Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Guo Peng
The Spring Festival holiday added another fire to the fiery Universal Studios. This year's Spring Festival, Beijing has once again become a popular tourist destination. According to data released by Meituan on February 8, as of January 31, the number of accommodation (including hotels and homestays) bookings during the Spring Festival was much higher than that of the previous year's Lunar New Year, with a year-on-year growth rate of 54.5%, and cross-city travel during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon increased significantly. Among them, Beijing ranked first in the number of cities with accommodation bookings during the Spring Festival holiday, becoming the most popular destination for tourists.
It is understood that during this year's Spring Festival, Beijing held nearly 10,000 cultural activities with the theme of "Fumanjing City, Spring Celebration of China", with the intention of accompanying citizens and tourists to spend a festive and peaceful Spring Festival holiday. From January 27th, Universal Beijing Resort launched the "Universal China Year" themed event, once again detonating the lively atmosphere of Universal Studios.
Source: Times Finance on-site shooting
In fact, as early as 2022, Universal Beijing Resort has been holding the "Global Year of China" themed event. After market testing, the event has become one of the Spring Festival check-in items for many tourists by virtue of the label of "New Year and New Year Customs with Global Characteristics". In the past two years, during the Spring Festival-themed event, Universal Beijing Resort has achieved an average of more than 80% guest satisfaction. This year's event will be held from January 27 to March 10, 2024, making it the longest in three years.
During the Spring Festival holiday, Times Finance came to Universal Studios and found that the Spring Festival elements were all over Universal Studios. Five flaming red lanterns are placed around the logo at the entrance of Universal Studios, symbolizing a good start to the New Year, and the Universal Studios logo is paired with red lantern elements for the Spring Festival, so that the two different Chinese and Western elements of "Hollywood" and "Spring Festival" are fused together, attracting tourists to stop and take photos and check in.
Source: Times Finance on-site shooting
After entering Universal Studios, you will find that the elements of the Spring Festival are everywhere. On the canopy of Hollywood Boulevard, a giant dragon lantern is accompanied by colorful auspicious clouds and red lanterns, which complement the logo of Universal Studios. A pink Universal Chinese New Year Wishing Tree stands at the end of Hollywood Boulevard for visitors to make a wish or take photos. Under the Wishing Tree for the Chinese New Year, Universal Studios also specially arranged for Po, the protagonist of Kung Fu Panda, to dress up in festive costumes, where visitors can line up to take photos with Po.
Source: Times Finance on-site shooting
During the event, Universal Studios once again staged the "people from the crowd" mode. According to the park's waiting time WeChat mini-program, Universal Studios' visitor flow index during the Spring Festival holiday was extremely high. Some tourists said on Xiaohongshu that they arrived at the gate at half past eight in the morning and entered the park for up to an hour. A tourist who was still playing in the afternoon told Times Finance that he thought there would be fewer people in the afternoon, but there was no decrease in the slightest, "All the popular attractions still have to be queued for a long time to play." "Some projects are even temporarily closed to slowly digest the queue of tourists.
Times Finance visited and found that Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the Transformers Tinder Source War, and the Jurassic World Adventure are popular attractions, and the queuing time is basically more than 70 minutes. A tourist told Times Finance that he entered the gate of the battle for the source of fire at 11:10 and didn't play until about 13 o'clock, queuing for about 110 minutes. Some tourists also said on the Internet that this is the longest time they have queued, and the queue for the source of fire is not so long.
A visitor at Universal Studios said that by 3 p.m., he had played two projects. "In the morning, I queued up to play Harry Potter and the Forbidden Tour, and it was already more than 12 o'clock at the end, and I wanted to have lunch at Harry Potter's, but the Three Broomsticks Restaurant had to wait for more than an hour to eat, so I simply didn't line up. The tourist said.
Times Finance found at the scene that during the holidays, most families came to Universal Studios in groups, parents with children, and even three generations of a family went collectively. A tourist told Times Finance that he took advantage of the vacation to bring his children to play, and then went home for the New Year.
During the event, Universal Studios Beijing set up a new Universal New Year Plaza, where visitors can experience the atmosphere of a Chinese New Year market that combines tradition and modernity. The market sells popular tuna pancakes, sugar gourds, and Chinese-style desserts such as hawthorn cheesecake, vanilla yuzu cake, and caramel cinnamon apple mousse.
Source: Times Finance on-site shooting
In the square, Universal Studios launched a special "It's a Year" New Year special show, which starts at 16:30, 17:45 and 19:00 every day, and some tourists even go to the scene one hour in advance to occupy a seat to watch. In the joyful background music, the protagonists of the movie, such as Minions, King Julian, and Po, wore specially customized New Year's costumes, and brought wonderful programs to visitors together with traditional Chinese drummers, Chinese dancers, and lion dancers, sharing the fire and joy of the story of the "Chinese New Year".
In addition, Universal Studios has also launched a number of limited products for the Year of the Dragon, including Kung Fu Panda 2024 New Year Dragon hats, Bao's dragon head children's sweater vests and other New Year's clothing, as well as Kung Fu Panda's New Year series of Po plush toys, Minion Zodiac Year of the Dragon plush toys, Minion Zodiac themed lanterns and other New Year's goods. Among them, the dragon hat has become the first choice of many tourists.