Nestlé’s upcoming chocolate theme park will be built in Gruyère, Switzerland in 2025.
The Swiss chocolate giant has plans to open a Cocoa-dedicated theme park in its home country, specifically in Gruyère, a region some claim as the “chocolate capital of the world.”
Swiss newspaper Le Temps reports that the ambitious project is due to be complete by 2025, with preparations already underway.
The theme park is set to be an expansion of the Maison Cailler site in Broc. The chocolate factory is the oldest in Switzerland, having produced chocolate for nearly 200 years. It seems appropriate, as the project’s manager Olivier Quillet notes that the theme park will not have any adventures or rides but will instead be focused on the history of Cocoa production.
Nestlé has an opportunity to lay bare some of the challenges the industry faces and to disrupt the mindset of those attending, allowing them to become more open-minded about what they are willing to pay for chocolate in the future. I wonder if they have the courage to do this?
Visitors will be taken on a journey to gain a better understanding of Cocoa’s history, although we suspect that the darker side of the industry, such as indentured labour, deforestation and farmer poverty, may not make it into the family-oriented display.
Genuinely speaking, Nestlé has an opportunity to lay bare some of the challenges the industry faces and to disrupt the mindset of those attending, allowing them to become more open-minded about what they are willing to pay for chocolate in the future. I wonder if they have the courage to do this?
Bing situated in the oldest chocolate factory in the country makes sense, and in fact, the factory already houses an interactive chocolate museum, which is ranked as the third most visited museum in Switzerland.
Nestlé has invested approximately 80 million CHF (circa US$84.2m) in the new project, which it expects will host one million guests annually.
