Image source @ Visual China
Text | Wen Travel, author | Guo Hongyun
Recently, the content of Sante Ropeway's answer to investors' questions has aroused concern in the industry. Sante Ropeway has always focused on the main business of ropeway, and in the strategy it recently described to the outside world, the transformation of "ecological theme park integrated operator" has also become an important direction, and substantial progress has been made in many projects, including Sea World, Bird World, Circus, Children's Paradise, etc.
In March this year, Sante Ropeway announced that it intends to invest 353 million yuan to develop the Qiandao Lake Muxin Valley Project, which covers a variety of formats such as landscape sightseeing, mountain sports, pet park, immersive experience, and non-standard accommodation. For this strategic layout, Zhang Quan, chairman of Sante Ropeway, once said in an interview with the media that "ecological theme park" as the company's strategic direction, after the success of the Muxin Valley project 'playing board', will be copied to other regional projects in an orderly manner to achieve unit price increase and performance improvement.
Giant enterprises to set their sights on theme parks is not a new thing, and slightly different from previous investment projects, Sante Ropeway focuses on the layout of the family parent-child small and medium-sized paradise with parent-child customer groups as the main body. This trend is not only the three special ropeway noted that in the past two years, especially under the influence of the epidemic, new multi-form parks such as unpowered parks, cute pet parks, leisure farms and other new forms of parks have gradually emerged in China, and compared with large-scale theme parks with "large-scale, high investment and long cycle", their advantages have been recognized by more and more capital parties, both in terms of operation and return on investment.
How strong is the "gold-absorbing" ability of the parent-child paradise?
Speaking of parks, most people's first impression is Disney, Universal Studios and other large theme parks, although these theme parks are not much in terms of the number of layouts, but their popularity and mastery of IP resources, amusement project categories are the top in the industry, even if it is a domestic local theme park, often with fresh, exciting projects as the core features.
Such a theme park for children, is not the most able to meet their play needs, on the one hand, most of the stimulation projects are not suitable for children's experience, on the other hand, in the scene of playing with adults, the huge flow of passengers and queuing and other issues are often difficult to avoid, which also gave birth to a lot of parent-child parks specifically for the interactive needs of families.
Image courtesy of respondents
Among them, Dora Meng Pet is based on this background and the birth of the parent-child paradise brand, the park is located in Kunming City Colorful Yunnan, Gudian Famous City project, covers an area of 117 acres, is Beijing Dora Aimeng Tourism Development Co., Ltd. to create an animal habitat ecological landscape as the base, to the Ancient Dian Kingdom people and animal symbiosis culture as the link of the parent-child amusement park, and began trial operation in 2019.
"In terms of time, we are actually not lucky, the trial operation did not take long to catch up with the impact of the epidemic, but it also tested the vitality of the parent-child paradise in the face of the crisis.
Since the resumption of opening after the epidemic in March 2020, The overall operation of Dora Meng Pet Park has been good, and despite the impact of several epidemics during the period, it has maintained the annual number of visitors to increase by more than 40% year-on-year, the revenue has increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and in the first year of 2020, it has achieved breakeven, and the profit is expected to increase by 300% in 2021. Liu Chunhui, co-founder and vice president of Dora Aimeng and chairman of Kunming Gudian Dora Meng Pet Park Co., Ltd., told Wen Travel.
This eleventh holiday, Kunming Dora Meng Pet Park once again ushered in the peak of passenger flow, although the rebound of the epidemic has brought a certain impact on public travel, but the suburban short-distance surrounding travel is still in strong demand, especially family-based parent-child travel. According to the data released by Dora Meng Pet, the number of visitors to the park from October 1 to 7 increased by 69% year-on-year in 2020, and the revenue also increased by 41% year-on-year, of which local tourists accounted for more than 85% of the visitors to the park.
The biggest highlight of this is the growth in the number of people, the previous golden week park single-day visitors up to more than 3,000 people, and this year's eleventh holiday single-day visitors average exceeded 5,000 people, reaching the maximum capacity since the operation of the park.
Source Tom Cat Parent-Child Park public number
Coincidentally, Zhejiang Jinke Tom Cat Cultural Industry Co., Ltd., the first indoor theme park "Tom Cat Parent-child Park" landed in Zhuhai, also ushered in a peak of passenger flow during the eleventh soft opening period, with an average of more than 500 groups of families per day and a single-day highest number of visitors exceeding 600 groups.
According to public information, the design team of Tom Cat Parent-Child Park has combined the world-renowned IP of "Talking Tom Cat Family" with the island adventure story of the Port of London to create a new immersive entertainment experience, and has reached cooperation with Hangzhou Lin'an, Yuhang, Anhui Fuyang, Inner Mongolia Hohhot, Xinjiang Kucha and other regions to accelerate the implementation of the project.
For the reason why the popularity of the parent-child paradise continues to rise, on the one hand, it is because the epidemic has blocked the pace of long-distance travel, and the short-distance trips around are safer and healthier; on the other hand, during the non-holiday period, consumers taking their babies out for the weekend has also become the norm of life and entertainment.
According to the "2020 China Parent-Child Travel Consumption Trend Report" released by Ctrip, the frequency of parent-child travel in China in 2020 was 2.4 times, although the impact of the epidemic has decreased compared with 2019, but with the effective control of the epidemic, the demand for parent-child travel has shown a V-shaped upward trend.
In the distribution of parent-child travel themes in 2020, consumers who choose theme parks account for 27%, followed by natural scenery accounting for 22%, architectural humanities accounting for 19%, urban leisure tourism accounting for 12%, museums accounting for 11% and historical humanities accounting for 9%.
Liu Chunhui analyzed: "The landing of large-scale parks has less impact on domestic theme parks than expected, such as the opening of Universal Studios has not caused the popularity of amusement parks such as Happy Valley to decline, because foreign large-scale parks belong to the top of the pyramid products, domestic parks belong to tower and tower-based products, and the difference in single consumption is large, meeting the consumption needs of different categories of consumers, each with its own living space." The layout of domestic large and small and medium-sized parks is also the same, in the context of the normalization of the epidemic, peripheral tourism has undoubtedly become the focus of tourism consumption, positioned in such a consumer group of parent-child parks have also adapted to the new habits and new needs derived from the current market, can be favored by enterprises, ushering in the opportunity for rapid growth is also reasonable, parent-child park products are actually filling the gap in the theme park project under the parent-child format. ”
What are the new opportunities for investing in small and medium-sized theme parks?
Although China's theme park industry started later than the European and American markets, in the past three decades of development, its rapid growth and expansion rate has made the industry experience many rounds of upgrading. For a long time in the past, investment in theme parks has become a supporting project for the government and real estate developers to build public supporting facilities and promote local economic development, and the operation is not professional, and the follow-up investment has created a number of "ghost towns" that no one cares about.
For example, in 2006, before the construction of Wuhu Fantawild Park, its surrounding area was still rural arable land, and after the theme park was built a few years later, the surrounding high-rise buildings rose from the ground, and the house price also rose at any time; after the completion of another Chongqing Fantawild Park, the surrounding house price rose from 2,000 yuan / square meter to 9,000 yuan / square meter within two years.
Whether the theme park itself meets the investment and construction expectations, and how to ensure the follow-up operation, etc., is not within the long-term plan of the real estate developer, which also leads to a large number of domestic theme parks are mainly loss-based. Lin Huanjie, president of the China Theme Park Research Institute, once shared such a set of data in an interview with the media, under normal circumstances, a theme park with an investment of 2-3 billion yuan will take 7-9 years to recover the cost.
Source Government Network
In order to restrict blind investment in theme park projects, in 2006, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the Notice on the Issuance and Implementation of the Catalogue of Restricted Land Use Projects (2006) and the Catalogue of Prohibited Land Use Projects (2006), of which theme parks (film and television cities) are prominently listed. In 2018, Article 10 of the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Construction and Development of Theme Parks in Document No. 400 of the National Development and Reform Commission once again clearly pointed out that "all regions should strictly control the real estate development around the theme park, strictly limit the proportion of residential land around the theme park and the scale of construction, and must not adjust the planning for the supporting real estate development of the theme park project." ”
This also means that the construction period of the theme park that exists as a supporting facility has come to an end, and the theme park construction projects that are often more than one billion and billion yuan can no longer meet the market existence as investment projects. From "large and complete" to "small and beautiful", from supporting to pragmatic development has become the fundamental starting point of the construction of theme park projects, and parent-child park projects have sprung up like "mushrooms" and become popular projects to attract investment, which to a certain extent also confirms this development trend.
As Liu Chunhui summed up, the characteristics of small and medium-sized theme parks determine that they are more flexible and have a higher rate of return: the first investment is low, the total investment amount is within tens of millions, which is one-tenth of a large park; the second occupies a small area, the construction land needs less, the adaptability is strong, and can be implanted in a number of large projects; the third is relatively ecological, unpowered, in line with the ecological environmental protection, green water and green mountains policy, easy to land; the fourth customer single consumption is low but the consumption frequency is high, which is convenient to save marketing costs and achieve scale effects The fifth main customer group is the family parent-child group, which has strong consumption rigidity and is stronger than the risk resistance of large parks.
"A project of this scale is suitable for areas with large radiation population and good traffic accessibility in the suburbs of the city, while the surrounding facilities are relatively sound, which is convenient for tourists to solve the needs of food, housing and transportation in the area." At the same time, it is also suitable for investment by comprehensive cultural tourism groups, real estate companies, scenic spots companies, etc., to fill the parent-child format of the projects under its jurisdiction, create a consumption flashpoint, and promote the common development of multiple formats of the overall project. Therefore, there is a basis for enterprises similar to Sante Ropeway to transform theme park operators. ”
Provided by respondents
He also provides his own experience and suggestions for enterprises that want to invest in parent-child paradise projects, first of all, the project site selection is extremely critical, can be nearly one kilometer nearly a kilometer, traffic accessibility is the innate advantage of the surrounding scenic spots, parent-child crowd as the target subject of the population, the sensitivity to traffic is the highest; secondly, the product should be attractive, the gameplay is very important, any scenic spot can not frequently update and iterate on the infrastructure, but can be continuously upgraded in the gameplay, often through games, activities, The participatory arrangement gives visitors the feeling of having a new experience every time they go.
Finally, and most importantly, new projects should not exist independently as much as possible, but should be bundled and interdependent with various types of projects.
Separate investment in the construction of a scenic spot for all kinds of customer groups, covering sightseeing, leisure, vacation and other needs will become more and more risky in the future, each project should be developed in groups, such as the new project of Dora Meng Pet Park basically avoids independent site selection and investment, and is integrated with the existing cultural tourism city and scenic spots, and borrows from each other for development. In this way, the investment risk of a single scenic spot is reduced, and the business expectations of each scenic spot are also improved.
The profitability of the theme park also needs to pay attention to the creation of the second-match project.
Although the investment in the parent-child park project is standing at the "outlet" of the short-distance parent-child travel in the surrounding areas spawned by the epidemic, it is still not easy to achieve the profitability of the project at present. According to the latest survey data of the "2019 China Theme Park Competitiveness Index Report", there are 339 theme parks in Chinese mainland, of which 25% are loss-making, 22% are flat, and only 53% of the park projects can truly achieve operating profits.
According to industry insiders, 30% of the revenue of international theme parks is tickets, 30% is retail, and 40% is catering and accommodation, and the proportion of surrounding supporting consumption is greater than that of ticket revenue, which is the normal operation of international theme parks. 80% of the income of China's theme parks depends on tickets, 20% of the income depends on retail, relying on ticket revenue, and the single profit model is a common problem faced by most theme park operators at present, including many large scenic spots.
According to Disney's Q2 quarterly financial report released by Disney, Disneyland's global ticket revenue in the quarter was $1.152 billion, while the revenue from amusement park goods such as catering and hotel and vacation services was about $1.69 billion, which was 1.46 times the ticket revenue; and Universal Beijing Resort also had the ability to "absorb gold" that should not be underestimated, according to relevant estimates. Tourists who come to Universal Studios Beijing during the 11th holiday spend about 3300 yuan per capita; during the non-Golden Week period, the per capita consumption is expected to be about 2500 yuan.
Such a two-match ability is currently unmatched by domestic theme parks, and in the final analysis, it is still not enough to support such additional value benefits in the sales of IP and surrounding derivatives. Just on October 18, Ocean Theme Park operator Haichang Ocean Park Holdings Co., Ltd. announced that it would sell 100% of the shares of Wuhan, Chengdu, Tianjin and Qingdao and 66% of the zhengzhou project company to MBK Partners, a Korean-backed company.
Haichang's sudden "selling and selling" action really "shocked" the domestic theme park market, as a locally grown paradise brand, Haichang Ocean Park's park is one of the most promising to compete with international brands of the park enterprises, was "sold" is also its relatively mature operation of the park project, is not tight funds, or eager to "sell" to repay debts, has become the industry's most speculation about this transaction, and more industry players will be Haichang Ocean Park facing the problem of "increasing income without increasing profits".
The issue of upgrading the "second match" is also seen as the key to Haichang Ocean Park's breakthrough in revenue bottlenecks. According to public information, the ticket revenue still accounts for the majority of the revenue of Haichang Ocean Park, about 75%, and creating IP to enhance the revenue of the second match will be one of the business directions of its next key layout. According to its official website, Haichang Ocean Park has created three major IP, namely the polar marine animal IP "Seven Meng Tuan", the jellyfish elf IP Meiduo, the mermaid IP Amy, at present, from IP cultivation to realization, Haichang Ocean Park still has a long way to go.
Source Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park public number
Liu Chunhui said that the theme park integration of the two-match project, which is mainly based on parent-child customers, will be relatively less resistant. Because children do not have a strong perception of the brand, they are more concerned about the experience and strange fun.
Taking Dora Cute Pet Paradise as an example, the overall revenue of the second consumption accounted for more than 35%, mainly including animal feeding, catering, commodities, cultural and creative and other categories. Specifically, through the rigid animal feeding to establish the foundation of the second match, through the systematic game and activity settings to increase the stay time of tourists, pull the catering of the second match, through the characteristics of the commodity and cultural creation to further enhance the level of the second match.
"For large theme parks, IP needs to go out of the circle to achieve scale in order to better talk about profitability, but for small and medium-sized theme parks, because the cost is limited, there is no need to 'go out of the circle' to spread, and the possibility of realization as a whole will be easier to achieve." For Dora Aimeng, it is still actively promoting the expansion of new projects, combined with its own situation and market conditions, it is currently expanding several Dora Love Parks in the form of asset-light output (that is, Dora Aimeng is responsible for planning, design and operation, and partners are responsible for the construction of the park), and there will be 2-3 new openings in 2022. The longer-term goal is still to achieve the nationwide chain replication of the park, lay out 10-15 ecological pet parks, and become a domestic park chain enterprise with core content and scenes," Liu Chunhui said.
At present, China has become the world's largest number of tourists theme park market, international brands and domestic brands are competing for card slot layout, in order to be able to "share a piece of the pie", the future park market will also present the overall pattern of regional leading theme parks + scattered various types of park layout.
It is foreseeable that large theme parks will still appear, but the overall volume will not be too large, which is related to the overall financial environment, the background of the real estate industry, the landing of large IP, land policies and other factors. In the environment where peripheral tourism has gradually become the main consumer of the tourism market, various ecological, interactive, immersive, animal categories, unpowered categories, script killing categories and other parks will become more and more abundant, and scattered layouts will be around the city to meet the different needs of different consumer groups. Just as Lin Huanjie predicted, China's theme park market has not yet appeared ceiling, at least more than 15 years of development opportunities, but the premise is that developers can maintain the "original intention", have good IP, location and scientific operation.