Asterix to invade Britain with touring attraction

Europe is bracing itself for an invasion of indomitable Gauls next year after it was announced that the world of Asterix and friends would be brought to life as part of a new European tour.

From simulations of ancient Gaul and Rome to the opportunity to battle the Romans, sail with pirates and scale the Alps, the first ever Asterix tour was unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Starting in Germany in autumn 2012, it will travel to cities across Europe over the next five years, including locations in France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

The news will be welcomed by the diminutive hero's millions of fans, still reeling from the announcement late last month that Albert Uderzo, co-creator of toAsterix and his weighty sidekick Obelix, was hanging up his pen. "We are going to make it easy for the fans. We are going to come to them," said Martin Biallas, chief executive of the tour's creator SEE Touring Attractions, who anticipated that up to half a million people would visit the tour in each of its 20 locations over the next five years.

"The Asterix park in France gets two million visitors a year but they are mainly from around Paris," added Isabelle Magnac, chairman of Asterix's publisher Les Editions Albert René. "This is an opportunity to go to all of Europe."

SEE has mined all 34 Asterix books – which have sold 350m copies around the world – as inspiration for the tour, "picking out iconic moments and making sure we stay true" to the stories, said director of production David Weiss. Visitors to the 3,500 sq metre attraction will be greeted by a film of Uderzo "welcoming them into the world he and René Goscinny created" in 1959, said Weiss, with further activities to include fish fights in a recreation of Asterix's small Gaulish village, playing with gooey cheese like Obelix does in Switzerland and tackling a maze like Asterix and Obelix do in ancient Egypt.

"We have an interactive which lets you bash the Romans, you can enter a Roman camp and there'll be Roman soldiers who bother you," he added. "We're using modern techniques to make visitors feel as if they are in 50BC ... We're trying to create a new experience, giving the opportunity to visitors to literally step into the books and become part of the world of Asterix and Obelix."

The tour will stay for around four months in each location, and will cost up to €20 for adult visitors and €9 for children. Biallas said it would be "continually updated" as more films and books in the series were released.

Magnac had further good news for fans, revealing that Uderzo would be creating two new characters for the next Asterix comic, which will be drawn by artist Frédéric Mébarki and written by Jean Yves Ferri. "He [Uderzo] is very confident about it," said Magnac. "It will be published in 2013 – drawing a comic like this takes a long time to do."