A 120 million euros investment and a sprawling design of one of the biggest film studios that Europe will soon be the hub for- “DreamLand Studios” has been the favorite topic of discussion in every household, bar, and family reunions in Fuerteventura this month.
Pioneered by Fuerteventura based entrepreneur José Antonio Newport, widely known as one of the most dynamic Majorero investors with projects in Fuerteventura, Morocco, Cabo Verde & Latvia, DreamLand Studios has received great appreciation from the entrepreneurs of the island.
With fiber optic running through the island, making it digital-ready, DreamLand aims to make Fuerteventura a mecca for content creation, digital products, and virtual reality.
“We aim to create a space for training and development of different digital products, film production, post-production, and VFX, as well as a virtual and augmented reality park.
In the first phase, we will be training 400 young professionals with previous knowledge in these fields in an eight-month plan, making them ready to be developers of digital and content products in films, augmented reality, and Triple-A video games. It is essential to note the direct and indirect employment that the project will implicate with 2000 professional jobs in the first five years. The numbers will double rapidly “, stated Newport.
With state of the art infrastructure design by award-winning architecture firm IDOM, the project will be built in the north of the island, between the Corralejo highway and Dunas Natural Park, on 160,000 square meters of land, about 6000 square meters of construction. It will be contending to place Fuerteventura in the epicenter of the global film industry making it the most important audiovisual production center of Europe.
“All these audiovisual products, whether cinematographic or digital, will be developed in their entirety here. You see, traditionally, the manufacturing of products has been a complex process in the Canaries given the lack of raw materials or points of sale, which has given it a competitive disadvantage to mainland Spain. However, this barrier is left behind in the audiovisual sector since physical distance is no longer an obstacle”.
“We will finally be able to compete with the rest of the national and European territories. Now is the time to generate new resources”, says José Antonio Newport, who is clear that the islands “cannot miss this opportunity to be at the forefront of the tremendous international audiovisual productions”.
Technological advances and the situation in Europe after the pandemic have generated newer ways amongst the local entrepreneurs to see the future differently and develop new opportunities. The project’s promoters aim to shift the dependency on tourism of the Canary Islands and bring in futuristic advances so that the island can be a hub for much more than just 365 days of sunshine and sprawling beaches.
While the entire Island is vouching for the project, a local political party Podemos has been against it and has received a lot of open criticism from the entrepreneurs hoping to change the face of tourism and industry on the Island.
When asked, the president of the Majorero entrepreneurial association ASOFUER, Antonio Hormiga, explains that the private sector has complete trust in this project, which will synergize the vacation rentals and accommodation sector and nurture the quality of tourists who come to work and live here remotely.
The project is a generator of value and promoter of the economy that has enabled us the paradigm shift that will allow us to leave the scheme of sun and sand to offer alternatives that will allow us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by following the path of quality.
“Betting on Dreamland, he assures him, is offering a better future to our sons and daughters,” he concludes.
