Children interact with a performer dressed up as a transformer in the Happy Valley Beijing theme park on April 2 (CFP)

Confidence in the spending power and habits of Asian consumers is attracting international amusement parks to enter the burgeoning Chinese market.

According to the IAAPA Global Theme and Amusement Park Outlook 2015-19, theme park attendance in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to reach 540 million in 2019. This will account for 45 percent of total global attendance, up from 41 percent in 2014 and 34 percent in 2009. New projects and park expansions in China, India, Japan and Southeast Asia are contributing to the market's rapid growth.

Before the Shanghai Disney Resort opened on June 16, the world's first Discovery Adventures Park opened on April 26 on Mogan Mountain of Deqing County, Zhejiang Province.

Moreover, the construction of Universal Studios Beijing has been accelerated, and the park is the sixth such theme park globally and the third of its kind in Asia. To top it off, on May 22, Fosun International Ltd. announced that the Atlantis Sanya resort it invested 11 billion yuan ($1.67 billion) in is expected to open in October 2017.

Rivalry over China

"Mainland Chinese consumers have upgraded a lot in their behavior in the last 10 years," Jennifer So, a tourism analyst at China Securities International in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg. "They want experiences, not just shopping. That's why so many theme park operators see opportunities there."

The growth of international amusement parks actually indicates a new era composed of a leisure economy in China. Building a one-stop travel and leisure resort and making consumers stay within the venue as long as possible are the goals of these international amusement parks.

For instance, Atlantis Sanya is not merely a hotel project for Fosun, but an important investment in the travel and leisure business. "We hope that Atlantis Sanya will be a product that can grow in Fosun's industrial ecosphere and then move to establish a travel industrial chain covering the whole world," said Qian Jiannong, President of Fosun Tourism and Commercial Group.

Support from local governments also plays a part in attracting international theme parks, which results from their recognition of the tourism industry's role in boosting the local economy. For example, the Discovery Adventures Park is an important part of the Deqing County Government's plan to build Mogan Mountain into an international tourism resort. This move is spurred by the success of similar projects in the county such as the Naked Retreats and Le Passage resorts.

Tourists try adventure programs at the Discovery Adventures Park on Mogan Mountain, located in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province on May 13 (CFP)

Different target audiences

International theme parks have made their niche in the theme park market clear. Disney Resorts and Universal Studios are entertainment theme parks featuring Disney cartoon figures and Hollywood movies respectively, while the Atlantis resort and Discovery Adventures Park are experience-oriented amusement parks with leisure themes.

The Discovery Adventures Park is a product extended from the world's most successful pay-TV content provider, the Discovery Channel. Although the channel itself enjoys high popularity, this is the group's first foray into the theme park market and is also a Sino-foreign joint venture.

In an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald, Nicolas Bonard, Senior Vice President of Discovery Global Enterprises, said that discovery, challenge and curiosity are the main themes of the Discovery brand, which the park will also attempt to convey.

According to Bonard, the Discovery Adventures Park is clearly positioned as a high-end tourist destination featuring outdoor leisure sports. Mogan Mountain is a well-known summer resort with a good ecological environment, and what Discovery Adventures Park needs to do is to make effective use of the natural environment.

A challenge that international amusement parks have to face when entering the Chinese market is whether or not they will integrate Chinese culture into their parks and if so, how.

Shanghai Disney Resort announced in April 2011 that it will blend Disney storytelling with traditional Chinese culture, which will be reflected in seasonal parades, traditional Chinese food and entertainment programs.

In the Shanghai Disney Resort, there is a Garden of the Twelve Friends, where the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac are depicted by popular Disney and Pixar movie characters. Twelve Disney characters have been chosen to embody different symbols of the Chinese zodiac while still showcasing their own distinctive Disney personalities. But whether or not those adaptations will be prominent enough is another matter.

Local economy benefits

"The goal of the Discovery Adventures Park in the short term is to become a new tourist attraction for Deqing and to boost the tourism economy in Zhejiang," said Terence Chu, Chairman of Discovery Adventures Park.

According to the report On the Relationship Between Theme Parks' Construction and Regional Economy—A Case of Disney Theme Park, published in Modern Urban Research, all five of the Disney theme parks opened before 2011 are in large or super-large cities and have enormous numbers of visitors. With good regional economic conditions and large crowds of visitors, theme parks are able to repay the cities that they are located in and become powerhouses for local economies. For instance, visitors to the Tokyo Disney Resort spend $17 billion each year, while the Hong Kong Disneyland offers 20,000 local job opportunities, and around the Disneyland Resort in California, there are more than 30 other tourist attractions and 20,000 hotel rooms.

The report says that as a representative of U.S. culture, Disneyland will, after entering Shanghai, boost the development of a great number of related cultural industries, including TV, broadcasting, publications, printing, souvenirs, consulting, etc.

"The Discovery Adventures Park has already had long-term plans for development in the future," Chu said.

"Aside from the Yangtze River Delta, our parks are likely to cover the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and south China's Pearl River Delta, and our projects will include theme parks, resorts, sports events, big data and videos," said Chu. "A unique sports travel ecosphere will ultimately be built."

Copyedited by Bryan Michael Galvan

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