Efteling


Efteling is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel in the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore.
The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a nature park with a playground and a Fairytale Forest into a full-sized theme park. It now caters to both children and adults with its cultural, romantic, and nostalgic themes, in addition to its wide array of amusement rides.
It is the largest theme park in the Netherlands and one of the oldest theme parks in the world. It is twice as large as the original Disneyland park in California and predates it by three years. Annually, the park has more than 5 million visitors. In 2018, it was the third most visited theme park in Europe, behind Disneyland Paris and Europa-Park.

History

Efteling is one of the oldest leisure parks in activity since its roots go back to 1935 when two local clerics founded a playground. In 1933, Vicar Rietra and the parish priest De Klijn decided to found a sports center south of Kaatsheuvel. The R. K. Sport en Wandelpark was inaugurated on May 19, 1935. The Sportpark foundation was created in 1937.
In 1950, Efteling Nature Park Foundation was founded by the mayor of Loon op Zand, R.J. van der Heijden, filmmaker Peter Reijnders, and designer artist Anton Pieck. The foundation was named after the 16th-century farm Ersteling.
Efteling officially opened on May 31, 1952, when the Fairy Tale Forest, designed by the famous Dutch illustrator Anton Pieck, was opened to the public. Initially, the Fairy Tale Forest was home to some 10 different fairy tales, all of them brought to life using original drawings by Pieck alongside ingenious mechanics and lighting and sound effects designed by the Dutch filmmaker Peter Reijnders. The life-sized dioramas, displayed together in an atmospheric forest, were an enormous success. In 1952 alone, Efteling welcomed 240,000 visitors.
Since 1978, the park has been expanded and grown to become one of the most popular theme parks in the world. In the same year, English singer Kate Bush performed in the park in De Efteling Special, which was broadcast on 11 May 1978. In early 1978, the amusement park's Haunted Castle was completed and the opening was scheduled on 10 May that year. Bush, who just had a big hit in the Netherlands with "Wuthering Heights", made her debut on Dutch television in the special. Her popularity was used to draw the attention to the Haunted Castle.
The Dutch climate and the integral role of natural greenery in the park's appearance and theme once prevented it from remaining open year-round. Efteling's operating season was once limited to April - October, but the park's management, to make the park more profitable, began experimenting with 'Winter Efteling' in 1999. The seasonal event, which features holiday displays and Christmas lights, has grown increasingly popular in the 2000s and draws thousands of visitors annually.
In 2010, Efteling announced plans to remain open year-round. From November through about February, the 'Winter Efteling' theme remains in place. However, some of the regular rides are either closed or temporarily closed for maintenance during this period.
Gisela Williams, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a review of the park in early 2014. Williams praised Efteling but criticized an attraction called Monsieur Cannibale for containing racist depictions of Africans. Her review was later mentioned in De Telegraaf, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, and drew several angry comments from its readership. Williams also received her first death threat for her comments about the controversial attraction.
The park receives 123,456,789th guest on June 19, 2015.
The trackless dark ride Symbolica opens on July 1, 2017. With a cost of €35 million, it is the most expensive attraction ever built at Efteling. The Efteling Theme Park Resort now offers the original theme park, two hotels, a theatre, a golf course, and two holiday villages. It is still owned by the Efteling Nature Park Foundation.
The 30th fairy tale is inaugurated at Efteling in 2019.

Design

The success of Efteling has been attributed largely to its high-quality ride designs and architecture, in addition to its pleasant greenery and gardening. The park, under the aegis of its creative directors, has always had high standards. When Anton Pieck was asked to design the initial fairy tales for the Efteling, he made sure the park would live up to his personal high standards. There would be no use of cheap building materials, plastic, or concrete. Pieck's illustration style, somewhat grim and dark, but also romantic and nostalgic, was the thematic base on which most future expansions were built.
Pieck worked for Efteling until the mid-1970s, when his position as chief designer was passed on to the younger Ton van de Ven. Van de Ven had already been working for Efteling for several years and Pieck was very pleased with his work. The Haunted Castle, which opened in 1978 as the park's first new large attraction, was Efteling's first to be designed entirely by Van de Ven. Later, he designed several more rides and new fairy tales.
Van de Ven continued his work until 2002, when he retired. A new team of imagineers works on new Efteling attractions.

Divisions

The Efteling Theme Park Resort now comprises several divisions: the theme park, the four-star Efteling Hotel, the 18-hole golf course, Efteling Theatre, accommodation parks: Efteling Bosrijk & Het Loonsche Land. The theatre, which was once used for park shows, is one of the five biggest theatres in the Netherlands and can house big theatre productions, which will not be included in park admissions. Besides using it as a home base for shows/musicals created by the Efteling itself it also lends itself out for other big productions, events, and business events. The hotel was operated by Golden Tulip for several years, but Efteling decided in 2004 to manage it independently. All divisions are now profitable, although it took the golf course several years to break even. The divisions are each contained in commercial corporations, but all shares are still held by the nonprofit Efteling Nature Park Foundation.

The park

The theme park covers. This area has changed only marginally over the course of its history. The Efteling Theme Park Resort also offers the Efteling hotel, the Efteling hotel Loonsche Land, a theatre, a golf course, Villa Pardoes, and two holiday villages on. The park's foundation owns a total of also including young forest, nature reserve, some grassland, fields and roads.
The park is divided into five themed areas or 'realms'. Originally, the park was divided into four areas called North, West, East, and South, with most of the park's historical rides and attractions, such as the Fairy Tale Forest, located in West. When the park reorganized its infrastructure in the late 1990s, adding the Pardoes Promenade and a central hub called Efteling Brink, it also changed the areas' names. North was changed to Reizenrijk, West became Marerijk, East became Ruigrijk, and South became Anderrijk. In 2017 a fifth realm opened in the center of the park called Fantasierijk.
Although the park was not built with these divisions in mind and the names may seem cryptic, they do make sense. Perhaps the area most suited to its name is Ruigrijk, where most fast rides such as the double-loop roller coaster Python are located. Marerijk is the home to the Fairy Tale Forest and the Fairies of the Droomvlucht, Anderrijk has some rides that are inspired by non-Western cultures, while Reizenrijk has the Carnaval Festival ride, which travels through several different 'countries'. The Fantasierijk got its name from the darkride Symbolica: Palace of Fantasy.
Efteling was largely built in an existing pine forest located in a rural area, giving it a 'nature park' feeling. Together with its large ponds and gardens, its abundant green space is rather unusual among the world's leading theme parks.

Attractions and rides in Efteling and their designers

1952 - Fairytale Forest
1954 - Children's Railway,
1954 - Anton Pieck Square,
1956 - Stoomcarrousel
1969 - Stoomtrein
1971 - Diorama
1978 - Haunted Castle
1981 - Python when freezing
1981 - Gondoletta
1982 - Half Moon
1983 - Piraña
1984 - Carnival Festival
1984 - Polka Marina
1984 - Tin Lizzies
1986 - Fata Morgana
1987 - Pagode
1988 - Monsieur Cannibale
1990 - The People of Laaf
1993 - Dreamflight
1996 - The House of the Five Senses
1996 - Villa Volta
1998 - Bird Rok
2002 - PandaVision
2007 - The Flying Dutchman when freezing
2010 - George and the Dragon
2011 - Ravelin
2012 - Aquanura
2015 - Baron 1898
2017 - Symbolica
2019 - Fabula replaces the former PandaVision
2020 - Max & Moritz
Former attractions:
1953 - Rowing Pond, replaced by Aquanura
1953 - Swimming Pool, closed in 1989
1966 - Water Organ, in use as a TV studio since 2010
1985 - Bob Track , demolished in 2019, replaced by Max & Moritz
1991 - Pegasus, replaced by George and the Dragon
Other ventures operating independently from the amusement park:
1992 - Tower Realm
1995 - Efteling Golf course
2002 - Efteling Theatre
2008 - Efteling Radio
2009 - Forest Realm
2017 - The Loonsche Land

Awards

Structure

The Efteling is a private company limited by shares. The Efteling Nature Park Foundation is the only shareholder. The foundation was founded in 1950 by R.J.Th. van der Heijden, Peter Reijnders, and Anton Pieck. The company is led by two directors. They manage four sections: the theme park, the Efteling Hotel, the Efteling Golf course, and the Efteling Theatre.
Since April 17, 2014, the company's CEO has been Fons Jurgens.

Employees

In the high season, Efteling employs 2,500 workers. In 2000, the number was 1670, of which 400 had a permanent contract, 450 were seasonal employees and 820 had temp jobs.

Visitors


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points: color:blue width:2 #2008: 3.290.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2009: 4.000.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2010: 4.000.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2011: 4.125.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2012: 4.230.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2013: 4.150.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2014: 4.400.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2015: 4.680.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2016: 4.760.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2017: 5.180.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2018: 5.400.000
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points: color:red width:2 #2008: 12.688.000
points: color:red width:2 #2009: 12.740.000
points: color:red width:2 #2010: 10.500.000
points: color:red width:2 #2011: 10.990.000
points: color:red width:2 #2012: 11.500.000
points: color:red width:2 #2013: 10.430.000
points: color:red width:2 #2014: 9.940.000
points: color:red width:2 #2015: 9.790.000
points: color:red width:2 #2016: 8.400.000
points: color:red width:2 #2017: 9.660.000
points: color:red width:2 #2018: 9.840.000

Efteling welcomed 3,240,000 visitors in 2007, making it the most popular theme park in the Netherlands. In 2009, the park's attendance surpassed for the first time since its opening 4,000,000 visitors and in 2017 roughly 5,180,000 visitors went to the park, making it the most popular tourist daytrip destination in all categories. The objective was to reach 5 million admissions in 2020. It is reached in 2017, three years earlier than expected.
In its opening year, the park had 222,941 visitors. In 1954, the millionth visitor since the official opening was welcomed.
In 1983, the attendance increases by 30%. Efteling is the leading leisure park in Europe with 1.9 million visitors per year. In 1989, Efteling leads European parks in terms of attendance, 2.1 million people go to the park, including 1.6 million from the Netherlands. In 1991, Efteling is on the top step of the European podium with 2.6 million visitors. On the second step, three parks have 2 million admissions: Europa-Park, Alton Towers and Phantasialand. On the third step, two parks show 1.4 million admissions: Walibi Wavre and Parc Astérix.
Most of the visitors are Dutch; 94% of the Dutch population has visited the park. About 16% of visitors live in areas such as Flanders, Westphalia and Southern England.
A graph of the number of visitors of the Efteling during the period 1952–2018:

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  1. berekening van xwaarde punt: 70+
  2. berekening van ywaarde punt: 20+
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points: color:blue width:2 #1952: 222.941 & #1953: 411.671
points: color:blue width:2 #1954: 561.433
points: color:blue width:2 #1955: 705.941
points: color:blue width:2 #1956: 737.170
points: color:blue width:2 #1957: 664.384
points: color:blue width:2 #1958: 663.639
points: color:blue width:2 #1959: 743.862
points: color:blue width:2 #1960: 710.032
points: color:blue width:2 #1961: 862.701
points: color:blue width:2 #1962: 914.876
points: color:blue width:2 #1963: 862.687
points: color:blue width:2 #1964: 925.073
points: color:blue width:2 #1965: 858.156
points: color:blue width:2 #1966: 1.145.184
points: color:blue width:2 #1967: 1.114.926
points: color:blue width:2 #1968: 1.121.923
points: color:blue width:2 #1969: 1.080.137
points: color:blue width:2 #1970: 1.108.857
points: color:blue width:2 #1971: 1.254.812
points: color:blue width:2 #1972: 1.264.953
points: color:blue width:2 #1973: 1.220.969
points: color:blue width:2 #1974: 1.230.889
points: color:blue width:2 #1975: 1.246.649
points: color:blue width:2 #1976: 1.163.974
points: color:blue width:2 #1977: 1.133.504
points: color:blue width:2 #1978: 1.449.078
points: color:blue width:2 #1979: 1.321.970
points: color:blue width:2 #1980: 1.287.440
points: color:blue width:2 #1981: 1.669.868
points: color:blue width:2 #1982: 1.536.479
points: color:blue width:2 #1983: 1.979.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1984: 1.942.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1985: 2.157.255
points: color:blue width:2 #1986: 2.304.768
points: color:blue width:2 #1987: 2.220.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1988: 2.100.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1989: 2.064.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1990: 2.200.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1991: 2.500.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1992: 2.300.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1993: 2.717.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1994: 2.530.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1995: 2.650.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1996: 3.051.311
points: color:blue width:2 #1997: 3.100.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1998: 2.700.000
points: color:blue width:2 #1999: 3.000.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2000: 3.100.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2001: 3.150.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2002: 3.417.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2003: 3.235.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2004: 3.253.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2005: 3.170.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2006: 3.050.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2007: 3.240.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2008: 3.290.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2009: 4.000.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2010: 4.000.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2011: 4.125.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2012: 4.230.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2013: 4.150.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2014: 4.400.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2015: 4.680.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2016: 4.760.000
points: color:blue width:2 #2017: 5.186.945
points: color:blue width:2 #2018: 5.400.000

Ticket price

A graph of the ticket price in euros of the Efteling during the period 1952-2014:

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  1. calculation of value x point: 70+
  2. calculation of value y point: ticket price in euro's
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points: color:blue width:2 #1952: 0,36 & #1953: 0,36
points: color:blue width:2 #1954: 0,39
points: color:blue width:2 #1955: 0,41
points: color:blue width:2 #1956: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1957: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1958: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1959: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1960: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1961: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1962: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1963: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1964: 0,45
points: color:blue width:2 #1965: 0,68
points: color:blue width:2 #1966: 0,73
points: color:blue width:2 #1967: 0,91
points: color:blue width:2 #1968: 0,91
points: color:blue width:2 #1969: 0,91
points: color:blue width:2 #1970: 1,13
points: color:blue width:2 #1971: 1,36
points: color:blue width:2 #1972: 1,36
points: color:blue width:2 #1973: 1,59
points: color:blue width:2 #1974: 1,82
points: color:blue width:2 #1975: 2,27
points: color:blue width:2 #1976: 2,72
points: color:blue width:2 #1977: 3,18
points: color:blue width:2 #1978: 3,40
points: color:blue width:2 #1979: 3,63
points: color:blue width:2 #1980: 3,86
points: color:blue width:2 #1981: 4,54
points: color:blue width:2 #1982: 4,99
points: color:blue width:2 #1983: 5,67
points: color:blue width:2 #1984: 6,13
points: color:blue width:2 #1985: 6,81
points: color:blue width:2 #1986: 7,49
points: color:blue width:2 #1987: 8,17
points: color:blue width:2 #1988: 8,62
points: color:blue width:2 #1989: 9,08
points: color:blue width:2 #1990: 9,53
points: color:blue width:2 #1991: 10,21
points: color:blue width:2 #1992: 11,34
points: color:blue width:2 #1993: 12,71
points: color:blue width:2 #1994: 13,61
points: color:blue width:2 #1995: 14,70
points: color:blue width:2 #1996: 14,75
points: color:blue width:2 #1997: 15,88
points: color:blue width:2 #1998: 15,88
points: color:blue width:2 #1999: 17,02
points: color:blue width:2 #2000: 17,70
points: color:blue width:2 #2001: 19,06
points: color:blue width:2 #2002: 21
points: color:blue width:2 #2003: 22
points: color:blue width:2 #2004: 23
points: color:blue width:2 #2005: 24
points: color:blue width:2 #2006: 25
points: color:blue width:2 #2007: 26
points: color:blue width:2 #2008: 27
points: color:blue width:2 #2009: 28
points: color:blue width:2 #2010: 29
points: color:blue width:2 #2011: 32
points: color:blue width:2 #2012: 33
points: color:blue width:2 #2013: 34,50
points: color:blue width:2 #2014: 35,00
points: color:blue width:2 #2014: 36,00

From 1952 to 2002, the ticket price was set in Dutch guilders. These prices were converted to euros using a conversion factor of 0,45378. In 1952, the ticket price was 0,80 Dutch guilders. From 1956 to 1965, the ticket price was 1 Dutch guilder. The price had risen to 42 Dutch guilders by 2001 and was converted to 21 euros in 2002, during the switch to the euro in the Netherlands. tickets cost 42.00 Euros or 40.00 Euros by "low season". There are also "luxe" tickets for €68.00 that include i.a. lunch, dinner and free parking. Tickets ordered online are sold with a discount of 2 euros. Admission is free for children under 4.

Investments

On December 11, 2008, theme park officials announced that they would spend EUR40 million during 2009-2012 on three large construction projects: a convention centre accommodating 1500 visitors, an arena from the Middle Ages for 750 show spectators, and a redesign for snack bar "De Likkebaerd" to turn it into a station for the park's steam train.
They also said they did not expect to suffer from the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. In 2009, the Efteling announced that the Burcht has been cancelled.

The Disney connection

Efteling has a good relationship with the Disney theme parks. Disneyland Paris consulted Efteling during its construction and design phase, to adapt the American park to European tastes. As a token of appreciation, the Disney Company gave Efteling a small statue. Ton van de Ven, who designed many of Efteling's attractions, was also a good friend of Disney's Tony Baxter. The relationship between the two parks was emphasized when Efteling won the 2004 Thea Classic Award, the highest honor awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association: Efteling had, as it turned out, been nominated by Tony Baxter.
Also, a popular legend further links Disney and Efteling. For years, rumors have circulated that Walt Disney derived his inspiration for Disneyland, from Efteling. According to the legend, in the early 1950s, Walt Disney traveled to Europe a few times and visited several tourist attractions. Reportedly, a brochure from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions even states that Disney "spent a great deal of time studying Pieck's work at Efteling before beginning his own park." However, the rumor was later discredited by Efteling. An off-hand remark by a PR person for Efteling during a presentation for a group of reporters further extend the legend's longevity. Disney likely never actually visited Efteling, though he did visit Madurodam and Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The latter actually did provide some inspiration for Disneyland.