THE Upper Bavaria Tourist Board will be attending this year’s Germany Travel Show to promote Munich’s newest attraction – the Olympic Spirit Munich, a 10,000sq metre entertainment centre based around the world’s greatest sporting event.
Twenty seven years after the Bavarian capital last hosted the Olympics, visitors to the new centre can experience the thrills of downhill skiing, pole vaulting and ski jumping in an action cinema complete with moving seats.
High-tech simulators also give sports fans the opportunity to take part in a virtual 100-metre sprint, return the serve of a tennis professional or take the field in an Olympic cycle race.
The £26.8m development, which opened in March, is the first of its kind in the world.
Olympic Spirit sales manager Brigitte Hainzer said: “The simulators use film shot at real Olympic events and enable people to experience exactly what the athletes face, right down to the wind in their face on a ski run.
“It is a unique attraction which we believe will draw people to Munich and Bavaria. We hope that UK city-break operators will start selling tickets.”
The centre is housed in the former Olympic Velodrome in Munich’s Olympiapark. Split into two floors, it also contains a sports cafe, which can stage private parties for up to 100 people, a shop, indoor sports arena and museum depicting the Games through the ages.
A coaching hall allows budding sports commentators to report on an Olympic event.
The idea, which has the backing of the International Olympic Committee, was first discussed seven years ago but it was only in February 1997 that work began on converting the Velodrome.
Hainzer predicted that 500,000 people will visit the centre annually.
Visitors to the Upper Bavaria stand at the London show can pick up a leaflet on special group rates and discounts for families or groups of at least 20 people.