China News Service, Beijing, October 2 (Reporter Sun Chenhui) In the past few days, passenger flow has been pouring in. Playing, eating, shopping, watching performances, and staying in the park all day have become many people's holiday arrangements.
"Spring Festival, May Day, summer vacation, and National Day are all key nodes for theme parks." Lin Huanjie, president of the China Theme Park Research Institute, said that the long National Day holiday is suitable for both cross-city travel and surrounding travel. Theme parks have become holiday destinations for many families.
The long holiday passenger flow, first test "can handle it"
The first thing that will be tested when the passenger flow is concentrated during the “October 1st” holiday is the reception capacity of the park.
How long are the queues for popular items, whether catering can be provided in time, how performances are connected, whether night activities can be carried out smoothly, as well as sanitation, transportation and safety, etc. These details will ultimately fall on the tourists' experience in the park.
In Lin Huanjie’s view, competition in theme parks is no longer just about amusement facilities. A ticket is being stretched into a day. Since he started paying attention to this industry in the 1980s, he has witnessed the growth of theme parks in China from a few to many, and has also watched as tourists have more and more choices.
In 1989, Shenzhen Splendid China opened, which is widely regarded by the industry as an important starting point for the development of modern theme parks in China. Since then, theme parks such as Happy Valley, Chimelong, and Fantawild have developed one after another.
Shanghai Disney opened in 2016; Universal Beijing Resort opened in 2021. International brands have entered China, allowing tourists to be exposed to more mature themed and immersive experiences.
IP craze, take another test to "be able to enter the drama"
"Those who get IPs win the world." Lin Huanjie said that in recent years, popular IPs have become the personal identification of many tourists, and there are not a few people who go straight to popular projects after entering the park.
If an animated character or a movie is just put into the park, it will be difficult to truly become the core product of the theme park. Characters, stories, scenes, amusement facilities, performances, catering and merchandise all need to revolve around the same IP.
Today, international IPs such as Harry Potter and Transformers have accumulated relatively mature development experience.
China also has popular works such as "Bear Bears", "Nezha", and "The Wandering Earth", but from film and television, animation to theme parks, there are still links such as research and development, design, construction, and operation. Lin Huanjie believes that the most difficult thing is to truly transform IP into offline experience.
"The operator first starts from psychology, secondly looks for the most exciting and memorable plot in the movie, and thirdly studies what form of experience to use to make tourists feel fresh and immersed."
In the business era, the test of "living long" is still important
By the end of 2024, the number of theme parks in China will exceed 400.
After the number increases, how to continuously update products, improve service levels, and form its own characteristics has become a practical problem facing the park.
Lin Huanjie summarized the development of the industry as moving from the "construction era" to the "operation era". He believes that theme parks in the future will be more differentiated. Some serve local and surrounding tourists, some serve as regional tourist destinations, and some rely on unique IP and products to attract cross-regional passenger flow.
Different locations, different customer groups, and different business methods. "In the next few years, theme parks with poor regional conditions, no ability to update, no IP, and average service levels will soon be eliminated." Lin Huanjie said.
The "October 1" short holiday is one of the most concentrated periods of the year for passenger flow. For tourists, it is a vacation; for theme parks, it is a concentrated test of products and services. From "something to do" to "worth playing", tourists have more and more choices, and what theme parks need to do is becoming more and more specific.
