Europe is set to get its own version of Las Vegas in a desert region of eastern Spain where developers plan to build 32 hotel-casinos, two theme parks, a racecourse and stadium over the next decade.
MADRID: Europe is set to get its own version of Las Vegas in a desert region of eastern Spain where developers plan to build 32 hotel-casinos, two theme parks, a racecourse and stadium over the next decade.
The project, approved last week by the regional government of Aragon, also calls for the construction of residential areas, an equestrian centre and a golf course on just over 5,000 acres of land in the Los Monegros desert.
Tentatively called “Gran Escala,” which means large-scale, the development has a $25 billion price tag that will be footed by International Leisure Development, a London-based consortium of investors.
The goal “is the construction of an integrated leisure city for people of all ages, the first European city with these characteristics,” a Spanish investor in the joint venture, Jaime Riera, said.
Developers expect the complex will receive 25 million visitors per year when it is completed, below its maximum capacity of 35 million annual visitors.
The location — half-way between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain’s second city — was selected over two other possible sites in Europe because it has good transportation links, favourable tax laws and relatively low land prices.
Millions are being spent in the nearby city of Zaragoza to upgrade rail and air connections, and expand its small airport, in time for the 2008 World Fair which it will host.
Zaragoza is already connected to Madrid by a high-speed train that takes only 80 minutes to make the roughly 300-kilometre (185-mile) trip and by the time of the fair it will be linked by high-speed rail to Barcelona as well.
The high-speed rail links will make it easier for the millions of tourists who flock to Spain each year, making it the second most visited country in the world after France.
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