THE educational leisure park Futuroscope, situated near Poitiers in eastern France, opened in 1987, the first stone of the project having been laid in 1984 by René Monory, president of the General Council of Vienne and father of the project.
From the outset, the attractions focused on technology, science and discovery. The project, which was partly based on the Epcot theme park in Florida and the Tsukuba Expo in Japan, was an enormous gamble for a rural region. Futuroscope was the first major amusement park to open in France, before Parc Asterix (1989) and Disneyland Paris (1992).
Among the first attractions available was the Kinémax, the largest flat screen in Europe (600sq.m), the Futuroscope Pavilion (events and temporary exhibitions) and a fun area. Not far away, the training area and the technological activities area formed the Futuroscope site. The following year saw the open of the first Dynamic Cinema, Children’s World and the Showscan attraction, while subsequent years saw the introduction of attractions such as the Relief Cinema, the 360° Cinema, the Omnimax (an Imax system with a semi-spherical screen) and the Gyrotour, an overview of the park at 45m high.
In 1990 Futuroscope produced its first 360 degree film on the Tour de France cycle race, which begins at the site, while two years later the Magic Carpet (a screen in front, a screen under a glass floor) and the Landscapes of Europe (a boat trip) were inaugurated. 1994 saw the debuts of the Pavillon de la Vienne (dynamic cinema) and a second Dynamic Cinema. Dynamic Vienne provided visitors with a madcap film about a man who sleeps in on the morning of his wedding and has to rush and scramble across the Vienne department to meet his bride-to-be. The attraction was updated in 2007 and is still one of the park’s flagship shows.
CDI_2014-003 — DLV 2019
Futuroscope hosted its 10 millionth guest in 1995, when the park also opened the new Palais des Congrès, offering a larger reception capacity, while the year after the first Imax 3D attraction by Jean-Jacques Annaud was introduced, this showing the first fiction film to be made using this then revolutionary technology, Wings of Courage. The film tells the legendary, epic tale of pilot Henri Guillaumet, who crashed in the Andes mountain range in 1930. In the same year visitor numbers to the park were at their peak with over 2.7m guests through the gates.
1999 saw the park reach its 20 millionth visitor, while in 2002 the then owners of Futuroscope, the Amaury Group, which had owned the venue since the spring of 2000, sold up. Despite the new Futuroscope high-speed train station, which opened in 2000, bringing visitors direct to the park, admissions were down significantly and the accounts at the time were in the red. The park was taken over by a semi-public company, the main shareholders of which were the Vienne General Council and the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council. Dominique Hummel was named chairman of the Board.
2003 saw the opening of La Cité du Numérique (60 consoles with two players and 80 workstations for “gamers”), in the Pavillon du Futuroscope, while the park past the 30m visitor mark in 2005. Two years later it celebrated its 20thanniversary and attendance numbers continued to rise steadily, from 1.6m to 1.8m between 2007 and 2010. Futuroscope was also now making a profit again.
To help celebrate the anniversary, exhibitions, concerts, shows and cultural and sporting events were held throughout the year and the park concluded its 20th season with a turnover of around €70m. The new strategy had helped the park become a full-fledged holiday destination. Through its creative spirit, its ability to innovate and its search for a balance between pleasure and discovery, Futuroscope was establishing itself as an original leisure offer.
2008 witnessed the inauguration of a new building and an attraction that brought the technique of augmented reality into the leisure sector – Les Animaux du Futur – while in 2009 a new Night Show, The Mystery of the Blue Note, was introduced on the lake in the park. In December of the same year, the inauguration of another new attraction, Arthur, l’Aventure 4D, took place.
Another significant event during 2009 was the departure from Futuroscope of its illustrious founder, René Monory, a little over 20 years after its creation. Project man and visionary decision-maker, he had the brilliant idea of “growing the future in a field” as he liked to say, and succeeded in doing so.
In 2011 another change of ownership came about with Compagnie des Alpes, owner of Parc Asterix and the Musée Grevin among other leisure interests, becoming the majority shareholder in Futuroscope with 45 per cent of the shares, ahead of the Vienne General Council (38 per cent) and the Caisse des Depots (17 per cent). In 2012 the park celebrated its 25th anniversary with a new 4D attraction, The Little Prince, and two years later The Raving Rabbids “invaded” Futuroscope with the attraction The Time Machine. Designed in association with Ubisoft, this is a fun and immersive 3D journey from prehistoric times through ancient Rome and on to the Wild West and beyond and is a real must-see for young visitors.
Futuroscope’s 50 millionth visitor was recorded in 2016, when the park also added a new night show, imagined by Cirque du Soleil and called La Forge aux étoiles. A new projection system, the IMAX Laser 4K, was installed at Kinémax for the projection of The Law of the Strongest. The following year the park made its largest investment to date with the introduction of The Extraordinary Journey, inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. This immersive, Flying Theatre attraction was an instant hit with visitors, taking them on a flight with their legs dangling free below. It took four years and €12.5m to build.
The park saw a change at its helm in 2018, with Rodolphe Bouin succeeding Dominque Hummel as chairman. Boudin has spent his entire career at Futuroscope, which he joined in 2000 as a management auditor before taking on a number of management positions. He has been the chairman of the board of directors since April 2018 and together with the teams at Futuroscope and the support of La Compagnie des Alpes, he is working on a “10 year vision.”
Previously particular well-known for its media based attractions, this year Futuroscope took the decision to add its first roller coaster in the shape of Objectif Mars (Destination Mars), from Intamin. At €20m it represents the park’s biggest ever investment and sends visitors hurtling through a space training centre where they can experience what it’s like to be an astronaut and put their mission capability to the test. Built on the site previously utilised by the Pavillon de Solido, riders are seated in one of four, three car trains which run on a 1,640ft track featuring both indoor and outdoor sections. The coaster also incorporates a dark/show section, vertical drop, propelled launch and propelled boost.
Additional attractions supplied over the years by Intamin have included the Gyrotour, Vienne and Dynamic, while other key suppliers have included Zierer (Sauvetage Academy), Kuka (Danse avec les Robots), SunKid (Activités de Futuropolis) and Kompan (Aire de jeux). Dynamic Attractions is another supplier to the park, having provided the Extraordinaire Voyage, with the company also set to supply a new attraction in 2022 (details of which were not available at the time of writing).
Une aquaféerie nocturne imaginée par le Cirque du Soleil.
The park employs 400 permanent staff and an additional 750 on a seasonal basis, this figure rising to approximately 1,000 during peak season in the summer. The vast majority of visitors are French nationals, one third of these living within a three hour drive from the park. 10 per cent of Futuroscope’s attendance is international, including guests from Spain, Belgium and the UK. A total of 50 per cent of visitors book a two-day break when they visit. The park is open for most of the year, closing completely for just five weeks in January and the first week of February, and operating on weekends and bank holidays in the autumn but every day during all holidays.
As noted, since its creation, Futuroscope has welcomed more than 50m visitors and has over 40 attractions for guests to enjoy. The renewal of Futuroscope is part of a development strategy based on the 10/20/60 model. Each year, 10 per cent of turnover is invested to renew 20 per cent of the offer in order to bring back 60 per cent of visitors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has, of course, had a significant impact on visitor numbers for 2020, attendance figures being just over 1m last year compared to 1.9m in 2019. However, this hasn’t delayed the park’s ambitious future plans for its transformation, as marketing and communication director Laure Mosseron explained to InterPark.
“On October 12, 2020, Compagnie des Alpes signed a new shareholder’s agreement with Banque des Territoires – Caisse des Dépôts, the Département de la Vienne and SEM Patrimoniale de la Vienne that commits the partners to a major investment plan totalling €300m (of which €200m will be carried by Compagnie des Alpes) over the next 10 years.
“As the group announced in July, this ambitious plan for the transformation of Futuroscope concerns the current facility plus a new activity zone adjacent to it, which will be managed by Compagnie des Alpes via a new 30year lease.”
Splash des Loustics au Monde des Enfants.
The new developments will incorporate a variety of attractions and facilities, including two hotels, a restaurant and an aquatic park, along with a new area in front of the park entrance. The next six years will also see three major new attractions being added, with the overall objective of the project being “to strengthen the appeal of the Futuroscope site as an exceptional short stay destination in France and Europe.”
At a glance
Opened in 1987
Compagnie des Alpes majority shareholder
Attractions focus on technology, science and discovery
Over 50m visitors since opening
1.9m visitors in 2019 (just over 1m in 2020 due to COVID-19)
More than 40 attractions
€300m investment plan confirmed for next 10 years
All details correct at the time of publishing – InterPark magazine Jan/Feb 2021 edition
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