|by Clive B. Jones & A ; John Robinett | |State Of The Industry |Theme Parks And Tourism |Developing Trends | [ movie ] |Introduction |The subject park has several historical ancestors. including the ride-based amusement Parkss of early 20th| |century America and the garden Parks of Europe. || |The birth of the modern subject park. nevertheless. is normally recognized as happening with the gap of |Disneyland about 30 old ages ago.
| |Economics Research Associates ( ERA ) has completed many assignments for the Walt Disney Company over the | |years. and. since Disneyland. subject Parkss have multiplied throughout the universe. And they all bear the | |following primary features: | |They have a household entreaty ; | |They contain one or more themed environments ; | |They have some signifier of “ambient amusement.
” That is. sauntering. instrumentalists. performing artists. costumed | |characters and the similar. who performs for “free” ; | |They have a high investing degree per unit of drive or show capacity ; | |They have high criterions of service and care and cleanliness ; | |They contain adequate activities ( amusement content ) to make an mean visitant length of stay of | |typically 5 to 7 hours ; and eventually. | |They will normally. but non ever. hold a pay-one-price admittance policy. | |Recently. there have been fluctuations from the expression. These include subject Parkss oriented around one | |theme or toward one market.
This includes aquatic Parkss and children’s Parkss. A 2nd going from the| |traditional subject park is indoor subject Parkss combined with retail shopping centres. The largest illustrations | |of these are West Edmonton Mall in Canada. Lotte World in Seoul and Mall of America in Minneapolis. | |State of the Industry | |The subject park industry has witnessed a reasonably rapid international enlargement in recent old ages. Growth has | |been focused largely in Europe and Japan. It is informative to compare industry development in the U. S. | |with where other universe markets stand. | |The U. S. industry has had about a 30-year growing to adulthood.
This was characterized by an origin | |period pioneered by Disney in the late fifties and early sixties. rapid growing period through the seventies. and | |maturity in the 80s. Europe and North Asia are presently in the rapid growing stage of their subject park | |industries. The underdeveloped states are in the origin period. While the U. S. experience can non be | |directly translated to foreign markets. we can be moderately assured that Europe. and North Asia will | |continue to hold reasonably strong growing over the following 10 old ages or so. and it will be 5 old ages or more before| |we see any important growing in the development states.
| |Europe | |Europe has a figure of bing Parkss. The industry is spread throughout western Europe with a big | |concentration of attractive forces in Germany. France. the Benelux states. and the United Kingdom. Expansion| |of the industry into southern Europe is now taking topographic point. with several planned or enforced undertakings in| |Spain. Italy. Turkey. and Greece. There are besides a figure of proposed undertakings in North Africa and the | |Middle East.
| |Currently. the European subject park industry consists of 19 major attractive forces with one-year attending of | |over 1 million. and some 45 moderate-scale attractive forces with attending between 500. 000 and 1 million. | |Europe’s Parkss generate one-year attending of about 70 million individuals. and grosss of around $ 1. 5 | |billion. The European industry is about 1/3 the size of the U. S. industry in footings of grosss. | |The European market is altering. of class. with the recent gap of the EuroDisney undertaking. | |The war cries for Europe are ANTICIPATION. REPOSITIONING. EXPANSION and CONSOLIDATION.
| | | |1. Anticipation – | |Wherever Disney subject Parkss enter new markets there are important structural alterations to the autochthonal | |theme park industries. In the U. S. . Disney’s first attractive force. Disneyland. founded the industry. In | |Florida. Disney’s attractive force converted an unknown swamp into America’s premier tourer finish and | |attraction market. and in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland spurred growing of the Nipponese subject park industry. We | |believe Disney will hold a important impact on the attractions’ industry in France and Europe.
This | |impact will be in six cardinal countries: | |EuroDisney will spread out the overall European subject park industry and concentrate the industry in Paris by | |creation of a multi-park finish attractive force composite. | |Disney will educate the market as to the subject park merchandise. the quality of the subject park experience. | |and the value of the pay-one-price admittance for a twenty-four hours of quality amusement. | |Disney will supply monetary value leading in the market. This will let others to monetary value up to Disney degrees. | |EuroDisney will make selling consciousness.
Disney’s good established and originative selling plans | |will create consciousness in the market and besides enlighten rivals relative to the usage of effectual | |marketing techniques. | |EuroDisney will better direction expertness in the European subject park concern. EDL will develop and | |create a labour pool of experient subject park directors which will in the hereafter aid to heighten the | |performance of the European subject park concern as a whole. | |Finally. EDL will make the demand for proper merchandise positioning to complement Disney in the market country.
| |A assortment of mark selling and placement schemes have proven successful elsewhere in markets | |shared with Disney Parkss. | | | |2. Shifting – | |Many of the European Parkss have been spread outing and shifting with a renewed accent on reinvestment | |and selling. Many European attractive forces have undertaken major enlargement plans increasing drive and | |show capacity and spread outing visitant services such as eating houses and ware countries ( countries where | |European Parkss have traditionally lagged behind the U. S. ) .
Major enlargement plans have occurred at | |Alton Towers in England. De Efteling. in Holland. Gardaland in Italy. Parc Asterix in France. Walibi in | |Belgium. and other European attractive forces. | |Several European Parkss have repositioned themselves in the market place. In the yesteryear. the Parkss relied on | |steady repetition concern from the immediate occupant market. This market responded to the attraction’s low | |admission monetary values. picnic countries. and comparatively inactive environments which offered a quasi-public park | |experience.
Through recent reinvestment plans. Parkss have repositioned themselves as more active and | |commercial attractive forces with higher admittance monetary values. and pulling from slightly larger markets. | | | |3. Expansion – | |The European subject park industry has besides been marked by new development activity in recent old ages. In the| |last four old ages. new attractive force development has been focused chiefly in France. | |EuroDisney opened in 1992 but was preceded ( possibly foolishly ) by four other new attractive forces: | |Asterix. | |The Smurf Park. | |Mirapolis. and | |Zygofolis.
| |Disney has yet to be good accepted by the Gallic market although it is making rather good with tourers. | |The other new Gallic Parkss have struggled financially. due to blemish in design. development. and | |management. Two ( Mirapolis and Zygofolis ) have gone belly-up and significantly damaged the enthusiasm of | |investors and loaners. Busch is continuing with its park in Tarragona. Spain and several other new | |projects are proposed in Southern Europe. Legoland is besides spread outing to several new key markets. | | | |4.
Consolidation – | |A concluding tendency in the European subject park concern is the consolidation of the industry into cardinal ownership| |groups. This occurs in industries as they mature and has besides been a tendency in the U. S. In Europe. | |several attractive force acquisitions have begun this procedure. In 1990. Madame Tussauds purchased Alton Towers | | ( Madame Tussauds besides owns several smaller attractive forces on the Continent and the Rock Circus attractive force in| |London ) . The Walibi organisation purchased The Smurf Park ( now called Walibi Smurf ) . increasing their | |theme park industry retentions to four Parkss.
Finally. Accor. France’s largest hotel operator. acquired a | |controlling involvement in Parc Asterix. With European fusion and the go oning ripening of the | |European subject park industry. this tendency will go on. | |It is excessively early to find tendencies for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe but a figure of strategies have | |surfaced including subject Parkss oriented toward increasing touristry based foreign exchange. Because of the | |rapid alterations in these markets. we may hold to wait some clip before we see any important development | |in the amusement and subject park industry.
However. we should maintain our oculus on them. Winston Churchill may | |have put it this manner “Never in the history of world have so many been so un-amused for so long. ” | | | | | |North Asia | |Asia is the world’s next taking international subject park market. It includes a mature industry in Japan. | |strong growing in Korea. strong public presentation in Hong Kong. underserved markets in Taiwan. and a quickly | |changing China. | |A significant amusement park industry has been established in Japan since the recovery from the post-war | |period.
A assortment of themed attractive forces and legion amusement Parkss are located throughout the state. | |the growing of this concern has been assisted by the presence of major amusement drive makers in | |Japan. | |There are strong concentrations of amusement and subject Parkss in the Kanto part around Tokyo and the | |Kansai part near Osaka and Kobe. These are the two chief urban countries in Japan and they both have immense | |population bases which support a assortment of attractive forces. A 3rd concentration. now in the formative | |stages. is on the southern island of Kyushu.
The Kyushu country is developing as a resort finish country | |which includes several Parkss and attractive forces. including Harmonyland. | |Tokyo Disneyland. which opened in 1983. brought the large-scale subject park merchandise to Japan. and since | |that clip. several big undertakings have been built including the $ 630 million Puroland in Tama. and Nippon| |Space World in Kyushu. Several other big undertakings are presently being planned or underway. | |The Nipponese industry at nowadays has about 29 big Parkss with one-year attending over 1 million individuals. | |and 30 moderate-scale Parkss with attending between 500. 000 individuals and 1 million individuals.
As a whole. | |the Nipponese industry generates about 75 million attendants and about $ 1. 5 billion in one-year grosss. | |This topographic points the Nipponese industry at about 30 per centum of the U. S. industry in footings of grosss. On a | |revenue per capita footing. nevertheless. they are moderately near. | |The war cries for Asia are SELECTIVE GROWTH and SHORT TERM RETRENCHMENT. | | | |1. Growth – | |For the last five to seven old ages at that place has been a strong involvement in subject park development in Japan and | |Korea. Much of this was catalyzed by the success of Tokyo Disneyland.
Other factors driving Nipponese | |interests in subject Parkss have been the high degree of discretional income available for amusement. | |and a heightened national involvement in leisure. Besides. the Nipponese authorities. until really late. has | |provided strong inducements for leisure development. | |There are several-large scale subject park undertakings under consideration at this clip. These include a | |second-gate attractive force at Tokyo Disneyland. which may be a film studio park or the Disney Sea attraction| |originally planned for Long Beach.
California. a major sea life park in the Awaji country near Osaka. a | |large-scale subject park proposed for a big landfill country in Kobe. MCA’s Universal Studios Japan undertaking. | |expansion of Yongin Farmland in Korea. enlargement of Ocean Park. Hong Kong. several proposed undertakings in | |Taiwan. and a push by China to promote subject park investing. There are besides legion other undertakings | |being discussed. | | | |2. Retrenchment – | |In the last twelvemonth or so. there has been a retrenchment of the subject park industry in Japan. In the late | |1980s. major Nipponese corporations entered this industry with relish.
Unfortunately. their attempts were | |met in many instances with design. operating. and fiscal troubles at some of the major undertakings which | |were opened. | |Several ill executing undertakings which have been fiscal drains on the major corporations which have | |developed them. hold created an air of cautiousness in Japan about the subject park concern. This combined with| |economic ailments being faced in different sections of the country’s economic system have slowed down the growing of | |the subject park industry as the Nipponese reassess what makes this industry work. and what the theoretical account for | |Japan should be.
| | | |Developing World | |Developing states are concerned with many economic and societal development issues. Some see touristry as | |a major force for economic betterment and expression to themed attractive forces as portion of the touristry merchandise. | |There is besides a turning occupant market that has the income necessary to afford attractive forces. | |It is informative to look at the world’s population distribution. Right now. 78 per centum of the world’s | |5. 4 billion people. or 4. 2 billion people. live in developing states. By the twelvemonth 2010. 82 per centum of | |the world’s population will populate in these states.
Even if 20 per centum of these people are | |income-qualified for a subject park merchandise. that is a market nearing 1 billion people! And many of | |these economic systems. peculiarly in Asia. are spread outing and have lifting income degrees. | |It will be some clip before the development states have major subject or amusement park industries. but | |some states should be seeing development activity in the close term. Countries to maintain an oculus on are | |Brazil. Mexico. India. Thailand. the Middle East. and the Southeast Asiatic growing trigon of Singapore. | |Malaysia and Indonesia. | |North America | | .
The U. S. subject park industry is by far the largest in the universe. There are about 40 large-scale | |parks with one-year attending of over 1 million. and about 55 moderate-scale Parkss with attendance| |between 500. 000 and 1 million. | |Annual attending at these attractive forces sums 159 million individuals with grosss of $ 4. 5 billion. The U. S. | |industry dominates the universe. in graduated table. merchandise invention. selling understanding. and runing cognition. | |The U. S. is a mature industry. Growth has been at a compounded one-year rate of about 3 per centum over the | |last 10 old ages.
About? of this growing has come from the add-on of new Parkss and non from attending | |increases in bing Parkss. Per capita outgos have somewhat exceeded the rate of rising prices. | |reflecting admission monetary value additions and strong growing in ware gross revenues and games grosss. When we | |combine attending growing with per capita outgo additions. we see an one-year gross growing of about| |9 per centum over the last 10 old ages. | |The war cries for the U. S. industry are: MATURATION. CONSOLIDATION. DIVERSIFICATION. and DESTINATION | |TOURISM.
| | | |1. Maturation – | |The bulk of U. S. markets capable of back uping large-scale. out-of-door subject Parkss already have them. It| |is unlikely that a important figure of major regional subject Parkss will be developed in the hereafter. | |Growth in this industry has stabilized. and at that place should non be any immense fluctuations in attending or | |development activity. However. there are chances for seting merchandise to accommodate altering markets and| |to efficaciously compete with other amusement for consumers’ leisure clip and outgos. | | | |2.
Consolidation – | |Typical of a maturing industry. there have been legion alterations in subject park ownership over the last | |several old ages. This indicates a strong consolidation tendency. Much of the control of the industry is now | |focused into a few multi-park runing companies: Disney. Time Warner/Six Flags. Paramount/KECO. | |Anheuser Busch and MCA-Universal. | |Three major corporations have left the industry ( Taft Broadcasting. Marriott Corporation. and Harcourt | |Brace Javonavich ) . In 1984. Taft’s amusement group. King’s Entertainment Company ( known as KECO ) for | |a $ 167.
5 million in a purchase buyout dealing. KECO now owns five Parkss and manages a 6th in | |Australia. They have late been acquired by Paramount. | |The Marriott Corporation sold its two Parkss to deprive themselves from the industry. One was in Santa | |Clara and is now owned by KECO. and the other was in the Chicago country and is now owned by Six Flags. | |HBJ. old proprietors of the Sea World Parks. sold all of their Parkss to Busch. which already owned two | |parks. Busch’s subject park retentions now entire seven with a planned attractive force in Spain.
| |The seven Six Flags Parkss have been sold as a group several times and are now owned by Time/Warner. Four | |of the Six Flags Parkss started by independent operators. | |Disney continues to increase their ownership in the industry by constructing more attractive forces. Within the | |last several old ages they have opened three attractive forces: the Disney/MGM Studio Tour. Typhoon Lagoon. and | |Pleasure Island. Disney has besides announced programs for extra attractive forces in Anaheim on | |Disneyland-adjacent belongings. | | | |3. Diversification – | |The U. S.
subject park industry is diversifying into new smaller-scale targeted merchandises for “niche” markets| |which may non be covered by the large-scale subject Parkss. | |ERA feels that this tendency is being driven by market chances like those which drove enlargement of the| |theme park industry several decennaries ago. The subject park development roar in the 1970s represented a | |massive. to a great extent capitalized response to the demand to supply babe boomers with household amusement. | |Theme Parkss fit into the urban cloth of America by being located next to big. constitutional metropolitan | |markets. and on comparatively cheap land.
| |The 80s witnessed a narrowing of market and merchandise focal point with the smaller investing waterparks. This | |was the first major variegation of the industry. Waterparks appealed to a more narrow market. usually| |teens and immature households. and were suited for smaller secondary markets. | |The new amusement attractive forces of the 90s represent a furthering variegation. These attractive forces | |narrow the niche entreaty even more with smaller capital investing and an entreaty normally to really specific | |market groups such as kids. teens. immature singles. etc.
Many of these attractive forces begin to tap the | |“baby boomlet” . and respond to the demand to renew under-performing suburban existent estate belongingss by| |locating in shopping centres. | |Examples of the new amusement attractive forces include the household amusement centres being developed in| |malls. the enlargement of the out-of-door household diversion and mini-golf attractive forces. amusement centres | |combined with urban assorted usage undertakings. athleticss bars. themed eating houses. children’s attractive forces. | |mini-aquariums. and a host of others.
| |Diversification should go on as enterprisers attempt to seek out untapped amusement markets. | | | |4. Destination Tourism – | |Within the last 10 old ages. the lone major Parkss developed in the U. S. have been destination market Parkss | |focusing on the tourer markets of the sunbelt provinces of Florida. and Texas. these attractive forces have | |included Disney’s EPCOT Center. Disney’s MGM Studio Theme Park. Universal Studios – Florida. and Sea | |World Texas in San Antonio. One exclusion was Marine World Africa U. S. A. . which was relocated from one | |area of the San Francisco Bay
part to another. | |Additionally. the major planned attractive forces: Disney’s new California attractive force. Fiesta Texas in San | |Antonio. and the possible Columbia Pictures attractive force in California. will all be finish in nature. | | | |Theme park development in the U. S. has changed from selling a 7-hour experience to a 7-day experience. | |Disney. of class is the innovator in this thought. Developers have realized the unbelievable economic value| |created by the impact of a touristry oriented subject park on environing complementary belongingss such as | |hotels. resorts. and shopping centres.
| | | | | |Theme Parks and Tourism | |Turning now to the relationships of subject Parkss to touristry. These relationships are complex and extremely | |dependent on the park’s graduated table. quality. and uniqueness. | |Typically. occupants ( from within 1. 5 to 2 hours ) will account for 80 per centum of traditional subject park | |visitation. Even the tourer visitants are frequently in the country for other grounds ( such as sing friends | |and relations ) . Thus. merely holding a subject park does non automatically see an inflow of touristry. | |Rather. to impact finish touristry. a subject park must: | |Be unique. a “must see” finish.
| |This can be accomplished through character development ( Mickey and his friends ) . architectural signifier. | |natural characteristics. particular events and scheduling ( Opryland ) or a combination thereof. | |Have big graduated table and a critical mass of attractive forces. | |Investment degrees to impact international touristry by and large must transcend U. S. $ 150 million. | |Combine high engineering with human graduated table and quality service. | |Investments in the bang hardware must be combined with a high degree of service from the “hosts and | |hostesses” so that a alone local civilization and friendly human contact is balanced to the high engineering.
| | | |Encourage overnight corsets. | |The chief economic benefits of touristry come when nightlong corsets are generated. Day visitors or | |tourists who stay with friends and relations generate merely 20 per centum of the economic impact of tourers | |staying in hotels and motels ( $ 50 versus $ 250 per twenty-four hours ) . Therefore. in planing a subject park for touristry. a | |multiple attractive force finish ( with experiences that can busy two or three yearss ) is more likely to | |have the coveted impact. | |Have complementary finish activities.
| |Tourist-oriented subject Parkss should be portion of a mix of diversion and leisure activities. A true tourist| |destination would besides hold back uping diversion utilizations such as high quality hotels. convention and | |conference installations. resorts. recreational shopping and dining experiences. and athleticss activities | |including golf. tennis. and water-related activities. and jaunts into nearby local touristry countries. | |Support media ( Television ) coverage and exposure. | |Like most other things in life. future subject Parkss must be designed for telecasting.
The usage of subject | |parks and resorts as backgrounds for assortment plans. famous person games. athleticss competition. and | |convention/conference broadcast medium is increasing quickly and the attendant Television exposure is really of import | |in making consciousness in touristry markets. | |Given that these standards are portion of the theme park/tourist finish plan. the consequences can be | |dramatic and supply a sustaining economic base. For illustration. at Walt Disney World touristry increased from| |2. 8 million visitants in 1970 to over 35 million by 1992. The addition in the figure of air visitants alone| |was 20 million.
This addition in trial ( peculiarly overnight trial ) spurred the development | |of over 50. 000 hotel suites and resulted in the direct employment of over 250. 000 individuals. Quite a success| |story for what was one time merely a mosquito infested swamp bought for an mean monetary value of $ 200 per acre. | |Smaller scale attractive forces. such as Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. have besides built a steady | |business of about a million visitant a twelvemonth through strong incursion of the touristry market. | |Developing Trends | |As we moved toward the twelvemonth 2000. how will theme Parkss evolve as a constituent of international touristry.
| |They will non blindly follow the U. S. theoretical account. but evolve new signifiers of attractive forces where touristry is a more | |important beginning of market support. From our position in analysing development tendencies and proposed new| |parks. we see the undermentioned alterations: | |Themed to country/region | |New Parkss will hold stronger theming tied to the state or local part. Subject Parkss are progressively | |becoming a symbol and show window for regional pride. civilization. and technological accomplishment. The danger | |her. of class. is that by being excessively serious about “cultural” touristry the Parkss can discontinue to be merriment.
We | |have to invariably advocate our clients that a subject park’s premier aim is amusement. This is the | |“sugar” that makes the acquisition and civilization pill work. | |Part of larger mixed-use finish undertakings | |In the urban/suburban context. we now see theme Parkss and big graduated table attractive forces being designed into | |regional and forte shopping composites. mixed-use waterfront developments. and even some multi-use | |office edifices. In more rural scenes. extra constituents frequently include finish resorts. | |bungalow Parkss. shopping/restaurant small towns. and particular events centers/trade expoundings.
| |Greater visitant engagement and interaction | |New attractive forces are being designed to supply greater participant control and promote interplay between| |the visitant and his environment. This is a natural branch of both available engineering and the | |demonstrated entreaty of such engagement at topographic points like the San Francisco Exploratorium. New thrill rides| |are being offered where the rider can separately command the experience and strength of the drive. | |Future thematic constructs will be based more on participative activities ( athleticss. music ) that relate to | |the audience instead than amusing book word pictures.
| |Use of simulation experiences and practical world | |Perhaps one of the most exciting countries of development is in the country of simulation. Progresss in | |technology have allowed attractive forces interior decorators to realistically double virtually any natural or special| |effects experience. By uniting highly high quality ocular imagination with seats that are programmed to | |move with the action. visitants can realistically bask experiences that were antecedently unavailable in a | |theme park environment. The first extremely popular illustration of this engineering is the Star Tours attractive force | |at Disneyland.
However. new simulation presentation include river rafting in New Zealand. runaway athleticss | |cars in the Italian Alps. and intergalactic infinite races. These simulations are produced for a fraction of| |the cost of traditional attractive forces. The engineering is besides more flexible ( you can alter the experience| |by merely altering the package ( movie ) instead them making a new attractive force ) . and more land efficient ( a| |45-seat simulator needs merely about 300 square metres ) . A major challenge. nevertheless. will be to hold the | |technology discovery and still keep the bang and spontaneousness of sensed personal hazard and | |group interaction.
| |Greater H2O orientation | |A greater usage of H2O related activities. attractive forces and landscape gardening is happening in subject park design | |as good as in about all signifiers of existent estate development. Several Parkss ( Ocean Park. Hong Kong ; | |Dreamland. Australia ; Walibi. Belgium ) combine an active H2O park with more traditional themed drives | |and amusements. Performance Parkss such as Sea World are still popular but future enlargement will be | |limited by limitations on capturing and exposing aquatic mammals.
We see a go oning credence of | |new. high engineering fish tanks utilizing acrylic tunnel constructs which combine a scuba diver’s position of the | |undersea universe with a ride experience. Some of these will be developed in the unfastened ocean. | |Design for all-weather operation/artificial environments | |New subject Parkss are designed to hold more covered attractive forces every bit good as clime controlled paseos and | |rest countries. This allows for shorter amortisation of high capital investing and fixed cost constituents.
| |New subject Parkss are being designed with a greater grade of conditions protection in order to enable a | |longer runing season and longer operating hours per twenty-four hours. | |When one looks in front at the larger figure of tourers who are expected to go to new finishs | | ( peculiarly within the Asia – Pacific part ) . there will be increasing force per unit area on sensitive | |environmental and societal resources at the finish. A new function for subject Parkss is emerging. By their | |nature. they are designed to manage big Numberss of people within a controlled infinite and with manageable| |impacts.
In the hereafter they will incarnate a greater educational map to present. interpret. and | |sensitize the abroad tourer to the environment and to the host community and its values. They can | |become a new gateway for host state touristry. Rather than being viewed as a base entirely attractive force. | |theme Parkss will go portion of a balanced leisure merchandise and touristry system that contributes to the | |economic development. employment. and resource saving of an full part. | |© 1998 Economics Research Associates – All rights reserved | .
