NEW WAYS TO PLAY

China's theme parks are enjoying bright prospects as the sector matures, Yang Feiyue reports.

China's theme-park market remains vigorous as it benefits from increasing disposable incomes among the growing middle-income earners and demand for themed entertainment, says a recent report by infrastructure-consultancy company AECOM.

The country saw more than 30 new theme-park projects over the past three years－the most in the world, the report says.

Most are in so-called emerging first-tier cities, such as Jiangsu province's capital, Nanjing, and Henan province's capital, Zhengzhou.

Although COVID-19 has temporarily delayed new projects' openings, the continued planning and construction of theme parks remains a long-term and realizable ambition for China, the report says.

Amid the domestic tourism market's gradual recovery, 12 new projects opened in the second half of 2020, marking a general increase in quality, it says.

Overseas Chinese Town received 4.7 million visits during the recent Spring Festival holiday from Feb 11 to 17.

Its Happy Valley theme park in Hubei province's capital, Wuhan, which was the city hit hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak, was particularly popular.

OCT rolled out more than 400 themed events in June and October 2020, and received more than 40 million visits in the interim, the company says.

And OCT has launched new programs in Nanjing and Shandong province's capital, Jinan, to offer more immersive experiences.

Universal Beijing completed its core projects at the end of last year and is ready to greet travelers.

The resort launched 10,000 "early-rights" packages on Oct 21, which sold out in just 131 seconds. Similar packages launched on Oct 23 and 28 also sold out within seconds. Customers who bought these packages can buy tickets five days before general sale and can choose when to visit the parks.

The Universal Beijing resort has integrated Chinese culture to tell stories in a Chinese context, says Sabrina Han, creative coordinator for the resort's Transformers Metrobase.

Chinese humor, pop culture and creative thinking are also considered in the attraction's development.

"Storytelling has become a standard feature of theme parks," says Beth Chang, executive director for economic practices at Asia AECOM.

"Most of the newer theme-park projects in China revolve around local history and culture."

Employing popular intellectual property has long been recognized as advantageous for theme-park development, and parks across China have realized the potential advantages of IP in cultivating storylines, enhancing visitor experiences, increasing attendance and boosting secondary consumption, Chang says.

AECOM says it has found more than half of the parks have introduced IP to varying degrees.

But experts caution IP is not necessarily a silver bullet for all theme parks.

"It's important to clearly understand the purpose behind introducing IP－for example, to boost marketability－and then select appropriate IP that can achieve these objectives, noting local market preference," Chang says.

Quality also requires a focus on themed entertainment's primary focus－immersive and fun experiences that can be shared with family and friends, she says.

Some theme parks have in the past three years changed their "gated" models from charging for entry to pay-per-play models, she explains.

Non-gated operations have become more popular following their adoption by such large domestic groups as Wanda and SUNAC.

About 30 parks, or roughly 20 percent, of the projects AECOM tracks in China are non-gated.

Yet Chang cautions that shifting to non-gated operations isn't the right approach for all parks.

"This business model is most successful in densely populated urban locations that attract heavy footfall," she says.

Some low-end parks have dropped out of the market, while more competitive ones have survived.

The number of major domestic theme parks increased by more than 20 by the end of 2020, compared with 2018.

Market pressures gave rise to a "survival-of-the-fittest" challenge in 2020, with weaker parks closing due to poor performance, the report says.

Around 20 parks have closed over the past three years, 70 to 80 percent of which commanded an initial capital investment of less than 1 billion yuan ($154.6 million) and had no obvious theme, the report says. Their operations were poor and annual attendance was generally less than 1 million visits a year.

Second- and third-tier cities may evolve as investment hotspots as projects diversify, the AECOM report predicts.

As of January 2021, around 80 new parks planned to open across China between 2021 and 2025, it says.

First-tier metropolises and emerging first-tier cities are best suited for international IP, while second- and third-tier cities are becoming popular for local-brand investment.

Second- and third-tier cities in relatively developed areas, such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area, are expected to become investment hot spots for theme-entertainment products, the report says.

"From the perspective of product type and target market, the positioning of new attractions is expected to become more segmented and niche, with developers and operators no longer always pursuing 'large and comprehensive'," Chang says.

In the next five years, many leading international IP-holders, such as Universal Studios, Legoland and Nickelodeon, will continue to enter China's market, while cities are looking to partner with strong IPs to develop theme parks of different scales and positioning to become more competitive in the entertainment industry, AECOM points out.

That's especially as China is accelerating urbanization.

"With the repositioning of urban functions and ongoing industrial transformation, the improvements to image and the success stories of strong theme-park projects are attracting more attention than ever," Chang says.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn