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Amusement Industry Booms in China
China's amusement industry has witnessed a significant expansion since reforms were initiated and China began to open its doors to the rest of the world 20 years ago. The industry's revenue has increased over 30 times in the past decade.
Each year about 350 million people visit China's amusement parks and palaces, pushing the industry's revenue to about US$544 million in 1999, according to the China Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (CAAPA).
"China's amusement industry stimulates economic growth, and economic growth, in its turn, promotes the development of the amusement industry," said Guan Tianchi, vice-secretary general of CAAPA, at the Asian Amusement Expo, which closed on Friday in Beijing .
The amusement industry has grown in recent years because of popular demand for entertainment and recreation activities now that people's living standards have improved as a result of recent reforms.
At the beginning, only simple amusement facilities were established in existing parks, but they brought quite a bit of fun to visitors, said Guan.
Things changed quite quickly however. "As people began to want more, they started to feel dissatisfied with what was already available. As such, new parks and entertainment places were planned and constructed in the big coastal cities, the pioneer of which was in the first special economic zone: Shenzhen near Hong Kong," he said.
These new parks proved extremely popular with the public. Their success promoted the development of the amusement industry, he noted.
As the economy continued to grow, amusement parks spread from coastal to inland areas, from east to west, and from big cities to smaller towns. Guan said that Chinese customs and ideology should be taken into account in the construction of theme parks.
"Most visitors to the parks are Chinese, and as such, they must be designed to suit the tastes of the Chinese. As for foreign visitors, they also enjoy the parks because they want to learn about Chinese traditional culture," he said.
With the expansion of the amusement industry, amusement facilities, which were imported from foreign countries at first, started to be manufactured in China.
"The amusement facilities that have been made in China are less expensive than those from abroad because of the lower cost of labour and materials. As such, Chinese amusement facilities are cheap and have a wide domestic market," said Guan.
Quality regulations controlling standards of amusement facilities have been enacted and have helped improve the quality of design and manufacture. Guan said Chinese amusement facilities are now being exported to foreign countries.
In order to develop and manage the amusement industry, the CAAPA was founded in 1978 and now has over 400 members.
CAAPA, which is a member of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), is taking an active role in exchanging technology and ideas with its foreign counterparts.
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