A new Universal theme park in the United Kingdom could mean tens of billions of pounds in economic benefits to the country, a new study reports.
Universal Destinations & Experiences has purchased a nearly 500-acre parcel of land north of London, near Bedford. As the company studies the feasibility of building a new theme park on that land, it has commissioned a third party to conduct an economic impact analysis of the project.
That analysis, summarized by Universal today, suggests that a new Universal theme park resort on the site could generate £35.1 billion in net economic contribution for the UK during the
construction period and first 20 years of operation. The project could generate £14.1 billion in net additional tax returns during that period, the analysis said.
Page Thompson, President, New Ventures of Universal Destinations & Experiences summarized the findings: "A world-class theme park and resort from Universal has the potential to generate billions in economic benefit for the UK, by creating thousands of high-quality jobs and attracting millions of new visitors to the country."
At the peak of construction, there would be 5,000 construction workers on site, with a potential of 20,000 jobs being supported by the park once it is operational. The park is expected to create 8,000 jobs initially, with another 12,000 jobs supported in its supply chain and across all areas of the economy.
Some of that support will result from the Universal park being forecast becoming one of the UK's top tourist attractions, drawing millions more international visitors to the United Kingdom.
Universal said that it expects to make a decision on the project by the end of the year.
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The question is, can Universal create a destination park without utilizing Harry Potter? There's no way WB Studios is going to let a theme land exist so close to their very successful and profitable HP Studios experience.
Universal does have plenty of other IPs they can tap, but HP has been their most lucrative and profitable, and would obviously connect with the British market. Not being able to use HP would perhaps put more pressure on UC to deliver unique attraction concepts for their Nintendo, Dreamworks, and Illumination IPs. If Dark Universe really delivers at Epic Universe, I could see Universal leaning hard into their classic monsters IP in a market where year-round horror is really popular.
I'm not sure WB has the option to not let Universal built HP in the UK if they want. WB signed off the theme park rights way before they built the studio tour so I'm not sure if they would have thought ahead and put a regional restriction on the rights.
Even if they built an HP land I doubt it would impact WB tour since the ones going on that tour are HP fans who want to see the real thing. Most likely it would increase traffic to the tour since HP fans would want to do both! Myself included :)
Whilst this is very exciting news and the prospect of a proper Universal park in the UK is fantastic I daren't put too much hope in it yet as the UK planning process is horrendously complicated, biased in favour of refusing large projects and incredibly slow. If the soon-to-be-in-power Labour party are serious about unlocking planning laws we may yet see it built but they don't carry through on that promise then trust me, a colony of newts or bats will prevent the development from going ahead! I really hope it's for the former and that the economic case over-rides all other factors here.
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Very interesting piece of news to keep up with for the rest of the year. Tell you what, if this park gets built I will visit Bedford whereas before I wouldn't know of its existence.
Seems like Universal is game, seems it's up to Bedford if it wants that attention.