2023-09-19 11:16:00
It was in 1992 that Éric Domb, then a financial consultant looking for a place to host a bird park, fell in love with the Cambron estate. Paradisio (name of the animal park at the time) opened its doors in 1994. With its 54 hectares and 24 aviaries, success was immediate. That year, some 163,000 visitors discovered the site. A site which has continued to welcome ever more animal species and new worlds, so much so that in 2012, the park crossed the million visitor mark. Two years later, the arrival of the giant pandas created new emulation (1.4 million visitors). The latest major turning point came in 2019 when Pairi Daiza launched an accommodation offer. Investments are paying off for the development of the park when we know that 2022 broke all records with 2.2 million visitors, thirteen times more than when it opened.
Today, Pairi Daiza has no less than 7,500 animals of 800 different species, spread across eight worlds (four are still in the works) over 75 hectares. The site’s one hundred accommodations can also accommodate between four and eight people.
Pharaonic figures which alone demonstrate the economic power of the project. In nearly thirty years, hundreds of jobs have been created. Pairi Daiza has offered exceptional influence to Picardy Wallonia, but this success also comes with constraints. Now open almost all year round, the animal park generates a series of nuisances. Neighboring residents are fed up with the massive flow of cars that, bumper to bumper, clutter the streets of their villages. Not to mention the noise, pollution and safety problems that this causes. Daily stress for many citizens. The problem: without a global mobility study, it is difficult not to make decisions which ultimately only postpone the problem to other streets or other municipalities. And the construction of a new road (see below) also leads to other protests.
This content is not available in this configuration.
Find out here.
This content is not available in this configuration.
Find out here.
A debate open to all and respectful of everyone
Mobility around Pairi Daiza will be at the heart of the first debate of the program “Place publique”.
The editorial staff of L’Avenir and notélé are joining forces to create a new monthly current affairs program. The premiere of “Place publique” will be recorded live and in public this Tuesday evening. The meeting is set at the Maison des Phénix from 7 p.m.
In the sports hall which will serve as a one-day television set, around a hundred places for citizens affected or interested in the issue. They will be able to ask their questions to the guests present; there will be seven of them.
There will be Éric Domb (founding director of the Pairi Daiza park), but also the mayors of Ath, Brugelette and Silly, namely Bruno Lefèbvre, André Desmarlières and Christian Leclercq. Yves Fobelets, from the Mons roads department (SPW) and Marianne Hiernaux, spokesperson for the SNCB will also be present to defend the position of their institution. On the other hand, if he had initially accepted the invitation, the Walloon Minister of Mobility, Philippe Henry finally declined the invitation. It is Francis Biset, in charge of the citizens’ unit of his cabinet, who will be there to represent him.
The public will not be the only ones able to share their opinions and ask questions. Those of our readers and television viewers will also be relayed live.
To make your voice heard, simply show up via our digital consultation.
The recording of the show will last exactly 1 hour 12 minutes and the discussion will be open and respectful of everyone’s opinions. The debate will be divided into four parts: the first will concern mobility issues in general (given the development of the park, is it still just a mobility problem?), the second will focus on the particular case of Gages, the third on the new road and the last on soft mobility.
1695128819
#development #Pairi #Daiza #setbacks
