Is theme park a profitable business?
Our reporter Li Jialin
“I bought a magic robe for my son and daughter, and of course a magic wand and a scarf.” Recently, in the “Harry Potter’s Wizarding World” scenic spot in Beijing Universal Resort, one body was exposed to a drizzle. The middle-aged woman in a black magic robe told reporters. A Harry Potter Academy magic robe is priced at 849 yuan, a wand is 348 yuan, and a scarf is 299 yuan. Rough calculations, the play and shopping expenses of this lady’s family would be several thousand yuan more. Some netizens have long concluded that the per capita cost of Beijing Universal Resort may exceed 3,000 yuan. Despite the high price, the ceremonial items still make tourists willing to line up to pay.
The fiery opening of Beijing Universal Resort reflects the strong consumer demand for cultural heritage. “The opening of the Beijing Universal Resort will greatly promote the resumption of work and production in the cultural and tourism industry in the short term, and in the context of normalization of epidemic prevention and control. In the long run, it will be able to meet the consumer demand of the broad masses of people. New expectations provide new choices for mass tourism.” Dai Bin, Dean of China Tourism Research Institute, said that the Universal Resort has 21 travel agency platforms as partners and 30 colleges and universities as cooperative institutions. For the majority of tourism companies, especially for platform vendors and channel vendors, with products in the upstream and content in the downstream, the entire industry will come alive.
According to Yang Lei, deputy head of the Tongzhou District Government of Beijing, the construction and operation of the Beijing Universal Resort project directly promotes the economic development of Beijing’s sub-center. The total investment of the first phase of the project is 35 billion yuan, which is expected to drive an increase in GDP of 1.04 billion yuan, which will drive the GDP growth of the city’s sub-centers by about 1% per year on average. More than 3,100 new transportation, accommodation, catering, cultural, sports and entertainment will be added to the surrounding area, and 11,000 people will be employed. In the future, it is expected that the peripheral catering and accommodation sectors will generate about 2 billion yuan of overflow consumption each year.
It is understood that the Universal Resort will form a strong influence zone with a radius of 5 to 10 kilometers and a joint influence zone of 30 kilometers. Beijing Tongzhou District will combine with the construction of an international consumption center city, focusing on the layout of high-quality commercial complexes in cultural tourism areas, canal business districts, etc., expand high-quality consumer supply, focus on young consumer groups, and create a fusion of global themes, performing arts, entertainment, games, animation, etc. Element’s new consumption format has launched offline themed flagship store scenes that are industry exemplary and innovative. Relevant data shows that since Universal Resort began its pressure test and trial operation, the search volume of surrounding homestays has risen by 200%. Industry experts predict that Universal Studios Beijing will maintain a relatively high popularity within one to two years after the official opening of the park.
The enthusiasm of Beijing Universal Resort has also brought the theme park industry into people’s attention again. It is understood that there are thousands of theme parks in China. With the development of the domestic cultural industry gradually moving towards high quality, a number of emerging local theme parks have gradually formed unique competitive advantages through differentiated development concepts. As my country enters a well-off society in an all-round way, the “happy economy” brought by theme parks will become an important booster driving consumption upgrades.
At the same time, it should also be noted that most of the current domestic theme parks still have problems such as insufficient local culture excavation, weak IP and cultural creativity capabilities, and insufficient continuous innovation. Industry experts said that “culture + technology” is the root and soul of the theme park’s future development. If there is no root and soul, the theme park may only be a temporary hot spot. Especially in domestic theme parks, many are imitating and catching up, resulting in partial repeated construction and inefficient development, and it is difficult to produce influential brands. In contrast, theme parks such as Disney and Universal Studios continue to iterate their products, so that visitors will feel different every time. Foreign-funded theme parks have benefited greatly from brand output and operation management. In the future, domestic theme parks should put more effort in creating IP creativity and operation management, and pay more attention to “quality” competition, so as to enhance the cultural connotation and quality of theme parks.
Our reporter Li Jialin
Our reporter Li Jialin
.