Europa Park Posts Record 2015 Season + More Expansion in the Future

© Europa Park

Already one of Europe's largest theme parks, Europa Park, located in Rust, Germany, has posted record attendance for the 2015 season - surpassing 5.5 million visitors for the first time.  That makes it the 2nd most attended park in Europe only behind Disneyland Paris in terms of visitors.

The theme park offers a wide variety of highly themed rides and attractions, along with a sizable offering of overnight accommodations.  In 2015 the theme park's 5 hotels operated at 98% occupancy - a number that would make most resorts envious.

Europa Park celebrated their 40th anniversary this past year with many special events, and 2015 also saw the addition of the world's first virtual reality roller coaster, which was applied to the Alpenexpress Mine Train.  In 2014 the park built a new themed area that included Arthur, an inverted family coaster and dark ride combo.

© Europa Park

Previously large additions included Blue Fire, a custom Mack launched coaster seen above, and Wodan Timbur Coaster, a Great Coasters wooden ride.

But plenty more is on the way, starting with an all new Ireland themed area that will feature family and children's rides in 2016.  The addition is technically a retheme and expansion of the current children's area, and when complete it will have three new rides, new shopping and food outlets, and a large indoor area to protect guests from weather.

Then this spring Europa Park will start construction on a "major" new attraction for 2017, which will be the only of its kind in Europe.  A separate gate water park, located near the main theme park, is planned for 2018 - around the same time that yet another hotel will open on property.  It is great to hear the park is doing so well, we can't wait to see what that big 2017 ride will be!