After Abu Dhabi, Europe is next in line to get its very own Ferrari amusement park. The Italian supercar-maker announced the news on Thursday stating that it sold the licensing rights for a new theme park and hotel to a company called PortAventura Entertainment S.A.U., a subsidiary of Investindustrial, which will build Ferrari Land inside the PortAventura resort, just outside Barcelona in Spain.

Covering some 75,000 sq. meters (807,293 sq. ft.), Ferrari Land in Spain will be about a third of the size of the Abu Dhabi Ferrari World Theme Park (200,000 sq. meters or 2.15 million sq.ft.), with the automaker saying that it will have “exciting attractions for Prancing Horse enthusiasts of all ages, including Europe’s highest and fastest vertical accelerator”.

The Ferrari-themed hotel that will be built inside the PortAventura resort, which currently welcomes around 4,000,000 visitors a year, will be “a luxury five-star establishment with 250 rooms, restaurants and a driving simulator,” according to a statement from the Italian company.

Set to open for business in 2016, the Ferrari Land project in Spain will involve an overall investment of €100 million (about US$139 million at today’s currency rates).

“After the success of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, we received many, many requests to develop new amusement parks,” said Ferrari CEO Andrea Perrone.

“We carefully sifted through the various proposals and decided to accept Investindustrial’s because it is a very solid plan developed by competent people that will bring the magic of Ferrari to Spain, a nation where we have many supporters and enthusiasts, and to which large numbers of tourists flock each year, in part thanks to PortAventura,” he added.

Perrone also mentioned that Ferrari is looking at a number of options for future amusement parks. “We will continue to evaluate other proposals for theme parks outside Europe at our leisure: the brand is our most important asset and we have to enhance its value without diluting it,” he said.

By John Halas

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