Theme parks adding to tourism boom nationwide

Legoland Shanghai Resort, the city's newest theme park and the world's largest Legoland park, has significantly driven up bookings at nearby hotels and boosted consumption growth in surrounding areas after its opening on Saturday.

So far this summer, 70 percent of hotel bookings in the city's Jinshan district — where the resort is located — were made by travelers from other regions of the country, while bookings made by locals accounted for more than 50 percent last year, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

Travelers who booked hotel rooms near Legoland mainly came from Shanghai; Beijing; Qingdao, Shandong province; Chengdu, Sichuan province; and Nanjing, Jiangsu province, Qunar said. Many hotels near the theme park said they offer complimentary shuttle services and luggage storage services for holidaymakers.

"Summer has been the peak season for travelers going to theme parks, and the popularity of theme parks is expected to have an even more prominent impact on boosting consumption growth of surrounding hotels, restaurants and other amenities," said Chen Xiaoshuang, a researcher at Qunar.

Nationwide, booking volumes for admission tickets at domestic theme parks so far this summer jumped 70 percent on a yearly basis, according to the online travel agency.

Besides Legoland, theme parks — especially those with popular brand cachets — have been the driving engines of surrounding economies. For instance, bookings of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts near Universal Studios Beijing and Shanghai Disneyland jumped nearly 40 percent over last summer, Qunar said.

"A theme park can bring more fashionable and modern elements to an ancient city and add new vitality," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

Zhongmu county in Zhengzhou, Henan province, was originally known for its abundance of crops such as watermelon and garlic. Now it is home to eight theme parks, including Zhengzhou Haichang Ocean Park and Zhengzhou Fantawild Adventure. So far this summer, hotel booking volumes in Zhongmu surged 50-fold over the same period of 2019, Qunar added.

The Zhongmu government said the county would like to further stimulate its vitality based on the popularity of tourism. By 2026, the county plans to build a comprehensive modern industrial system that includes cultural and creative tourism, advanced manufacturing and modern biopharmaceuticals.

"If a theme park generates revenues of 1 yuan (14 cents), it can drive a city's income by 3.8 yuan, thus propelling the incomes of upstream and downstream industries by 6-15 yuan. In addition to its own income, a theme park can make significant contributions to a city," said Lin Huanjie, director of the Institute for Theme Park Studies in China.