Strike up the band! A grand parade at Happy Valley in Shanghai is among the attractions local theme parks are using to attract more visitors and stay competitive in the shadow of Disneyland.(Zhang Suoqing)
Shanghai mother Hu Linfei was glued to her computer screen at midnight on March 28, intent on grabbing three tickets for the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in June.
"I want to take my eight-year son because he is eager to go to the theme park and will be very disappointed if I don't get us tickets," she explained.
Indeed, when the tickets first went on sale, they were snapped up quickly. Hu managed to buy three tickets for the opening day, but failed to book a room at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel.
Disneyland craze has hit Shanghai, a phenomenon being watched carefully by the operators of other theme and amusement parks in the city.
It's a crowded field. A flurry of new parks opened between 1997 and 2002 in China. Some expanded and thrived. Others fell by the wayside. By 2010, the market had cooled.
About 80 percent of theme parks in China have closed in the last 10 years, according to a report on the industry.
There are now about 300 theme parks in China, each with more than 50 million yuan (US$8.1 million) invested. Seventy percent are operating in the red, while 20 percent barely make ends meet, said Wei Xiao'an, a researcher in the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The remaining 10 percent of parks are profitable and have a popular profile, he said.
Shanghai Disneyland is expected to attract 10 million people this year after it opens on June 16. By comparison, Shanghai Happy Valley and Maya Water Park, two signature theme parks in the city, received a combined 2.9 million visitors in 2014, while the landmark Jinjiang Amusement Park had about 2 million through the turnstiles.
"Disney is the originator of global theme parks, and no theme park in China will be able to endure head-on competition with it," said Ding Yicheng, general manager of the Jinjiang Amusement Park.
Just 30 years ago, Shanghai had no amusement parks. When Jinjiang Park opened in the mid-1980s, it quickly became a must-visit site for local children and a classic venue for annual spring and autumn school outings. But the heyday didn't last. The park began to lose its allure in 1995.
Although many in the industry say the opening of Shanghai Disneyland may distract many visitors from other parks, not everyone is pessimistic.
"Shanghai Disneyland and theme parks native to China have different target populations, and their admission prices are also quite different," said Liu Deyan, associate professor at the Shanghai Institute of Tourism at Shanghai Normal University.
Shanghai Disney resort may attract more families with children, while Shanghai Happy Valley is more popular among youngsters seeking thrills, she said.
Then too, she noted, there are sites such as the Songcheng Park in Hangzhou, which specialize in history, with its clusters of ancient structures and displays of the splendor of the Song Dynasty (960 AD-1279). Such parks can be quite mesmerizing for culture lovers.
Online travel operator Ctrip said families of three, including a child, form the major group of ticket bookings for Disneyland, based on its observation. Booking orders to date have come from more than 60 cities across China, with Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou topping the list.
Still, for out-of-town visitors, there are options when Disneyland tickets are unobtainable.
"Theme parks in China have experienced several rounds of elimination, and those that have survived are competitive and well-known," said Liu.
The opening of Shanghai Disneyland will prompt other theme parks to upgrade their facilities and improve their services, she added.
Indeed, several theme parks in the city are already moving toward a more competitive footing.
"The Beauty of the Lake," a live waterfront multimedia show, will debut at Shanghai Happy Valley this summer. The park is already working on its third stage of development, with three European-style boutique hotels included in the 700-million-yuan plan. Also this summer, a second, 30,000-square-meter phase at the Maya Water Park is scheduled to open.
