Over 100 million visitors at Asia entertainment and amusement parks

Growing purchasing power in Asia is the main engine to growth for theme parks in Asia which are likely to generate more visitors than the USA by 2015…

BANGKOK- For the first time in its history, Asia passed the 100 million-visitors in its theme parks in 2011, a sign that growth of the leisure industry on the continent is likely to continue over the next years due to rising standards of living across the region and a demand for more technology-driven and sophisticated products. This number was communicated in the annual ‘Global Attractions Attendance Report’, published by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). Overall, the top 20 parks in Asia showed a growth of 7.5% with a 103.3 million attendance. The growth was almost twice a world’s average of 3.8%. North America top 20 parks grew only by 2.9% while Europe top 20 parks reached only a total growth of 2.8%. Asian numbers could have even be higher if it had not been slightly affected by a decline in total number of visitors to Japan following the earthquake of March 2011.

Within Asia, they are however differences. Parks in Tokyo experienced for example a decline as they had been strongly affected by the tsunami and the Fukushima catastrophe. During an entire month, both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea remained close to the public. However, parks who significantly invested into new facilities have been rewarded with higher attendance. This was the case for both Ocean Park and Disneyland in Hong Kong, which enjoyed respective growth rates of 28.7% and 13.5%. The highest growth rates were however recorded at Universal Studios Singapore with attendance up by 70.6% due to the complete opening of the park last year followed by Dinosaur Park Changzhou, up by 52.2 %. In contrary to their European or American counterparts, most Asian theme parks are characterized by the production of high-end shows or multimedia attractions. They also integrate a large activity around retail and even around residential developments.

They are more parks which have been announced in the region: by September Legoland will open its first theme park in Johor Bahru (Malaysia) near Singapore; a year later, Cartoon Networks Amazon is due to open in Pattaya and will become the first theme park from an international chain in Thailand. Universal Studios Osaka announced recently that a ‘Harry Potter’ theme would be available by the end of 2014. Shanghai Disney Resort is another massive entertainment park development due to open in December 2015. The site will cover 3.9 km2 of land in Pudong district in Shanghai. It will be three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and will cost an estimated of US$ 3.7 billion for the theme park with an additional US$ 700 million to build surrounding infrastructure as well as two resort hotels and a shopping precinct. Shanghai Disney Resort will be owned to 43% by The Walt Disney Company and 57% the Shanghai Shendi Group. The park is estimated to attract between 7 and 8 million visitors in its first operation year.

According to experts of the Entertainment Park industry, Asia is still far of having exhausted resources to develop theme parks around the city. From the top 20 parks located in Asia, China has the largest share with nine parks in the Mainland and two in Hong Kong, followed by Japan with five parks and South Korea and Southeast Asia, both represented with two parks.

Table: Asia Entertainment and Theme Parks with over three million visitors in 2011

Park	Location	Total visitors *(million)*	Growth in % over 2010
Tokyo Disneyland	Tokyo, Japan	13.996	-3.2
Tokyo Disney Sea	Tokyo, Japan	11.930	-5.8
Universal Studios Japan	Osaka, Japan	8.500	4.2
Ocean Park	Hong Kong SAR	6.955	28.7
Everland	Gyeonggi-Do, Korea	6.570	-4.6
Hong Kong Disneyland	Hong Kong SAR	5.900	13.5
Nagashima Spa Land	Kuwana, Japan	5.820	30.3
Lotte World	Seoul, Korea	5.780	4.1
OCT East	Shenzhen, China	3.890	10.2
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise	Yokohama, Japan	3.820	-5.0
Dinosaur Park	Changzhou, China	3.500	52.2
Happy Valley	Beijing, China	3.438	25.7
Universal Studios	Singapore	3.411	70.6
Songcheng Park	Hangzhou, China	3.327	-12.4
Happy Valley	Shenzhen, China	3.275	7.4
Window of the World	Shenzhen, China	3.123	17.8

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Luc Citrinot

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Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.