CGTN Europe interviewed John Gong, a Professor of Economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
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00:00Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi has announced plans to open its first
00:05theme park this year based entirely on characters from its own shows. iQiland
00:13is set to open in the city of Yangzhou. It will include virtual reality
00:17experiences, gaming and artificial intelligence. Revenue from Chinese
00:22mainland theme parks is forecast to exceed 67 billion dollars this year.
00:29Legoland is due to open its first China resort in Shanghai while Warner
00:33Brothers Discovery announced it's developing a Harry Potter studio tour
00:38for 2027. Beijing wants to boost consumption through developing the
00:43experience economy. John Gong is professor of economics at Beijing's
00:48University of International Business and Economics. I think it's a very different
00:53model. I mean they they said that they're going to open theme parks like this
00:57across the country. So it's more of a sort of like a franchise kind of
01:02experience I would say. I mean other than they're running themselves, they're
01:06not franchising out. But we're gonna see more and more theme parks opening up
01:12across China. So what it means in my view is that it's a lot smaller
01:16investment in scale and the size is probably also smaller. I mean for a
01:21virtual reality experience you really don't need the Disney kind of sites
01:27where you know there's miles and miles of theme park size. It's not going to be
01:33like this. It's going to be more of a much much smaller version. If we look at
01:39the traditional theme parks, Disney in Shanghai is outshining the US offering
01:46and we're seeing that these theme parks are doing really really well. The
01:49traditional ones. What do you put this down to? The revenue derived from the
01:54Shanghai theme park is just growing very rapidly. So you know you can tell
01:59that the theme park business in China is doing very well. As a matter of fact and
02:03I can also say the same thing about the theme park business in China. That's
02:07fiercely competitive. In addition to Disneyland, just within you know Shanghai
02:12driving range you know there's going to be the Lego park, Universal Studios is
02:17going to have a park and then also other parks as well. And you know like
02:23everything in China the market is intensely competitive. You have at least
02:27half a dozen theme park companies competing across the land in many other
02:33places. Yeah I mean it's a massive market. Shanghai alone has 25 million residents
02:39not counting the people that come to visit the theme parks. I wonder if you
02:44could talk to me a little bit more about China's focus on tourism to drive the
02:48economy and where these experiences of theme parks, whether traditional or this
02:54new version with IT fit in. Yeah well I think the theme park business is at a
03:01right time. The growth of is a right time in accordance with the level of
03:06development in China. You know we're starting to see China's capital GDP
03:11reaching close to $40,000 per capita. And this is also a time that people are
03:18seeking consumption beyond just you know shopping and dining. They're looking more
03:25for sort of service oriented things to consume. As a matter of fact if you look
03:32at the portion of consumption of China's GDP is actually increasing quite
03:38rapidly. What it means is that people are looking for more experiences, looking
03:43for things to see, things to do, which means that they're going to travel,
03:49they're going to stay in hotels, they're going to fly, and they're going to go through
03:53these theme parks. So you know the business is booming at the right time
03:58because you know China's per capita income is at a level where this type of
04:04theme park consumption is just about to take off.