Center Parcs Europe

Dutch entrepreneur, Piet Derksen, started a sporting goods shop in 1953 at Lijnbaan, Rotterdam. Its name was 'Sporthuis Centrum', 'Sport House Centre'. It succeeded and Derksen expanded into 17 outlets across the Netherlands, and then added camping articles to the range.

In 1968, Derksen purchased woodland near Reuver so staff and customers could relax in small tents. The park, De Lommerbergen, was successful, the tents were quickly replaced by bungalows. In 1987, Center Parcs opened its first UK resort at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. This brought the company into the sights of expanding brewer Scottish and Newcastle, which later bought the group.

In 2001, the UK locations separated from the continental Europe locations and formed a separate company, Center Parcs UK.[1]

In 2003, Scottish & Newcastle sold the Continental European sites to a joint venture of Pierre & Vacances (P&V) and DBCP, a German investment group. This was given the name Center Parcs Europe (CPE). P&V owned Europe's largest (in terms of bed-count) bungalow-vacation-supplier, Gran Dorado Resorts, a Dutch former joint venture of Vendex,[2] Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds, GAK and Philips Rentefonds. P&V brought Gran Dorado in the joint venture.

As CPE was based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the Dutch and European Commercial Competition Authority[3] did not approve of combining Gran Dorado and Center Parcs, as it would effectively control the European market. After agreeing to a reduction in beds owned, CPE sold all but six Gran Dorado Resorts to Dutch Landal GreenParks.[4] The remaining six parks were added to CenterParcs: Loohorst (NL), Port Zelande (NL), Zandvoort (NL), Weerterbergen (NL), Hochsauerland (D) and Heilbachsee (D).

After the sale, five of the six remaining Gran Dorado Resorts parks were rebranded Sea Spirit from Center Parcs or Free Life from Center Parcs. The Weerterbergen-Resort was sold to Roompot because of the cost of bringing it to standard.[5] All original Center Parcs resorts in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Germany were sub-branded CP Original. Having completed the integration and rebranding exercise, Pierre & Vacances bought DBCP out of the partnership.

In January 2009, Sunparks launched alongside Center Parcs in Europe, as a low-cost brand. Many of the former Gran Dorado resorts were rebranded in this exercise, but the sub brand was dropped in 2011 and the parks were rebranded to Center Parcs.

There are now 22 resorts in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Germany. Most villages are different, but some villages such as Bispinger Heide in Germany and Domaine Les Bois Francs in France (and many more) share the same Village Plaza design. They have the same styled Aqua Mundo and Sports Plaza. Accommodation is in villas or bungalows, clustered in a park and surrounded by trees and bushes. An exception is Park Zandvoort, set among sand dunes. Certain resorts also provide hotel rooms. The first village had features that have stayed popular like the swimming pool, shops and restaurants. The first dome arrived in 1980, named Subtropical Swimming Paradise in UK resorts and Aqua Mundo in European resorts. A range of sporting activities is available, with restaurants, spas, saunas, and massage.

In 2009 Center Parcs Europe divided its parks into two brands: "Center Parcs", which includes the 5-star parks, and "Sunparks", which includes the 3- or 4-star parks. At the beginning of 2011 the company decided to rename most Sunparks as Center Parcs.

Center Parcs Europe owns 22 Center Parcs resorts and 4 Sunparks resorts. Also, there are 4 parks in development, and one park will be taken over from Landal Greenparks.

Country	Resort	City / Village	Region/County	Year opened	Added to portfolio	Details
Netherlands	Het Meerdal	America	Limburg	1971	-
Netherlands	De Huttenheugte	Dalen	Drenthe	1972	-
Netherlands	De Eemhof	Zeewolde	Flevoland	1980	-	The first Center Parcs resort to contain a Subtropical Swimming Paradise. Closed in May 2000 due to a fire that destroyed the central plaza area and Swimming Pool. Re-opened in March 2002 with a new Mediterranean market square and Aqua Mundo after extensive re-building.
Netherlands	De Kempervennen	Westerhoven	North Brabant	1983	-
Netherlands	Het Heijderbos	Heijen	Limburg	1986	-
Netherlands	Port Zélande	Ouddorp	South Holland	1990	2002
Netherlands	Limburgse Peel	America	Limburg	1980	2002	Formerly Sunparks Limburgse Peel
Netherlands	Zandvoort	Zandvoort	North Holland	1989	2002	Formerly Sunparks Zandvoort aan Zee
Netherlands	Sandur	Emmen	Drenthe	1999	2011	Taken over from Landal Greenparks; Formerly Sunparks Sandur Drenthe
Belgium	Erperheide	Peer	Limburg	1981	-
Belgium	De Vossemeren	Lommel	Limburg	1987	-
Germany	Eifel	Gunderath	Rhineland-Palatinate	1979	2002	Formerly Sunparks Eifel
Germany	Nordseeküste	Tossens	Lower Saxony	1992	2002	Formerly Sunparks Nordseeküste
Germany	Park Hochsauerland	Medebach	North Rhine-Westphalia	1994	2002
Germany	Bispinger Heide	Bispingen	Lower Saxony	1995	-
Germany	Bostalsee	Nohfelden	Saarland	2013	-
Germany	Allgäu	Leutkirch	Baden Württemberg	2018	-
France	Les Bois-Francs	Verneuil-sur-Avre	Upper Normandy	1988	-
France	Les Hauts de Bruyères	Chaumont-sur-Tharonne	Centre-Val de Loire	1993	-
France	Le Lac d'Ailette	Chamouille	Picardy	2007	-
France	Les Trois Forêts	Hattigny	Lorraine	2010	-
France	Bois aux daims	Les Trois-Moutiers, Morton	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	2015	-
Parks from the Sunparks Brand
Belgium	Sunparks Oostduinkerke	Oostduinkerke	West Flanders	1981	2007
Belgium	De Haan	De Haan	West Flanders	1989	2007
Belgium	Sunparks Ardennen	Vielsalm	Luxembourg	1992	2007	Formerly Sunparks Vielsalm
Belgium	Sunparks Kempense Meren	Mol	Antwerpen	1994	2007
Parks in development
France	La Forêt de Chambaran	Roybon	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	2017	-
France	Forêt du Rousset	Le Rousset	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté	2019	-
France	Forêt de Poligny	Poligny	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté	2019	-
France	Domaine du Papetier	Pindères, Beauziac	Nouvelle Aquitaine	2019	-

In the case of the former Gran Dorado Resorts, the 2002 "Added to portfolio"-date refers to the year these resorts were brought into the joint venture, although they were not re-branded as Center Parcs until 2003.

Three former Center Parcs sites were sold because they could not be expanded. They are now part of the Landal greenparks operation; they still continue to be used and have had some refurbishment:

Country	Resort	City / Village	Region/County	Year opened	Year Sold
Netherlands	De Lommerbergen	Reuver	Limburg	1968	1996
Netherlands	Het Vennenbos	Hapert	North Brabant	1970	1994
Netherlands	De Berkenhorst	Kootwijk	Gelderland	1975	1990

Three additional sites separated from the company in 2001 and came under the ownership of Center Parcs UK.[1]

Country	Resort	City / Village	Region/County	Year opened	Added to portfolio	Details
United Kingdom	Sherwood Forest	Rufford (near Mansfield)	Nottinghamshire	1987	-
United Kingdom	Elveden Forest	Elveden	Suffolk	1989	-
United Kingdom	Longleat Forest	Warminster	Wiltshire	1994	-

• Other large European indoor sub-tropical leisure village: Tropical Islands Resort