From 1950 to 1985 the park's area belonged to a zoo. When the zoo closed, two entrepreneurs, Tor Erling Pettersen and Terje Buer, signed a lease to rent 115 acres of the zoo's former land and built a theme park. Eighteen months later, on 11 June 1988, Tusenfryd opened and attracted almost half a million people in its first season (a number of visitors that has remained steady ever since). Initially the park was owned by the companies Park Invest and Visit Investments but in 2008 the park was sold to the Spanish-based Parque Reunidos which also owns Norway's largest water park Bø Sommerland.