This July, three months after becoming the CEO of Momentum Leisure, Wouter Dekkers was up near the Polish coast to witness the opening of Majaland Gdańsk, the company’s third theme park. A fourth is on the way in Poland, along with another in Romania.
“In all honesty, I’ve missed the operational side of the things,” says Dekkers, who joined Momentum in April after 14 years in various roles with Parques Reunidos. The last two-and-a-half were spent as the Spanish group’s corporate development director. Before that, he served as general manager of three different parks in Germany and the Netherlands.
Momentum Leisure, which opened its first park – Majaland Kownaty – in 2018, describes its mission as follows: “We partner with world-class entertainment, retail and leisure brands to locate, build, and launch theme park experiences in growth markets and sectors across Central and Eastern Europe.”
The park in Kownaty (pronounced Kovnaty) was followed in 2022 by Majaland Warsaw outside the nation’s capital. Like the first three, the next Polish project will be an indoor-outdoor facility featuring IP from Plopsa. As in Gdańsk, there will be a wider selection of licensed characters.
From auditor to theme park GM
Wouter Dekkers’ theme park ‘ride’ began in 2000 when he was appointed director of finance at Walibi Holland (then Six Flags Holland) after eight years working as an auditor.
Reflecting on his training with Ernst & Young and KPMG, he says: “The auditing work was like heaven for me at the time. Then Marcel Schonenberg called from Six Flags Holland. I learned a lot from him about the attractions business.”
Dekkers moved to Movie Park Germany in 2005, when it was operated by Six Flags as Warner Bros. Movie World Germany. The following season, he became chief financial officer following a rebrand by new owner Palamon Capital Partners. The private equity fund founded Star Parks to run this, the Walibi parks now operated by Compagnie des Alpes, and three smaller properties since sold by the French company.
The general manager position at Movie Park arose after Andreas Stickel (now CEO of Simtec) departed for the Nürburgring racetrack to oversee the launch of its ring°werk experience. Alongside this new managerial role, Dekkers retained the CFO title with Star Parks until Palamon’s exit from the industry when it sold Movie Park to Parques Reunidos in 2010.
He realised he had a flair for leadership when “I noticed that people were listening to me. I have always been, I think, very honest. Yes is yes, and no is no. But I always follow the consensus to find the right solution”.
Parks and accommodation
Dekkers stayed as GM of Movie Park for another five seasons before handing over the reins to Thorsten Backhaus, who is still in the post. Then, in 2015, he took up the same position at Slagharen in his native Netherlands after the park founded by the Bembom family was added to the Parques portfolio.
“It’s one of the most well-known parks in the country, with a history going back to 1963,” says Dekkers. “I was honoured to work there. You have the rides, of course, but it was the first time I was involved in accommodation. It’s an amazing operation with over 800 accommodation units on site.”
This experience stood him in good stead at Tropical Islands near Berlin, which Parques Reunidos asked him to manage after its c.€230 million acquisition of the former zeppelin hanger in late 2018.
Now hosting up to 3,000 overnight guests, its undercover waterpark and wellness facilities can be enjoyed around the clock. Dekkers oversaw a €60 million expansion of the 66,000-square-metre facility, including a new outdoor area, 135 additional lodges, and 150 hotel rooms.
“You almost cannot describe the magnitude of Tropical Islands until you step inside the dome. But an island is was what it was. They were not part of a group, did not have access to industry expertise, and had a lot of overheads. Part of my task was to identify efficiencies with support functions such as marketing, legal and purchasing.”
Leadership, family and the move to Momentum Leisure
Dekkers may have kept a keen eye on the numbers in each of his jobs, yet he has arguably become a more rounded person since leaving the accounts department.
“Being a general manager means talking to everybody: operations, safety, F&B, retail, maintenance, finance, HR, and marketing. And, of course, your guests. But nobody can know everything in detail. I can only flourish with good people around me.”
He adds: “I was never that little kid that wanted to become GM of a theme park. When I got there, I recognised what a cool industry this is. It’s hard work, but you can have a lot of fun as well.”
His kids seem to like it, too. Dekkers and his wife Karin have three children. Floor, now 20, was born when he worked at Walibi/Six Flags Holland. Douwe and Lotte, 18 and 16, respectively, followed while he was at Movie Park.
“They have more interest now in going to festivals than theme parks, but I do not think they would want me to change careers. It’s pretty cool when your dad is running a theme park.”
The Dutch company with big plans for Poland
Dekkers retained a family home in the Netherlands as he moved from job to job. Located just over the border from Movie Park Germany, he travelled back there at weekends while working at Tropical Islands.
“The funny thing is, when Parques called about the job at Slagharen, they said, ‘You can go back to the Netherlands’. But it was actually a longer journey than to Movie Park!”
Now he’s with Momentum Leisure, he will stay at home but make regular trips to Poland and beyond. This is handy since the Polish park operator is actually a Dutch company.
But why did Momentum Leisure’s owners overlook their home country in favour of Eastern Europe? “I think to build a new park in Holland is not advisable,” says Dekkers. “Or in Belgium, France or Germany. The market is saturated; consolidation has taken place. The big groups did not want to go into Poland. But for Martijn van Rheenen, the founding partner of Momentum Capital, that has long been an ambition. There and in Romania, we can be the pioneers.”
Dekkers believes that “People are underestimating what’s happening there. I feel very comfortable in Poland. The people are extremely ambitious and willing to learn. They are very commercial, strict, and honest. It’s a nice environment to work.”
The momentum behind Momentum Leisure
Momentum Leisure’s main shareholder is the privately owned Momentum Capital. Based in Amsterdam, the investment group also targets medium-sized family businesses working in carbon removal, clean water and life science. “Martijn [van Rheenen] is a very socially engaged person,” says Dekkers.
The initial agreement with Plopsa was to develop and manage the Majaland parks and license its IP. However, Momentum has since taken over operations as it develops more in-house expertise. Dekkers’ arrival as CEO and the engagement of Andreas Andersen and Pia Adlivanken as supervisory board members are part of this process.
When it opened in 2018, Majaland Kownaty was described as Poland’s first true theme park. Located close to the German border, it was inspired by the Plopsa Indoor parks in Belgium and the Netherlands. However, it has since grown to incorporate a larger outdoor area, including Wickieland (based on the character Vicky the Viking) and a wooden roller coaster. Ride manufacturers include Gerstlauer, The Gravity Group, Metallbau Emmeln, Zamperla and Zierer.
Majaland and a fourth park for Poland
At Majaland Warsaw and Majaland Gdańsk —each around 20,000 sq m in size—indoor takes priority. The trio of Majalands are located around four hours apart, so they do not compete; however, annual pass holders can visit all three if they choose. It is envisioned that each site will reach an annual attendance of around 300,000 in the future.
Whilst it was a slow year for Majaland Kownaty and Warsaw, Dekkers says Gdańsk got off to a healthy start this summer, and he’s confident it can reach 250,000 during 2025. “Maybe it’s because of the novelty factor or that it’s located in a touristic hotspot, but it’s currently outperforming the other two.”
Plans for a fourth park in the south of Poland are now in development. Set to open in 2026, it will be similar in size to the previous two parks. However, the name, IP mix, and other content are still being decided.
“Maybe our research will conclude that what we are doing already is spot on,” says Dekkers. “But I think we all owe it to ourselves, our investors and the market that after three parks, we look at what we’re doing. And, of course, we now have the supervisory board and industry experts like Pia and Andreas to guide us.”
Momentum Leisure in Romania
Unlike Majaland Prague, operated by the Kaprain Group in the Czech Republic, the three Majaland parks in Poland are not next to a shopping mall. The fourth park, however, will be. Momentum Leisure has purchased a 6.7-hectare plot of land alongside the Europa Centralna retail park in the city of Gliwice, 20 minutes from Katowice. Space also exists for a water park.
Meanwhile, in Romania, a location has been secured next to a new retail development outside the capital of Bucharest. Momentum will initially develop an indoor attraction. Early concepts are in development with the Amsterdam-based Leisure Expert Group, but again, no name has yet been decided.
Dekkers was pleased to welcome both The Smurfs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the line-up at Majaland Gdańsk. The latter comes as part of an exclusive licensing agreement with Paramount to use the IP of Nickelodeon in Poland and Romania.
“Of course, I know these brands very well. Nick Land was the first Nickelodeon family entertainment experience outside the US when it opened at Movie Park in 2007. Ron Hines, who I dealt with all those years ago, is still there. Working with him again was like putting the band back together!”
IP experience
Dekkers recalls the interesting relationship with intellectual property (IP) that existed at Movie Park Germany before the launch of Nick Land. The name change in 2006 was necessary when Star Parks chose not to renew the licensing deal with Warner Bros. Six Flags’ departure also meant new identities for several rides that previously featured DC Comics licences.
“There were some negative comments about the lack of movie-related content in the beginning. The park developed its own characters, which were terrible and not well received. After the arrival of SpongeBob SquarePants, Ice Age and Shrek, things started to grow.”
This experience helped inform Dekkers’ belief in working with external IP. “Only the really big European parks have successful mascots known outside that captive environment, and they have taken many years to become popular. The cool thing about the IP houses is that they constantly develop new content.”
The Momentum Leisure CEO adds: “I want to take a data-driven approach to which characters we use in the fourth park in Poland. The further east you go, the less known Maja the Bee and Vicky the Viking are. The Smurfs are universally known. If we have Nickelodeon characters in there as well, it would make little sense to call the park Majaland.”
Family entertainment in uncertain times
In addition to the upcoming projects in Poland and Romania, Momentum Leisure has an agreement to integrate Nickelodeon characters into four more ‘gates’ before 2040. In addition to a waterpark in Kownaty, that could include a second gate in Warsaw and new projects yet to be decided.
A waterpark in partnership with the Belgian music festival Tomorrowland is now unlikely.
“The world has changed so rapidly in the last two to three years,” says Dekkers. “In times of crisis and uncertainty, one thing people still cherish is family entertainment. I really want to focus on these four parks in Poland and the opportunity in Romania.”
He has high hopes for the latter project, slated to open before 2028. “I think it will be a huge success because there are no parks in Romania on the scale we are familiar with in Western Europe. The concept of an indoor ‘box’ with an outdoor area is proven, but over the years, this has the potential to become a full theme park.”
Momentum’s exit plan
As an investment firm, Momentum Capital will eventually seek to sell Momentum Leisure. But Dekkers and his team have lots of work to do building up the company in the meantime.
“At a certain time, there will be an exit, but that’s longer term,” he says. “We don’t have a critical mass or track record yet. I’m very much looking forward to launching these new parks in the years to come. It’s exciting to be part of something new in Central and Eastern Europe.”
