I’m with
@gavin in being very interested at some of the Chinese developments in 2019. As he already mentioned, OCT has now overtaken Universal as the 3rd biggest operator, but Fantawild is also hot on Universal’s heels, with only around 1 million less visitors. That could see Universal pushed down to 5th in the years to come (well, presumably not this year or potentially next due to all that’s gone on, but maybe in 2022?).
Can I ask a question, though; why does Chimelong Ocean Kingdom get such a high volume of visitors?Out of all the theme parks not owned by Disney or Universal, it is by far the most visited, with the next largest being Everland, which has visitor figures that are not far off 50% lower!
I can only answer purely based on what I've seen myself, so I have no actual data to back this up, but:
Chimelong already had brand recognition in the area thanks to Chimelong Paradise, Safari Park and Water Park, which are also extremely popular.
It's in the Pearl River Delta, which consists of some huge cities with very large populations (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Foshan). It's doable as a day trip for hundreds of millions of people.
It's extremely close to, and easily accessible from, Macau and Hong Kong which both get ludicrous visitor numbers (or did until recently). From Macau especially, it's an easy day trip with easy transport options. So, you're not just getting an already enormous local population, but a potential cut of enormous tourist numbers as well.
It was/is heavily advertised all over the region. Until very recently I'd see billboards for it (for the whole "brand" including the Guangzhou resort as well) all over the Hong Kong metro.
They offer free transport between the Guangzhou and Zhuhai resorts for hotel guests and have other, excellent direct bus links all over the region. They're also working on a metro/monorail line which will improve things even more.
They are very happy to brag about world records: world's biggest this, that and the other.
It's very much a resort, with excellent hotels, pools, restaurants, evening entertainment etc. A lot of Fantawild parks have hotels, too, but they're not so much a "thing" as Chimelong.
Staying with the hotels (which, as I've said, are excellent), they offer loads of different room/park/circus/buffet packages. You just check in at the hotel and all the **** you need is handed over.
Unlike the other Chinese chains (OCT and Fantawild), they offer a consistently good product. They have, by far, the best operations of any local park (very much on par with the better Western parks) and "sell" the fact that all their stuff is American or European.
That's enough for now...
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