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This June, the whole world is eyeing on the opening of Shanghai Disneyland. Although the admission ticket is priced 400 RMB, a relative high price compared to other theme parks’, visitors are still crowding into this amazing dreamland. However, we couldn’t help but think what is the reason behind this phenomenon? We can see the huge population and strong spending power driving the fast growth of theme park market in China. As Disneyland has become one of the most discussed topics, the other theme parks in China are ready for the big challenge made by the opening of Disneyland especially for those located neighborly Shanghai. The richest man in Mainland China, Wang Jianlin, opened Nanchang Wanda City before the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, and in his theme park is located the biggest aquarium in the world and the fastest, longest and highest jet coaster and the highest falling tower in China and the best performance shows. Besides Nanchang Wanda City, there are seven other theme parks under construction, which are going to welcome the public this September in Hefei City, 2017 in Harbin City, 2018 in Qingdao City and Guangzhou City and 2019 in Wuxi City, showing Wanda’s ambitions to challenge Shanghai Disneyland.
With the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, the whole industry was celebrating the annual industry party of AAE 2016, which came back to Shanghai for the first time since it was originally held in Shanghai in 2006. This year, AAE featured 11,500 sq. meters net show area (22% increase over AAE Hong Kong last year), more than 350 exhibitors from home and abroad, and 8,000 industry professionals from 65 countries and regions including 6,000 buyers. With more than 100 Chinese manufacturers, AAE 2016 was regarded as the biggest edition of its history. In the past 10 years, the attractions industry has been developing at an amazing speed and attracted lots of industry elites and investment, making a very prosperous industry.
As was reported in the IAAPA Global Theme and Amusement Park Outlook 2015-2019, Asian visitors will account for 50% of the global visitors by 2019. Paul Noland, CEO and President of IAAPA made a speech in the opening ceremony of AAE 2016, where he pointed out that Asia-Pacific’s attraction industry is developing fast leading to the establishment of thousands of theme parks, water parks, playgrounds and resorts every year. More and more investment is injected into this industry and more and more visitors are being attracted to Asia-Pacific region--the industry can see how Asia-Pacific region is leading the global attraction and amusement industry in the future. Besides Disneyland and Six Flags, it is believed that more international theme brands will target China’s market in future! Meanwhile, GTI Asia China Expo held in Guangzhou from Sept. 9~11, is the most representative industry trade fair in China, and is regarded as the fastest access to know about how prosperous China’s market is!
※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 143 in June, 2016
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