A number of reports and research show that world-class theme parks are shifting their development centers to China and the Asia-Pacific region. In China alone, 59 new theme parks will be completed by the year of 2020.  Only in 2015, in China, there were 21 new theme parks and 20 theme parks under construction, among them were Shenyang Lotte World, Qingdao Wanda Studio (also known as Oriental Hollywood) and eight other world-class theme parks with a super large scale.  The big heads of world-branded theme parks are fighting to occupy the China market; for example, Disneyland has opened in Pudong, Shanghai and Universal Studios in Tongzhou, Beijing.  And their ambitions will be able to perform wonders under the huge economic pull effect of tourism, business and culture.

Currently, the development of theme parks in China seems to follow the fast lane of expansion.  Unfortunately, competition among the current theme parks is homogeneous competition.  Those theme parks not only have similar amusement rides and themes, but also do poor performance on the presentation of cultural themes in the park and park construction because most of them only have a general concept in mind but with no unique creativity and design.  Therefore, if theme park operators keep blindly following the trend and find no specific ways to solve the above problems, then when the craze of theme park gets over they will have to bear the pain of overcapacity.  At present, the newly constructed Wanda Wuhan Movie Park and Anji Hello Kitty Park have received a cold welcome from the general public, which can be seen as an ill omen for theme park development.

No whether it is the popular science education provided by aquariums or the thrilling and exciting feelings received from visiting entertainment parks, it shows that theme parks only fulfill people’s needs of sensory experience by providing amusement equipment and festival performances.  However, the essence of themed entertainment uses a special process to find and experience the “Surrealism and Cultural Difference”.  It stresses its charm and appeal more on creativity, experience and interactivity than hardware (equipment).  In the future, the operation mode of theme parks is bound to be subverted.  Theme parks will no longer be places only for playing, but provide an entertainment experience space led by specific themes.

Imagine that there were free Ferris wheels and roller coasters in shopping malls and free water parks and XD cinemas in hotels in the future.  Then the operation mode of theme parks will transform from the traditional “flow depends on theme” to “theme depends on flow”.  But if operators regard theme parks as a creative space, then whatever the operators want it be it can be.  For example, the space can be in use for concerts, films, technology development, business and so on.  Amusement rides are only a gimmick to attract customers; in the future, operators will still rely on retail, catering and other derivative industries to make money.  Especially the “super experience with high margin”, which will become a heated topic to make big money in the future.  For example, Songcheng’s combination mode of culture, tourism and business, Fanta’s “front shop, back factory” mode, and China Dinosaur Park’s plan of “escape from theme park”, all of turn themselves from a simple theme park operation to “operations with investment, services, and overall solutions”.

It is easy to see that there will be a polarization underlying China’s future theme park development: The stronger ones grow more popular.  They will develop themselves from single theme parks to themed leisure communities, including hotels, shopping malls tourism complexes and so on.  The weaker ones get their own niche.  After all, the China market is so big, but it is only if the operators seize the fragmented entertainment and work hard on developing a theme culture, that they can also make their space in the market.

※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 153 in May, 2017