PortAventura, responsible recreation

Around 30 years have passed since Dolors Vera began work at PortAventura World. Today, one month since retiring, she is walking around the park focused on the memories at every turn. “It was here that I spent my first day of work, unpacking materials to prepare the park for its opening”, she recalls with a degree of nostalgia. The daughter of restaurateurs from Lérida, she had moved to Tarragona several months beforehand with her husband and was unemployed. “As I had helped my parents in the bar, I was selected to work in the canteen and I spent all my years of employment there. Back then we had no idea what the park would become … We genuinely had no idea what we were creating and it was impossible to imagine the impact that PortAventura would have on our lives and on the Tarragona area”, she remembers with pride. 

For 28 years she walked through the park daily because “when we finished our shift we would always take a stroll around the park with our work colleagues and have a go on one of the attractions before heading home … Even during holidays I would take friends and family members to enjoy the attractions!” she confesses with a smile while constantly greeting passers-by… “It's that this is my home”, she remarks, by way of justification.

PortAventura World started out “as a small family which builds something very special” says Dolors. Over the years the park has steadily grown, adding new attractions, shows, hotels, a water park, a convention centre… until it eventually became the number one leisure destination in the Mediterranean. “Today the park generates 18,000 jobs directly and indirectly and welcomes over five million visitors annually”, says Vanessa Rodríguez, Chief Sustainability Officer at PortAventura World.

“I have lived my entire park around the park and have witnessed how it has grown and achieved global recognition. Not just because of the tourism it has attracted but also because of how it does things”. The most recent major milestones were the start-up of the largest photovoltaic plant for self-consumption in a holiday resort in Spain and the installation of the largest electric vehicle charging hub in the Iberian Peninsula.

From the highest point of the Dragon Khan, just before the big descent and eight loops at a speed of 110 km/h, you can see the new solar plant, which blends perfectly into the landscape. This integration is one of the distinguishing traits of Endesa's self-consumption project at PortAventura World, in alignment with a stringent landscape integration and impact strategy aimed at reducing its visual impact and conserving the environment as well as creating an environmental education space.

In total there are no fewer than 11,000 photovoltaic modules occupying an area of 6.4 hectares. This solar plant generates 10 GWh of clean electricity per year, which means it covers almost one third of the resort's total energy needs for its operations. The other energy required is also linked to the park's sustainability plan, which is renewable energy also supplied by Endesa.

PortAventura World also has the largest private charging hub for electric vehicles in a resort in Spain. A total of 150 spaces have been provided for electric charging with the aim of enabling and promoting zero-emission mobility for both employees and suppliers and customers.

The day is drawing to a close and Dolors is saying goodbye to her colleagues before returning home at the end of a different day, one of entertainment without work, “although I am always looking to see if anyone needs help”. One last glance reveals a park constantly undergoing transformation, aware that in the end every small gesture affects all of “those changes that favour sustainability which are not an obligation but a responsibility”.