{"id":400008,"date":"2025-09-05T12:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400008\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T12:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:51:11","slug":"universal-still-targeting-2031-opening-for-uk-theme-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400008\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal still targeting 2031 opening for UK theme park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Universal is still targeting a 2031 opening for its UK theme park<\/a><\/strong>, says Mark Woodbury<\/strong>, chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences.<\/p>\n

At the Bank of America 2025 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference this week, Woodbury said Universal aims to launch the UK park in 2031, providing the planning, design and construction process goes smoothly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had 18,000 people register<\/a><\/strong> on our app to come and work for us, 2,000 vendors in the marketplace that want to be part of this development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"UK-Universal-Theme-Park <\/p>\n

\u201cSo our hope is that that process will go very smoothly, but parks are complicated organisms\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0multibillion-pound deal<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was agreed for Universal\u2019s resort in Bedfordshire in April, and Universal has already submitted a planning application.<\/p>\n

Woodbury said there could be delays to the project<\/a><\/strong> due to infrastructure issues, \u201cbut we think we have a pretty good handle on it at this point\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Universal UK to be \u201cvery unique culturally\u201d <\/p>\n

As for the park\u2019s design, Woodbury said: \u201cIt\u2019s a full-blown Universal theme park with a 500-room hotel that is part of it, very much like Epic in terms of a park with a hotel. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve created a different mix of attractions that we think will work great in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planning documents have revealed that the proposed UK theme park could feature the\u00a0tallest rides in Europe<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The UK destination\u2019s \u201cmain product is Universal and its Universal-branded IPs\u201d, Woodbury added, but it will be \u201cvery unique culturally, you have to pay close attention to that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"universal <\/p>\n

\u201cThe other place where international development is unique is around humor. Humor varies very differently in different cultures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In response to Disney\u2019s Abu Dhabi theme park<\/a><\/strong> announcement, Woodbury said Universal\u2019s \u201cpriorities right now are driving Epic to full throttle and to execute on [the] UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, the company is \u201clooking ahead for other places and opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Images courtesy of Universal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal is still targeting a 2031 opening for its UK theme park, says Mark Woodbury, chairman and CEO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[91095,748,393,4884,1144,712,122883,122884,122885,138083,138084,138085,138086,16,91098,15,5831,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-400008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-balppa","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-theme-park-construction","16":"tag-theme-park-design","17":"tag-theme-park-investment","18":"tag-theme-park-management","19":"tag-theme-park-rides","20":"tag-theme-park-suppliers","21":"tag-themed-entertainment","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-uk-experience","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-universal-studios","26":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115151784104734829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}