Have you seen that news about plans for Dracula Land, an enormous development in Bucharest, Romania, that’s supposed to include not just a vampire-themed amusement park but a tech hub, a luxury shopping outlet, and a sports arena? Oh, and a water park, a hotel, and a race track. Also, a metaverse with NFTs and its own cryptocurrency called DraculaCoin. Did you catch all that?
“Dracula Land is a hybrid ecosystem — a physical destination, a digital universe, and a scalable intellectual property,” the official website explains.
UK news outlet The Sun put the words “Transylvanian Disneyland” in the headline, and it does indeed seem like something that would be on par with Disney’s most ambitious theme park ideas. The question, of course, is whether they can actually build it. And given the timeline and heavy use of AI for concept art, we’re not going to hold our breath that we’ll get to visit Dracula Land anytime soon.
What does Dracula Land look like?
The website for Dracula Land features at least 47 videos, by our count, and every single one appears to be AI-generated. The amusement park videos include a costumed character made to look like a gigantic bat walking around in an environment with an aesthetic similar to Harry Potter.
The concepts seem like they would appeal to a substantially large audience (who wouldn’t love a vampire-themed park?), but the fact that everything about it appears AI-generated will give anyone pause. The site has that disturbing vibe we’ve all become creeped out by in the 2020s.
Just take a look at the video for Dracula Land’s “Transylvania” section, and you’ll see what we mean.
Yes, all of the tell-tale signs of AI are there. And we get that Dracula is supposed to be creepy. But this is creepy in a very unfun way.
And if you can explain what’s happening in the screenshot below, we’d love to hear it.
How big is this supposed to be?
Dracula Land claims the park will be over 780,000 square meters and feature six “immersive themed areas and over 40 major attractions.” The fashion and home shopping facility is supposed to be 9,000 square meters of retail space, featuring 70 brands. And there will also be three hotels with a combined 1,200 rooms, according to the website.
The water park and spa clocks in at 50,000 square meters with 30 water attractions and “one of the largest wave pools in Europe.” The race track is 4.5 km, and the tech hub is another 15,000 square meters.
That’s all very… ambitious to say the least. And we haven’t even gotten to the timeline.
Will it actually happen?
The selling points for Dracula Land seem to make some logical sense. Central and Eastern Europe lacks a “global-scaled brand destination,” and it’s a growth market for cultural tourism. “The Dracula myth is one of the world’s most recognized cultural symbols — yet commercially underdeveloped,” the website reads.
And that might all be true. But the thing that jumps out most is the aggressive timeline presented. The website says “phase 1” was started in 2024 and runs through 2025, and includes “master planning” and “early creative development.” Phase 2 is listed as the construction phase from 2025-2026, when physical construction will begin, and the digital platform will be launched in beta. We assume that’s the metaverse and crypto part. Phase 3 is described as the launch period, from 2026-2027, with the grand opening.
Who’s behind it?
The website for Dracula Land lists its founder as real estate investor Dragos Dobrescu and includes testimonials from people like Florin Citu, the former Prime Minister of Romania, who’s quoted as saying Dracula Land is “a platform capable of reshaping how Romania is perceived at the European and global level.”
We reached out to the people behind Dracula Land with several questions, but we didn’t get any answers. We were most interested in that incredibly quick timeline. And that cryptocurrency, which is called DraculaCoin. A representative named Madalina Ivan directed Gizmodo to the press release on the Dracula Land website and wrote that, “Future milestones will be featured in our News section.” A follow-up email asking about the questions we’d posed went unanswered.
Gizmodo also reached out to two of the design firms listed on the website, Piurach and Creative Studio Berlin, which haven’t responded. The website of Creative Studio Berlin includes mock-ups for a Dracula Land where the client is listed as undisclosed, and the scope includes “Blue sky and concept developer.” The timeline reads “2023 (not yet opened),” though it’s not clear how long this Dracula Land has been in development. Those mock-ups don’t appear AI-generated, though none of them seem to be on the Dracula Land website.
If you just pitched this idea on paper, it seems potentially fun, provided you ignore all the AI slop. Again, it seems like it would be cool to inhabit a world of cartoonish vampires if they actually built the place. But given the fact that we’ve only seen largely AI renderings, we’re not packing our bags just yet. There’s a big difference between standing up a website and actually building an enormous theme park.
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