How Can a Regional Theme Park Survive in China?: Studying Strategies used by Wuhu Fantawild Dreamland

How Can a Regional Theme Park Survive in China?: Studying Strategies used by Wuhu Fantawild Dreamland

Jing (Bill) Xu, Wei Yuan, Erdogan H. Ekiz, Doris Shuk-ting Lo
Copyright: © 2015 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8699-1.ch017
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Abstract

Theme parks have become a vital component of the tourism industry, providing entertainment and excitement to local residents and tourists. Particularly, more and more parks start their business in Asia. In this competitive environment, investigating the success and failure cases may prove very fruitful implications to other practitioners. Among these implications innovative marketing strategies are one of the most important ones. However, few previous studies attached importance to the study of theme park industry and the service performance in China. Given this lack of attention, this study was conducted in attempts to shed some lights for the park managers all around the world in general but also the ones in Chinese market, in particular. A case study of Wuhu Fantawild Dreamland, Anhui, China, was adopted for the survey and interviews. The analyses suggested China's theme park visitors had some unique preferences which can be used while creating innovative marketing strategies.
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Literature

Theme parks, considered as a symbolic and leisure product, correspond to the characteristics of postmodern society, in the way that satisfy the family day out with pleasure, escape, fantasy and emotion (Nye, 1981). It differs from the conventional amusement park, like Coney Island, due to the inspired design of the themed environment where visitors can find consistent park identification in a variety of ingredients, artifacts, and styles (Samuelson & Yegoiants, 2001). The theme park industry is actually originated from the opening of Disneyland in California in 1955. According to the market estimations (ERA, 2003), most theme parks are located in North America (35%) and Asia (35%). Most Asian theme parks are developed and operated in the form of public-private partnerships as local / regional level. In China, theme park operators mainly generate revenue from first-time entry tickets rather than repeated consumptions; its theme park industry is predominantly supply-led with little attention given to visitor needs. As stated by Ap (2002), many parks in China cannot generate perceived value for money and experience satisfaction.

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