Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The core of a theme park is dreaming.

Some time ago, a friend told me that he would come to Shanghai for a visit.

I said: where are you going? don't tell me you're going.

She said: yes, that's right. I'm going to Disney.

I can't remember how many friends are going to Disney. But it feels normal when I think about it. If I go to Beijing, I'll probably have to go straight to Universal Studios.

I have to say, the theme park does have a special charm. It can always attract groups of people to sign in again and again.

So in this issue, I'd like to talk to you about the theme park business.

In terms of the size of tourists and the number of parks, China is definitely the world leader in the issue of theme parks.

According to the 2019 Global theme Parks and Museums report, China has 16 theme parks in the Top20 list in the Asia-Pacific region, including Shanghai Disneyland, Beijing Happy Valley, Zhengzhou Fangte Happy World, window of the World and so on. The highest ranking is not even Disney, but Cheung long Ocean Kingdom, ranking fourth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Judging from this indicator, domestic companies are doing quite well in this area.

However, in terms of influence, popularity and cross-regional or even transnational radiation capacity, most of the domestic theme parks are still out of the question. There is often a park with no theme, which is a far cry from Disney and Universal Studios.

This has something to do with the development path.

As a form of business, theme park has only appeared in China for more than 30 years.

In 1989, Splendid China opened in Shenzhen.

Inspired by Madu bin Laden Park in the Netherlands, it adopted the idea of a real-life miniature scenic spot and microcopied 81 scenic spots across the country at 1:15 to create a pure static sightseeing theme park.

Splendid China is the earliest theme park in China.

As a forerunner, it created a miracle in the history of Chinese culture and tourism, with a net profit of 56 million yuan in 1990. after more than one year of operation, the total investment was recovered, the number of tourists reached 3.25 million in 1990, and the operating income in the four complete financial years from 1992 to 1993 totaled 393 million yuan.

As the developer behind Splendid China, Shenzhen overseas Chinese Town built the Chinese Folk Culture Village and the window of the World in 1991 and 1994 respectively, which exploded the market one after another.

Through a series of successes, overseas Chinese Town established a "tourism + real estate" model, and successfully listed in 1997. And driven by these benchmarking projects, China has set off an upsurge of theme parks. According to incomplete statistics, more than 2500 theme parks were built across the country between 1990 and 1994. The amount of investment reached more than 300 billion yuan.

And overseas Chinese Town started in front and back, there is also a literature and travel giant Changlong. It's just that Changlong's early core business was hospitality. Cross-border travel is also a matter of course.

Changlong's early project was not so much a theme park as a zoo.

In 1997, Changlong's Xiangjiang Wildlife World opened, receiving more than 80000 visitors on the opening day, setting a new record for the number of visitors to the theme park.

Since then, Changlong has incorporated zoo elements into various projects, such as the Changlong Hotel, which can view wildlife in the hotel atrium, and the Changlong International Circus Theater.

In addition, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Songcheng and Suzhou Paradise are also representative projects of the early theme parks.

As can be seen from the above cases, most of the early theme parks are static sightseeing parks, which are almost enough for you to see the spectacular scenery and folk performances. The advantage is that the hardware investment is not high, the cost recovery is relatively fast, but the disadvantage is that there are no large-scale amusement facilities or experience projects, lack of entertainment.

We call it the theme park 1.0 era.

However, as the pockets of real estate developers become thicker, so does the playability of the theme park.

About 1998, Happy Valley, a subsidiary of overseas Chinese Town, opened. Unlike in the past, Happy Valley pays more attention to the creation of amusement projects. After entering the new century, a large number of theme parks more like amusement parks have entered the market, including Changzhou Chinese Dinosaur Park, Changlong Happy World, Wuhu Fangte Happy World and so on.

This stage can be called the theme Park 2.0 era.

No matter in the 1.0 or 2.0 era, the theme park industry is a standard real estate industry.

Of course, this is logical. after all, to build a paradise requires a lot of land and a lot of investment. who can pry so many resources? Of course, only real estate developers.

And from the perspective of real estate developers, it is also profitable.

In the 1.0 era, the competition in the industry is not so fierce, consumers are not so picky, the investment in theme parks is not so expensive, and the business that can be paid back in three or four years is naturally worth doing.

In the 2.0 era, competition is becoming increasingly fierce, more and more large-scale amusement facilities need to be introduced, and the amount of investment soars, making it more and more difficult for the park itself to get back to its original cost, but real estate developers can also create turnover for hotel catering with the help of cultural and tourism projects. you can also make money through supporting development, and it's not a very bad business.

But the problem is also very simple. Real estate developers are good at building houses, but they are not good at telling stories.

Why is it important to tell stories?

First of all, the story itself is a commodity, and when a commodity comes with a story, it can make people who are not interested feel that it is good value for money and sell ordinary goods at a premium. The most important thing is that you can make money by telling stories.

Second, stories can provide uniqueness. In the market for mass consumers, the vast majority of goods or services are supplied in bulk, and there is not much uniqueness to speak of. And the story happens to give uniqueness to the product.

Furthermore, because of its uniqueness, a good story can give an enterprise the privilege of being free from competition. Such as "hand-made", such as "royal exclusive".

In the field of theme parks, storytelling is particularly important.

Because the threshold of the amusement park is actually very low, as long as investors feel that they can get back their money, no matter how exciting the facilities can be introduced, and how wonderful the performance can be presented. It doesn't make sense to roll up hardware and services.

According to the data of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, nearly 3000 theme park tourist spots have been developed in China, including more than 300 large-scale theme parks, including large and super-large theme parks. there are 93 theme parks with a total area of more than 600mu or a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan. If it is even, every city with a population of more than 5 million can be equipped with a super-large theme park.

But after all, we only talked about a few parks, in addition to Disney Universal Studios, is long Font, the head of the Happy Valley.

Among them, Disneyland has the strongest sense of existence.

Even if I am a senior Disneyland, I have to admit that Disneyland is really good at storytelling.

At least dozens of times better than its screenplays in recent years.

Marty Skera, the former creative director of Disneyland, once shared an important principle of Disneyland design, that is, "create extraordinary stories." And in the specific way of telling stories, he summed up the "Mickey Ten Commandments", which are:

Know your audience.

From the standpoint of tourists

Organize the train of thought and the order of the tour.

Create an "attractive signboard"

Convey information in an intuitive way

Avoid overload-create stimuli

Tell one story at a time.

Avoid contradictions-- be consistent

Hide a little bit of preaching in rich recreational activities

Keep it up! (do a good job of maintenance)

In my opinion, these 10 principles are not only Disney's methodology for building theme parks, but also a good guide for any content creator who wants to tell a good story, whether it's a game or a short video.

In addition, Disneyland has a very big advantage, which is its scalability.

Walt Disney once said, "Disneyland is a project that can never be really completed." It should be a place that is always developing and can always add new elements. "

As a result, Disneyland is always in the process of constant reconstruction and expansion, with new and popular IP from cinemas being added to the park, while old rides may be replaced.

Relying on powerful animated film and television content, as well as derived IP resources, Disneyland can also get a steady stream of new stories.

In 1995, for example, Toy Story was a great success. Three years later, Buzz Lightyear appeared at Disneyland, attracting a large number of fans and warming up for Toy Story 2 the following year.

On the other hand, a Disneyland project can also become an IP. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean was originally just a Disneyland amusement project. In 2003, Disney adapted it into a movie and put it on the big screen. Everyone will know about the later success.

03 in my opinion, Disney represents another path, that is, the path for cultural companies to become theme parks.

This path pays more attention to storytelling than to building a paradise.

In fact, except Disney, the top theme park companies in the world all have strong IP reserves, such as Transformers and Harry Potter under Universal Studios, while Merlin Entertainment Group relies on cooperative mergers and acquisitions, as well as Legoland, Madame Tussauds and other brands, all of which are IP giants.

Of course, there is no IP theory here.

In fact, even if it is not combined with literary works, a good story can be told.

For example, the American theme park chain six Flags Entertainment, although not blessed by IP, is famous for all kinds of exciting roller coasters. It includes the world's steepest wooden roller coaster, the Giant roller coaster, and the 139m tall, launcher made from a rocket jet engine, known as the "king of the world's roller coaster" (Kingda Ka).

There is also Fuji Express Paradise, which sells the most exciting roller coasters and the most scary haunted houses in Japan. When I was at school, secret room escape was not so popular, and I was yearning for the most horrible haunted house.

To some extent, these parks are also good storytellers.

04 let's go back to China's theme parks.

In fact, it has been since 2010 that theme parks in China began to attach importance to IP and storytelling.

Here is a very critical company, as well as a very critical work.

It is Font and his "bear haunts".

In 2012, Fang Te's "Xiong haunted" was broadcast on CCTV and became an overnight hit. The following year, Fangte introduced this IP-related scene into Wuhu Fangte Happy World to create a real-life theme experience project.

Over the next decade, as the IP of "Bear haunts" continued to be serialized, big movies were released in theaters, and Font also targeted second-and third-tier cities and set up more than two dozen Font theme parks. It can be said that before the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, Fangte was the farthest from IP.

The opening of Shanghai Disneyland in 2016 has really brought China's theme parks into an IP era.

In this year, Happy Valley began to sign the original animation IP, embarking on the road of IP operation. Changlong also began to develop panda triplets IP, and then introduced Monster Hunt and Transformers IP.

On the other hand, the logic-driven model of real estate gradually fails.

I have my own violent theory: in China, there is no technology company that does not want to be Apple. There is no culture company that doesn't want to be Disney.

The creation of Chinese Disneyland has almost become a universal art of speech.

In particular, cultural companies, from Huayi to Lighting, from Letv to Aofei, give people the impression that there are so many Disneyland in China that they have to wait in line to call a number if they want to brag.

But among them, Wanda is the most special.

Unlike other cultural film and television counterparts, Wanda is more of a real estate company. Although the cultural industry is also done, it is more of a derivative business of Wanda cinema.

It's just that Wang Jianlin is the most famous boss who claims to beat Disneyland.

In May 2016, when Shanghai Disneyland was about to open, Wang Jianlin boasted in front of the media that "Disney's financial affairs in China will not be profitable in 10 to 20 years."

He believes that Disney has only one Disney in Chinese mainland, good tigers cannot hold up wolves, and Wanda can open 15 to 20 Wanda cities across the country to encircle and suppress Disney. In addition, he also analyzed the reasons why Disneyland is bound to lose to Wanda in China, such as Shanghai's climate is not suitable for outdoor amusement parks, such as Disneyland's high investment will lead to a lack of tourists.

Of course, the most exaggerated thing is that he thinks that Disney has too much IP, which will become a big burden.

Emmmmmmmm, I just want to know if too much money in Wanda's account will become a big burden.

As a matter of fact, Wang Jianlin is not without reason for being so high-profile.

Since 2006, Wanda has entered the literature and travel industry, while Wanda City, which is mainly promoted in 2013, is known as a new generation of literature and tourism business integrated products, with a total investment of more than 20 billion yuan for each project. Since then, Wanda has frequently won large orders of cultural and tourism projects all over the country, covering all kinds of quasi-first-tier cities and tourist cities.

But at a time when Wang Jianlin talked down Disney in a high profile, Wanda's early literature and travel project has begun to decline, losing money continuously. In the following year, Wanda sold its 13 cultural and travel projects and 76 hotel projects to Rongchuang and R & F for more than 60 billion yuan. Wanda City's heroic words of encircling and suppressing Disney will not be written below.

Ironically, just as Wanda was selling the project, Disney CEO Robert Iger shouted to Wanda, "We broke even in our first operating year."

It can be seen that even if you are the richest man in real estate, you can't just take a trip to the muddy waters of the theme park.

As we all know, the core of a theme park is dreaming. In my opinion, there is a difference in dreaming.

The dreams created by theme parks for tourists are entertainment for children and help them believe that the world is beautiful.

But for too many adults who need to escape in their lives, I think this dream is more like a dream to help them separate the real world. To put it simply, a theme park is more like a refuge in modern society.

When you are overwhelmed by life and work, there is at least one place where you feel like you are not in the real world.

Of course, there is more than one way to take refuge. Fishing, outdoors, playing games, and even script killing, I think, all have similar effects.

This is why today, real estate-driven theme parks have been difficult to succeed, and what is urgently needed is storytelling. Because it's just a simple stimulus project, no matter how exciting you are, can you work overtime? If I engage in a haunted house, the music will use the iPhone alarm clock, which is better than any spooky music.

The fence alone is not enough to be isolated from the real world, only stories can.

Reference:

"apart from screaming, what can we expect from the theme park? | | New Front Line of Culture and Tourism "--Interface News

"from theme parks to theme IP, how should the theme IP industry play? "--New Krypton degree

There is no "theme park" in China? "--Detective Alpha

"30 years of theme Park: the window of the World startled the whole people, Suzhou Paradise grew up by trial and error, and Fangte matched Disney"-- Finance and Economics Mowgli

"33 years' History of change of Chinese theme Parks"-- Tidal Business Review

"on the 60th anniversary of Disneyland, how did it grow into a $15 billion business? "- Curiosity Daily

"the film and television company continues to plan" the next Disney ", and there are more and more theme parks"-- Curiosity Daily

"Why do you challenge Disney Wang Jianlin? "--Real Estate.

Tourism ushered in a "warm spring". How to play in domestic theme parks in 2023? "- Interface News

"who will cut the cake in the theme park"-- China Newsweek

"more than half of China's theme parks have no theme"-- Beijing Business Daily

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: IC Lab (ID:InsightPlusClub)

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.