The municipality of Emmen is once again helping to save the Wildlands animal park and the accompanying Atlas Theater. Just like last year, the amusement park may borrow 5.5 million euros extra.
Wildlands has suffered greatly from the corona pandemic, reports RTV Drenthe.
In addition to the extra loan, Wildlands can also count on an amount of 625,000 euros due to unforeseen costs due to the corona measures. In 2021, for example, the park had to close for a large part of the year due to the virus. The rent for 2021 will also be partially waived; an amount of more than 328,000 euros.
The municipality of Emmen points out that Wildlands not only had to close for a while, but also had to incur a lot of extra costs to make the park corona-proof. Money was needed for enforcers of the corona measures, adjusting walking routes, extra cleaning costs and adjusting the ICT facilities.
wild nights
Wildlands has also put a lot of money into a number of events such as wild nights and the winter square, which eventually had to be canceled due to the lockdown.
Without support, the park would be heading for a loss of 2.3 million euros, says the municipality, which, despite all the setbacks, believes that Wildlands has had “quite a good year”. At 516,000, the number of visitors in 2021 was almost equal to that of the previous year. Then there were 560,000.
The municipality now has an amount of 68 million euros in loans outstanding from Wildlands. The modern amusement park is the successor of Dierenpark Emmen, better known for many people under the old name Noorder Dierenpark. Emmen Zoo closed at the end of 2015. A few months later, Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen opened.
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