Driven by multiple factors such as a massive population in its domestic market, an increase in the incomes and number of middle-class households, an explosive surge in the demand for travel and recreation, consumption upgrades, and transportation improvements, the development of China’s leisure and tourism industry enjoys strong momentum and the theme park sector has delivered remarkable performance.  Aviation World will kick off in Chengdu, Sichuan next year, an indoor “Hello Kitty” theme park will find its home in Shanghai in 2018, Universal Studios Beijing will be inaugurated in 2020 in Tongzhou District of Beijing, while the Messi Experience Park is slated to open its doors to greet guests in the beginning of 2019.  In recent years various types of theme parks in China have been enjoying a phenomenal spurt of growth.  Theme parks such as Disneyland, Happy Valley and Chimelong have all accelerated their pace of development and have become popular destinations for vacation and leisure for Chinese consumers.  In the next few years, there will be another batch of theme parks to land in China and consumers will have more theme park options “at their doorstep”.  Obviously, Asia has become the focus of the global theme park industry and the theme park industry in China has officially entered a golden age with a tremendous market.  It is predicted that the theme park market of China will reach US$12 billion by 2020.

At present theme parks worldwide are undergoing product upgrades, transforming from a monotonous scenic area to a resort which integrates multiple types of products and businesses so as to make guests stay longer.  According to data monitoring of Tuniu Net, close to 70% of the users who booked theme park admission tickets also booked related services such as dining and hotels.  For example, Shanghai Disney Resort’s auxiliary hotels like Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and Toy Story Hotel are popular options among a large number of users because of factors like their Disney style and short distance away from the theme park.

Based on the analysis of domestic and foreign companies, successful theme parks are all backed by their own core IPs and a complete and all-inclusive industry chain and have established their distinctive brand advantages so they could stand out among numerous theme parks in the Chinese market.  By creating differentiation, they can avoid being duplicated and imitated by competitors.  Moreover, adopting moderate asset-light expansion is good for turning the brand value of theme parks into cash in more diverse ways so as to enlarge their industry chain and value chain.  For instance, Overseas Chinese Town is the largest in overall scale in China and employs the model of “real estate plus theme park”; Songcheng Performance Development, a privately held theme park operator with performing arts as its core competence, utilizes performing arts to create differentiation and has full-scale online deployment; Fantawild integrates “travel, IP and VR”.

The growth models adopted by theme parks shall decide who will go farther and we shall wait and see!