Privately-owned hospitality company Nobis Hospitality Group will unveil a new Swedish wellness destination property called Hagastrand in Q4 this year, located next to the Brunnesviken lake in Stockholm’s royal park, Haga. When it opens, the property will join Marriott International’s luxury Autograph Collection and be known as Hagastrand, Autograph Collection. It will be the first Autograph Collection property in Scandinavia. A spokesperson for Nobis Hospitality group told Spa Business the

Disney has announced it will build its first theme park in the Middle East, with Abu Dhabi's Yas Island the location. It will be the seventh Disney development globally. The development will see the theme park giant partnering with entertainment company Miral, the organisation behind the development of Yas Island as a tourist destination. Miral currently operates Warner Bros park, where it's adding a Harry Potter attraction and also SeaWorld

The Bahrain Surf Park – Club Hawaii Experience, is set to be the first surf park in the MENA region powered by Wavegarden Cove Technology. Expected to position Bahrain as a leading destination for surfers, The Bahrain Surf club will be developed through a partnership between Edamah (Bahrain Real Estate Investment Company), GFH Financial Group and engineering company Wavegarden. Located within Bilaj Al Jazayer development – a 1.3 million square

French theme park Futuroscope has opened its new 6,000sq m waterpark, featuring unique immersive aquatic experiences as part of a €304 million investment by the French government which supports the park as a regional wealth generator. The new €57m Aquascope waterpark features three zones. The Thrill Zone, with eight slides including a spiral slide that winds around the building, a vertical drop launch slide and two-lane racer slide. This zone

French theme park Futuroscope has opened its new 6,000sq m waterpark, featuring unique immersive aquatic experiences as part of a €304 million investment by the French government which supports the park as a regional wealth generator. The new €57m Aquascope waterpark features three zones. The Thrill Zone, with eight slides including a spiral slide that winds around the building, a vertical drop launch slide and two-lane racer slide. This zone

French theme park Futuroscope has opened its new 6,000sq m waterpark, featuring unique immersive aquatic experiences as part of a €304 million investment by the French government which supports the park as a regional wealth generator. The new €57m Aquascope waterpark features three zones. The Thrill Zone, with eight slides including a spiral slide that winds around the building, a vertical drop launch slide and two-lane racer slide. This zone

French theme park Futuroscope has opened its new 6,000sq m waterpark, featuring unique immersive aquatic experiences as part of a €304 million investment by the French government which supports the park as a regional wealth generator. The new €57m Aquascope waterpark features three zones. The Thrill Zone, with eight slides including a spiral slide that winds around the building, a vertical drop launch slide and two-lane racer slide. This zone

French theme park Futuroscope has opened its new 6,000sq m waterpark, featuring unique immersive aquatic experiences as part of a €304 million investment by the French government which supports the park as a regional wealth generator. The new €57m Aquascope waterpark features three zones. The Thrill Zone, with eight slides including a spiral slide that winds around the building, a vertical drop launch slide and two-lane racer slide. This zone

Merlin Entertainments has launched its new Hyperia rollercoaster at Thorpe Park to celebrate its 45th year. The ride is billed as the UK's tallest, fastest and most weightless rollercoaster, beating The Big One in Blackpool for height by 13ft and at 81 mph, besting Thorpe Park's Stealth coaster for speed. It has two 20-passenger trains. Designed in-house by Merlin Magic Making – led by global creative director, Megan Wastell –

Merlin Entertainments has launched its new Hyperia rollercoaster at Thorpe Park to celebrate its 45th year. The ride is billed as the UK's tallest, fastest and most weightless rollercoaster, beating The Big One in Blackpool for height by 13ft and at 81 mph, besting Thorpe Park's Stealth coaster for speed. It has two 20-passenger trains. Designed in-house by Merlin Magic Making – led by global creative director, Megan Wastell –

London has gained a substantial new urban spa in Belgravia following The Peninsula London’s grand unveiling of its subterranean Spa & Wellness Centre. Located beneath the new 190-room Peninsula London hotel, the facility’s opening marks the final stage of luxury Hong Kong hotel brand Peninsula Hotels’ seven-year project to create its London flagship. The newly built hotel was realised by British design studio Hopkins Architects and features heritage architecture to

Verona-based spa and wellness design firm Studio Apostoli has been appointed to support the creation of a wellness-centric eco-resort 40km from the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. Developed by Devjikh Tsog Khugjil, Tavan Jargal Resort is currently in the preliminary design and business planning stages. The vision for the 13-hectare development is to create a high-end wellness oasis tucked away in a protected national park that showcases Mongolian culture and the

A world-scale, integrated resort is being planned for Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital city. Feature unique water attractions, a themed hotel, immersive dining, and live entertainment, the development will be located close to urban regeneration district, New Tashkent City and is being designed with both local and international audiences in mind. US-based design firm Legacy Entertainment has been appointed to design and build the resort's waterpark, which will anchor the project. No

A world-scale, integrated resort is being planned for Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital city. Feature unique water attractions, a themed hotel, immersive dining, and live entertainment, the development will be located close to urban regeneration district, New Tashkent City and is being designed with both local and international audiences in mind. US-based design firm Legacy Entertainment has been appointed to design and build the resort's waterpark, which will anchor the project. No

Plans have been tabled for a US$2bn theme park and entertainment destination development in north-east Oklahoma, US. The development would be built in phases, starting with a large-scale caravan/RV park with cabins scheduled to open phase one in spring 2025. The main development called American Heartland Theme Park and Resort, would then follow in 2026. Spreading across 1,000 acres, the resort would be located close to Route 66, the famous

Disney is set to undergo a "major restructuring" following the shock return of CEO Bob Iger. Iger, who steered Disney as CEO from 2005 until 2020 – when his contract expired – returned to the entertainment giant recently. His return follows the exit of Bob Chapek, who took over as Disney CEO from Iger in February 2020 – just as the COVID-19 pandemic began hitting the entertainment and visitor attraction industry

Liseberg theme park in Sweden has confirmed the opening date for its new Grand Curiosa hotel. A highly themed family hotel, the Grand Curiosa will have 457 family rooms, a restaurant with a fully functional merry-go-round from 1923, and a rooftop bistro with a view of the park and several bars. The theming has been inspired by the history of its home city, Gothenburg, and the West Swedish East India

Little Island, an urban park built on stilts on the Hudson River in New York City, has opened to the public. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, in partnership with Arup and Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects (MNLA), the 1.1-hectare (11,000sq m) park and performance venue features 540 metres of pathways and a range of performance spaces. Little Island’s distinct exterior is supported by 132 "tulip-like" concrete piles. Each tulip’s shape is unique

New images have been released of what will become the first new public park in Manchester, UK, in more than 100 years. Called Mayfield Park, the new urban green space has been designed by landscape architects Studio Egret West. It will be part of the £1.4bn Mayfield regeneration scheme – one of the largest in the UK – led by the Mayfield Partnership, a public-private venture comprising regeneration specialist U+I,

Architecture firm OMA has revealed designs for an ambitious underwater sculpture park which will stretch across seven miles off the coast of Miami Beach, Florida, US. Called ReefLine, the park is being developed by BlueLab Preservation Society in partnership with the City of Miami Beach and Coral Morphologic. It will feature art installations located around 20ft under water, which can only be viewed while snorkeling or diving. Conceived by cultural

A team of architects have revealed plans to transform a multi-lane road in central Copenhagen into a green and car-free city park. The project will turn a famously congested passage to an inviting living space, where "nature is merged into the urban space". The road will be replaced by trees, water, wildlife and illuminations, with the aim of creating a new recreation area in the middle of the Danish capital

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has named the Springdale Library and Komagata Maru Park – designed by RDH Architects (RDHA) – among the winners of its bi-annual Governor General’s Medals. The biennial awards recognise and celebrate excellence in recently built and designed projects by Canadian architects. First opened in 2019, the 26,000sq ft Springdale Library, contemplative garden, neighbourhood park and splash pad was created for the City of

A project involving hand-crafted islands on the Danish capital Copenhagen's waterfront is set to create a completely new genre of public parks. Described as a "parkipelago", the Copenhagen Islands project will involve a number of islands being distributed to suitable locations around the city's inner harbour, with the aim of providing people moveable, floating, public spaces which will be free to explore and conquer. During summer, the islands will be

WOHA Architects are creating a new campus for BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that will be set in a park and offer a variety of spaces for culture, recreation and social interaction. The vision is for an inner-city campus that is sustainable and sensitively integrated with nature, employs tropical design strategies to accommodate the climate and provides students with an innovative environment for learning and leisure. When it's completed in

Developers have been given the green light to start work again on the US$750m (£647m, €688m) Nickelodeon theme park development at the Mall of China. Work was suspended as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, however, plans for the construction of the third and fourth phases to resume were approved following an inspection ensuring health requirements were met. Located in the Yubei District of Chongqing City, the Mall of China

Developers have been given the green light to start work again on the US$750m (£647m, €688m) Nickelodeon theme park development at the Mall of China. Work was suspended as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, however, plans for the construction of the third and fourth phases to resume were approved following an inspection ensuring health requirements were met. Located in the Yubei District of Chongqing City, the Mall of China

A new urban lagoon and park, designed by MVRDV, has opened in the preserved ruin of a shopping mall in central Tainan, Taiwan. The China-Town Mall was built next to the Tainan Canal in 1983, the rise of online shopping means it no longer serves its purpose. Instead, the Urban Development Bureau of the Tainan City Government commissioned MVRDV to create Tainan Spring as a new public space and as