Theme parks: more than just fun

ASIA FILE

Kolkata-based Nicco Parks and Resorts' partnership with a group of non-resident Bangladeshis in an amusement complex near Dhaka is another example of Asia's growing fascination with this aspect of the leisure business.

Known as Nandan, the Taka 300 million project is shaping up as Bangladesh's largest amusement park on 44 acres of reclaimed paddy land at Savar, 20 kilometres from the capital.

The first phase offering 18 "dry" rides is ready and a water park, in the second phase, is on its way. Nicco holds 12 per cent of the equity and will receive 2 per cent on all sales.

Nobody knows what sales will be like. The project's intrepid promoters expect 1.2 million to 1.5 million visitors a year at an entry fee of Taka 50 a person. That may sound like a tall claim but nobody doubts that there's a growing market out there.

Nandan already has a competitor. Australia's Atech International has signed an agreement with Bangladesh's Basundhara Group to set up an amusement and theme park in Dhaka.

Asia is certainly waking up to what already is a $ 19 billion global business. While half that revenue currently comes from some 600 parks in the US alone, industry insiders predict this region is going to roll.

We see that happening in India, where Nicco alone has three large parks in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur. Construction will begin soon on a $ 200 million amusement facility near Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, promoted by a group of Europeans and Americans and due to open in mid-2005. Next March, in China's Shandong province, the Fuhua amusement park will open a huge indoor water park, which it claims will be the largest in Asia.

But it's the big guns that are making all the noises right now. Tokyo Disneyland, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last April, is universally acknowledged as the best-attended theme park in the world, receiving 12.3 million visitors in the first half of its current fiscal year alone.

Buoyed by this success, Walt Disney Co is building another Disneyland in Hong Kong, as a joint venture with the territory's government, on 494 acres of reclaimed land on the island of Lantau.

Two years ago, Vivendi Universal opened its first Asian theme park "" and its first outside the US "" in Osaka, Japan, and instantly hit the pot of gold. With 11 million visitors and an income of $ 1.6 billion in its very first year, Universal Studios Osaka is said to be the most successful theme park ever.

Lotte World in Seoul, Korea, is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest indoor theme park in history, offering a little bit of everything to everyone. Having amassed over 80 million visitors in just 14 years, it added more high-tech thrills recently hoping to take its attendance level to 10 million a year.

When it opened 26 years ago at Aberdeen on the south side of Hong Kong, straddling two different sides of a mountain and overlooking the sea, Ocean Park was a modest fun place known for its spectacular 1.5-km cable car and dolphin and sea lion shows.

Today, it is one of the most acclaimed theme parks in the world offering equal elements of entertainment, education and conservation. Its 40 attractions and rides, including a unique goldfish pagoda displaying over 100 varieties of Chinese and Japanese goldfish, draw over 3 million visitors a year.

Together, these four received nearly 48 million visitors last year, which was 41 per cent of the total attendance of the top 10 most visited amusement and theme parks in the world. With more giant parks being built or planned in this region, Asia is well poised to gain control of the global amusement industry.

Scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2005, the $ 3 billion Hong Kong Disneyland will have the largest Adventureland of all five Disney parks worldwide, plus Main Street, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, and a 2,200-seat in-the-round theatre that would feature a show similar to the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom.

The government of Hong Kong, which has spent some $ 1.7 billion on infrastructure to support the project, is ecstatic. It expects a net economic benefit to the territory of up to $ 19 billion over the next 40 years.

Meanwhile, China is wooing Disney to open a Disneyland in Shanghai and consultations between the two have already begun. Although a Shanghai Disneyland may not come through before at least 2010, it looks like a done deal, because Disney isn't going to ignore the immense potential of the Chinese market.

It is this potential that made Vivendi Universal sign a deal last December to build a Universal Studios theme park in Shanghai. Construction has begun and the park is due to formally open in 2006. Then the real fun begins.