Themed unpowered amusement parks have developed relatively rapidly in recent years, with good development prospects, but also facing some challenges.
With the improvement of urbanization level, the growth of market demand for culture and tourism and the liberalization of the two-child policy, the heat of the parent-child tour market continues to rise, which provides an opportunity for the development of outdoor unpowered amusement parks. The truly independently operated outdoor parent-child powerless parks in China began in 2016, and since then a number of similar projects have appeared around the capital cities of the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Central China regions, such as the Squirrel Tribe in Chengdu, the town of Bella in Changsha, the Rabbit's Woolly Bunny Parent-Child Park in Jigao, Shanghai, the Damei Children's World in Beijing, the Tractor Farm and Zombie Paradise within Tianyuan Dongfang in Wuxi, the Star Chihu Tower of the Star Ledo Camping Town in Hengqin, Zhuhai Unpowered World, and so on. In addition, there are nearly 1,000 small-scale “garden within a garden” type outdoor non-powered amusement parks, which are jointly promoting the development of this emerging cultural tourism industry.
Compared with the traditional power amusement equipment, the theme powerless amusement park has many advantages. First of all, it has lower operating costs, does not require power equipment, operating costs are mainly limited to the maintenance and cleaning of equipment, which can reduce labor costs. Secondly, it can provide a more diversified amusement experience without the limitation of electric equipment, and can be designed with various shapes and functions, such as slides, swings, climbing walls, etc., to meet the needs of visitors of different age groups and interests. Furthermore, in line with the trend of environmental protection and sustainable development, it has less impact on the environment, and its design and construction can also utilize sustainable materials and green technologies.However, the industry is currently beset with a number of problems. On the one hand, operation management and industry standards are seriously lagging behind, and product supply capacity and quality vary. Part of the domestic equipment often only imitates the appearance, ignoring the core structural design and safety control, resulting in a low yield rate, high repair rate and greater safety hazards. On the other hand, the industry is highly competitive, there is homogenization of the industry, blindly follow the trend and other phenomena. For example, the number of outdoor non-powered parks around the country has increased, and homogenization is serious; during the epidemic, some projects brainlessly followed the trend of big IP, lack of local planning, and easy to be impacted by market changes. In addition, most of the indoor non-powered parks in urban commercial complexes are relatively single, with insufficient integration of content and insufficient depth of play, resulting in poor consumer adhesion. And the industry entry threshold is low, there are quality problems or low-end products flooding the market, increasing the probability of safety hazards.
In the future, the theme powerless amusement park has strong development potential. It integrates cultural tourism industry, rural agriculture, education and study, camp adventure, sports industry and other diversified industries, and is widely used in urban parks, scenic spots, theme parks, rural revitalization, leisure and vacation scenarios, with strong industrial and industry linkage power.
In order to better develop, the theme powerless amusement park needs to be constantly innovated and improved. For example, to realize value enhancement, starting from the perspective of in-depth experience, including the reshaping of courses, services, and processes; to focus on thematization and IPization, and to integrate more thematic elements into the design of amusement equipment to attract more customers; to strengthen the educational or popular science attributes, which will help children's brain, physical, and intellectual development in a coordinated manner; to improve the business model, and to convert a large amount of offline traffic efficiently; and to pay attention to safety, ensure the facility's safety and stability, and comply with relevant regulatory and standardization requirements. At the same time, it is also necessary to fully consider the market demand and competition in order to meet the challenges of the industry's development and realize sustainable development.
