Why are global theme park giants rushing to China?
The Universal Beijing Resort is scheduled to open officially on September 20.
The Universal Beijing Resort is scheduled to open officially on September 20, which coincides with this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, after a 19-day trial operation.
It is expected to have 10 to12 million visitors annually after opening.
Tickets were sold out within one minute on September 14 midnight.
Universal Parks and Resorts is just one of a number of global giants in the amusement park industry tapping into Chinese market.
Shanghai Disney Resort celebrated its fifth anniversary this summer, and three Legoland parks are under construction across China.
According to the 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme Index, theme parks in China saw a much higher attendance growth than their counterparts abroad. The contrast will be widened after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Source: 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme Index
The growing theme park industry in China
The first theme park in China, Splendid China, opened in 1989 in Shenzhen and focused on Chinese folk culture.
Splendid China in Shenzhen
Since then, the industry has been growing rapidly in China with 92 large and super theme parks built in the past 30 years, according to "2020 Evaluation of Theme Park Competitiveness" report released by East China Normal University and Shanghai Normal University.
The report evaluated 50 major theme parks in China, which had 109 million visitors and a total revenue of 16 billion yuan in 2020.
Guangdong is the province with the most theme parks in China. Two leading domestic theme park groups are Fantawild and Oct Parks, according to the report.
A theme park of Fantawild in Qingdao, Shandong Province
A Oct Parks theme park in Chuxiong, Yunnan Province
Where do international theme park groups invest in China?
Why do they choose these cities?
These amusement parks are all located in the most populous and prosperous regions of China.
