’ office said, but it did not disclose neither the size nor the location of the project.
“It is thought that the project will be created near a touristic area,” local media anatoli notes, adding the area could be in the Prefecture of Lasithi on the East of Crete. Local media seem to have some reservations on the project asking who are the investors, why haven’t they visited Crete yet.
However, a little surfing on internet, shows that the Chinese company is specialized in amusement parks focusing on famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales and are in competition with Disneyland.
Shanghai’s Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Theme Park opened its gates last year.
The theme park is named after Andersen, and is divided into seven zones based on the classic fairy tales, such as the Brave Tin Soldier, Thumbelina, the Little Match Girl, the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling and the Wild Swans. Each area has its own exclusive color scheme, and highly interactive entertainment, landscape and performance themes.
The Mermaid Harbor is equipped with alternative reality and virtual reality experiences, and kids can meet a small mermaid for a subsea adventure.
The park will also feature festival motifs and stage a series of themed events, such as the Nordic Literature and Art Festival and Christmas Carnival Night.
Authorized by the Kingdom of Denmark, Shanghai Garden of Paradise of Andersen Fairy Tale is the world’s first theme park named after the great Danish children’s author. It covers an area of 81,000 square meters. Groundbreaking for its construction started in 2009.
That’s right. Now pollute your wonderful island with some childish, superficial American rubbish. Let the idiots that like this stuff go to Florida. Anything for the sake of making a little more money.
This is the most irrelevant, ridiculous idea for Crete. Chinese billionaires are so graceful and creative.
I am absolutely horrified by the idea that Crete should be targeted for such a gross and unsuitable project.
please go back to china and build it there, leave us out of it!
@carl, the article says that it’s the Chinese that are funding the project and it has nothing to do with the USA. Why would you be against a project to bring more “family friendly” tourists to Greece? I would not call those people idiots. I would much prefer Americans, Europeans and others with families (and money to spend) to come to Greece than the low income tourists who come to Crete and see who can drink the most 50 cent drinks in Malia and other dive bars.
An amusement park that had some connection with or relation to the history of Crete might be sensible. A Minoan/Roman/Venetian/Ottoman themed park might make sense, but a park dedicated to a Danish author? On Crete? That’s just stupid. And if, like Disneyland, it has it’s own (fully inclusive) hotels on site then it will do nothing to boost the Cretan economy. The existing fully inclusive hotels are already attracting the cheaper end of the tourism market here. These people spend nothing in shops, bars and tavernas and spend almost all of their time at the pool of their fully inclusive hotel. Crete does not need a stupid foreign-based theme park.
yes, Ottoman theme park will be very welcome here lol Theme parks around Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey would make more sense
‘Family friendly’ tourists already visit Crete, for the most part they stay in fully inclusive hotels, from where they contribute next to nothing to the local economy. They don’t use shops, bars, cafes, or tavernas. A ‘Disneyland’ type theme park will no doubt have it’s own on-site and fully inclusive hotels, so how will tourists using this park benefit Crete? I don’t like the adolescents who holiday in Malia either but at least they’re spending money locally. And if we must have a theme park on Crete why can’t we have one based on Cretan history? A Minoan/Roman/Venetian/Ottoman themed park would be just as much fun but would also be educational and appropriate for the island. Why on Earth do we need a theme park based around a Danish author who most people have never read. If you do read Hans Christian Andersen (and I have) you’ll find many of his stories are sad and cruel. It’s ridiculous.
@ Hecataeus Miletuss Please cut this brainwashred “family entertainment” BS. The majority of tourist today don’t travel to appreciate another culture, learn a little bit of the language and history but to be entertained like the usual TV watcher. They then go home not knowing about the place they visited and vote for the politicians like Trump, Merkel, May, etc. who don’t give a d-mn about your country. I have been to Greece (including Crete) 4 times in the last few years but would not go anywhere where they have installed such cultural pollution. The theme park is nothing but a copy of the imbecilic Disney World. Just promoting degeneration. Someone wants to visit Crete to see that?! Let them go to Florida or Las Vega where they won’t have to get accustomed to the local food or be disturbed by someone speaking a foreign tongue. I you have to do that to make a little more money then all I can say is poor Crete.
tourism is not about travelling somewhere to learn the culture. maybe that’s one traveller in a thousand. the other 999 are doing it to fill some kind of psychological emptiness that is created by the empty life these people live and dug deeper by marketing. They have been convinced that ‘theme parks’ are something they need, and then on top of that if they have a few extra bucks to skim off, the ‘travel industry’ will get hold of them and convince them they _have_ to go to greece (everyone else does, and who would want to be the low-class bum who vacations in someplace less exotic) , and so, of course, ocmbine the two and sell a theme park in greece, an even better mahcine for separating people from their money. It really doesnt even need to be in greece if everyone who went believed it was.
Greece is the only country left in Europe with unspoiled coastlines, due to decisions made in the 1950s and strictly implemented. That is the charm of Greece and why tourists come …with their children….to enjoy this lovely place, its beaches, mountains, simple inexpensive food and sun. The last thing this country needs is to roll back the planning laws that have kept Greece special, and by now unique. However that is already happening at the Ellinikon with a 60 floor tower higher than the Acropolis – when the single planning rule governing Athens is that nothing is higher than the Acropolis. And now we can look forward to a junky theme park in Crete featuring danish fairy tales. Welcome to the world of lack of sovereignty in which a country is sold to rapacious egotistical “investors” who have no care, understanding or respect for the place. Lovely lovely globalism!