Sunparks

Sunparks is a European Brand of Holiday Villages from Center Parcs Europe. Sunparks runs eight parks: four Belgian Parks, two Dutch Parks and two German Parks. In 2011 Sunparks will take over a third Dutch park from Landal Greenparks.

Connected villas at Sunparks Kempense Meren, the usual appearance of the villa's at a Sunparks park.

History
The parkcenter of Sunparks Kempense Meren.

In 1981 Sun International opened the first Park in Oostduinkerke, called Sunclub Groendijk. In 1987 they built a second park in De Haan which would get a covered park centre (based on the idea of Center Parks), so it was suitable for all climatic conditions. From this moment they decided to exploit the parks under the name Sunparks. Sunparks Groendijk was from now on called Sunparks Oostduinkerke and the new park got the name Sunparks De Haan. In 1992 a third park followed in the Ardennes, Sunparks Vielsalm, and because of its success followed a fourth park in 1994, Sunparks Rauwse Meren. The director of Sunparks first wanted to let Sunparks grow to 10 parks, but he did not succeed because of financial difficulties. In 1997 Sun International was sold, and the Sunparks brand was taken over by Mark Vanmoerkerke. In 2006 Roompot Holidays went into negotiations with Sunparks, to buy the brand, but they did not succeed and after all Pierre et Vacances (the owner of Center Parcs Europe) bought the Sunparks brand in 2007. On 13 November 2008 Center Parks Europe announced that they would continue with a two-brand-strategy: Center Parcs and Sunparks. This was an easy decision because Sunparks was inspired on Center Parcs. Center Parcs would contain the 5 star parks, and Sunparks would contain the 3 and 4 star parks. This meant that since 29 January 2009 the parks Loohorst, Zandvoort, Heilbachsee and Butjardinger Küste would be rebranded as Sunparks parks. At the beginning of 2011 the company decided to rename most of the Sunparks back into Center Parcs with only three Parks in Belgium remaining under the brand Sunparks.[1] On 4 January 2013 Center Parcs changed De Haan again to 'Sunparks De Haan aan zee'. According to the press release the brand name 'Center Parcs' created wrong expectations and the guests named the park 'Sunparks' anyway. Since then Sunparks again consists of the original 4 parks bought by Pierre & Vacances in 2007.

All Resorts
Sight on the parkcenter from the other side of the Rauwse lake at Sunparks Kempense Meren.
Cottage at a roundabout, near the reception of Sunparks Kempense Meren.
Country Resort City / Village Region/County Year opened Added to portfolio Removed from portfolio Old name
 Belgium Sunparks Oostduinkerke aan zeeOostduinkerkeWest Flanders1981-Sunparks Oostduinkerke
 Belgium Sunparks De Haan aan zeeDe HaanWest Flanders1989-2011-2013De Haan
 Belgium Sunparks ArdennenVielsalmArdennes1992-Sunparks Vielsalm
 Belgium Sunparks Kempense MerenMolAntwerpen1994-Sunparks Mol
No longer in portfolio
 Netherlands Sunparks Limburgse PeelAmericaLimburg198020092011Center Parcs Park Loohorst
 Netherlands Sunparks Zandvoort aan zeeZandvoortNorth Holland198920092011Center Parcs Park Zandvoort
 Netherlands Sunparks Sandur DrentheEmmenDrenthe199920112011Landal parc Sandur
 Germany Sunparks EifelGunderathRhineland-Palatinate197920092011Center Parcs Park Heilbachsee
 Germany Sunparks Nordsee KüsteTossensLower Saxony199220092011Center Parcs Butjadinger Küste
 Germany Sunparks BostalseeBostalseeSaarland2013--

Expansion

In 2011 Sunparks was developing a German park in Bostalsee which would be called Sunparks Bostalsee, this park opened July 2014 under the Center Parcs brand.

On Sunparks website it shows that they have recently taken over sites in France too.

References
  1. www.ferienparks-weltweit.de
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