During the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon, theme parks across the country are extremely popular.
In Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, Hengdian Film and Television City, a film and television tourism theme park, received a total of 1.35 million tourists, setting a new high. The total number of tourists ranked first among commercial tourist attractions in Zhejiang Province; in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, it covers Animal World, Ice and Snow Park, etc. The integrated theme park Yinji International Tourism Resort in the sector has a comprehensive income of more than 100 million yuan, becoming the "double number one" in passenger flow and revenue of scenic spots in the province during the Spring Festival holiday.
What’s the appeal of a theme park?
Why has it become a popular destination for holiday travel?
A great place for family travel
"When the park opened during the National Day holiday last year, I wanted to bring my children to see it. When I came today, I found that the projects here are very friendly to families with children." At the Shenzhen Happy Valley Mini World·Adventure Mountain Park, Ms. Li, a tourist, and her family I experienced high-altitude sightseeing on the Star Sky Tower and watched the "Happy Adventure" themed parent-child drama. I had a lot of fun.
According to Shenzhen Happy Valley staff, Mini World·Adventure Mountain Park has thrilling roller coasters, virtual shooting and other projects, as well as performing arts spaces such as the Metaverse Theater. More than 80% of the projects are suitable for all ages.
During the Spring Festival, the park also held intangible cultural heritage lion dances, flower markets and other activities, which are suitable for the whole family to enjoy.
The "2024 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Trends" recently released by Fliggy shows that during this year's Spring Festival holiday, family travel has become the mainstream, and ticket bookings for theme parks, children's parks and other projects have increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.
Booking data released by multiple travel platforms shows that parent-child travel will account for more than 50% of winter vacation travel orders in 2024, among which theme parks are one of the most popular travel products.
Industry insiders believe that theme parks can provide a variety of tourism experiences such as entertainment projects, stage performances, landscape facilities, etc., and are equipped with relatively complete catering and accommodation services, which can meet the multiple needs of family travel.
For tourists who want to reunite with their families and use their vacation to relax, theme parks are a great place for a family trip.
Cultural collision brings new ideas
On the morning of the first day of the first lunar month of the Year of the Dragon, the character "Mushu Dragon" from the animated film "Mulan" appeared at Shanghai Disney Resort to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Dragon with Mickey and Minnie.
Visitors can take photos and interact with the Mushu Dragon on Mickey Avenue and write New Year's wishes together.
From New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival, Disney Resort launches the nightly performance "New Year Celebration: Your Home", in which a fireworks display with the Chinese character "dragon" as the pattern offers special New Year blessings to guests.
Going all the way north and entering the Universal Beijing Resort, two giant lantern dragons about 30 meters long are entrenched above Hollywood Boulevard, looking like a rainbow.
Mr. Xie, a tourist from Guangzhou who came here for the Harry Potter project, stopped here to take photos. He told reporters: "I heard that there are special New Year performances every day recently. I didn't expect the New Year flavor here to be so strong."
The performance Mr. Xie is talking about is the stage show "It's New Year!" created by Universal Beijing Resort.
In this performance, the protagonists from movies such as "Minion Adventures", "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda" showed their magical powers and worked together to drive away the Nian beast, innovatively interpreting the folk myth of the origin of the Spring Festival.
"In order to enhance the atmosphere of the Spring Festival, we added iconic Chinese art elements to the performance, integrating Chinese dance, folk music performance, acrobatics, dragon and lion dance and other forms." said the relevant person in charge of the entertainment team of Universal Beijing Resort.
It is understood that in order to create a festive atmosphere, Universal Beijing Resort has launched the "Universal Year of China" themed event. Dragon-themed New Year decorations extend from Universal CityWalk to every corner of the park. Kung Fu Panda Year of the Dragon hats, Minion Ten Peripheral products such as plush toys for the Year of the Dragon and the Chinese zodiac are also "new" simultaneously.
Lin Huanjie, president of the China Theme Park Research Institute, believes that in the context of the integration of culture and tourism, theme parks will highlight their cultural attributes in addition to their entertainment attributes.
International theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios are not only amusement parks, but also carriers of cultural communication. Well-designed special festival activities are an indispensable project for these theme parks to continue to attract consumers and deepen their local operations.
"Paradise Tour" popular destination
Starting from 0:00 on February 16, the 25th Harbin Ice and Snow World will officially close.
This winter, Harbin Ice and Snow World has gained a lot. It has received a total of 2.71 million tourists in 61 days of operation. It not only won the Guinness World Record for "the world's largest ice and snow theme park", but also made "Harbin Tourism" a "top-notch" power. "It has become a phenomenon-level cultural tourism hit.
Theme parks of different styles have stimulated the popularity of "park travel", which has further popularized tourist destinations.
Recently, Henan Province released its cultural tourism report card for the 2024 Spring Festival holiday. Among them, the top five scenic spots in terms of tourism revenue are all theme parks. In the 7 days before the Spring Festival holiday, Zhongmu County, Zhengzhou City, which has 8 different types of theme parks, received a total of 340.28 tourists. 10,000 people visited, achieving tourism revenue of 1.008 billion yuan.
At the "Only Henan Drama Fantasy City" immersive theater theme park in Zhongmou County, the reporter saw tourists queuing up in front of each theater, waiting to enter.
Song Yiyu, a tourist from Jiangsu who walked out of the Lijiacun Theater, told reporters that it was his first time traveling to Henan, and Drama Fantasy City was his first stop.
"I didn't know much about the history and culture of Henan in the past. It's a very novel way for me to get closer to Henan through drama." Song Yiyu said that he would like to visit Henan again with his friends next time.
The person in charge of Drama Fantasy City told reporters that Zhongmou County is close to Zhengzhou and Kaifeng cities. In the past, Drama Fantasy City mainly attracted local tourists. During this year’s Spring Festival holiday, 75% of the tourists came from outside Henan Province, and the farthest domestic audiences came from Xinjiang. Came to watch the show.
According to statistics, during the Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Dragon, "Only Henan Drama City" rehearses 16-18 main plays every day, and performs a total of 1,680 large and small plays. The main theater and small theater have 120,000 seats throughout the day, with an attendance rate of 100% for many days. The total number of viewers for the show exceeded 1 million.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, believes that whether it is large-scale resorts and theme parks such as Disney, Universal Studios, Fantawild, and Happy Valley, or various types of parks for small and medium-sized cities and rural areas, these innovative projects in the entertainment field " The big and lively, the small and the quality" directly increase the "joy value" of the participants, providing tourists and citizens with richer choices for their spiritual and cultural life during holidays.
Lin Huanjie believes that theme parks are becoming an important force in promoting the diversified development of regional economy and cultural consumption. They not only enrich the cultural and entertainment experience of the region and city, but also bring positive impact to the development of local cultural tourism economy.
Zhu Jinyi