An Analysis of China's Water Park Issues
Author: Fang Long
The time has come to the second decade of the 21st century. Looking back at the first decade of this century, everyone who is familiar with the domestic amusement industry knows that this is a decade of rapid development of the Chinese amusement industry. Among them, the water park Important components, both the number of parks and the scale of the park during this period, have greatly exceeded the development speed of other forms of theme parks. According to incomplete statistics, the number of domestic water parks has exceeded one thousand, and this number continues to increase.
Water park equipment pictures
As a veteran who has been engaged in the amusement industry for nearly 20 years, the author has personally participated in and experienced this wave of "water booms" in China's water parks. He has seen the rise and fall of many water parks, including successful cases and failure cases. Here I am Talk about some problems in domestic water parks.
What are the common problems in domestic water parks?
Issue 1. The market positioning in the early stage is inaccurate, you don't understand the water park, and follow the project blindly.
After the completion of many water parks, they often fail to meet the psychological expectations of investors. The root cause is that the initial positioning is inaccurate, insufficient market research is conducted, and the projects are blindly followed the trend without understanding the nature of the water parks. The biggest problem with water parks!
Investors must understand the following issues before planning to build a water park:
1. Do you know the relationship between water park and temperature? In other words, under what temperature conditions do tourists want to go to the water park? If you want to be a water park, you must accept the reality of seasonal management. (Of course, places such as Sanya in Hainan are not covered in this article.)
2. Can indoor water parks solve the problem of temperature (or year-round operation)? (This is the idea of many investors who want to be a water park investor in the north.) The answer is obviously no! The problem of temperature cannot be solved, not to mention that the indoor water park has to face higher construction and operating costs. At the same time, compared with outdoor water parks, tourists experience a lot worse. Most indoor water parks in foreign countries are reconstructed by using old buildings such as old factories and hangars. There are few new cases. I found that many domestic tourism projects like to be placed indoors: indoor water parks, indoor amusement parks, indoor ice and snow parks, indoor aquariums, indoor cute pet parks ... The main reason is probably commercial real estate.
3. How much water park to build? The scale of the water park is mainly determined by the number of people within a 1.5-hour drive radius. Of course, it also includes local income and consumption levels, population structure, and competition. Larger scales mean larger land costs, larger construction costs, larger operating costs, and greater business risks.
Question 2: Lack of professional planning and design
The reason why many water parks in China do not operate well in the later period is that in addition to the market positioning in the early stage, there are major problems in planning and design. The history of domestic water parks is not long, and the “boom” of water parks has only risen in the last 10 years. Before 2010, there were few professional water park planning and design companies in China. It is conceivable that due to the lack of professional planning and design companies As a result, some domestic water parks have problems in the planning and design stage.
Water park is a comprehensive experience project, which contains at least dozens of aspects, including theme style, amusement equipment selection, landscape creation, water treatment system, power supply system, weak current system, lighting system, audio System, ticket sales system, cash register system, secondary consumption system, stage engineering, shading system, landscaping and so on, all of which together create a tourist experience, whether these systems are in place and perfect, directly affect the tourist experience, and finally Decide on the success or failure of the water park!
Some domestic water parks can be said to have almost no planning and design, that is, the simple stacking of water park equipment. Such water parks are difficult to have sustainable market competitiveness and are destined to be eliminated by the market!
Question 3: Project quality issues
Due to the special nature of the water park, it is destined that the water park is best to open in summer. Therefore, in order to catch up with the "golden season" of summer water parks, many water parks will choose to open in June and July in the first year. Due to this time limit, many water parks have a problem of rushing to work. As soon as rushing to work, various engineering quality problems will inevitably occur, and eventually the quality of the park will be affected, which will affect the tourist experience, not to mention the hidden safety hazards and engineering rectification costs .
Those well-known industry benchmarks, which one did not work hard on engineering quality!
Question 4: Not paying attention to operation
Not paying attention to operation is one of the common problems of domestic water parks. Water parks are ultimately operated by people and provide service experience for tourists. Therefore, the quality of a water park is more than the quantity and stimulation of amusement equipment. The degree of decision determines how to make these amusement devices bring tourists an emotional experience that only people can do. Most domestic water parks operate seasonally. Therefore, in non-seasonal water parks, it is common practice to retain only a portion of the management staff and backbone employees. How many permanent employees should the water park retain? This requires seeking a balance between labor costs and business needs. At the same time, it is necessary to cultivate the skills of “multi-purpose” for fixed employees so that each employee is a “universal worker.” Respond to issues during the business period. Therefore, people who value operations need to value them! How to train skills? How to motivate employees to work? Everyone knows that "management benefits," and tens of millions of dollars have been invested. Why not invest so little in operation management?
Question 5: Do not pay attention to marketing
The marketing of Lishui Park is a tedious and laborious task! The common practice of some water parks in China is to sign an agent, everything is fine, and wait for visitors to come! To do a good job in the marketing of the water park, we must start from the following aspects:
1. Self-analysis: What are the advantages of researching your own water park? What else is missing? How to make up for the deficiency?
2. Comparative analysis: Who are the direct competitors? Comprehensive comparative analysis with competitors.
3. Market analysis: Where does your own tourist group come from? How to stabilize regular customers? Expanding new customers? How to find new customer groups through the transformation of its own products?
4. Weather analysis: formulate or adjust price policies by analyzing historical weather and weather forecast, and reasonably prepare for operation reception.
5. Historical data analysis: Summarize regular experience by analyzing historical data to guide business.
6. Analysis of tourist portraits: tourist composition, tourist age, gender ratio, tourist consumption preferences, tourist satisfaction, tourist suggestions, etc.
Question 6: Pay less attention to the maintenance and construction of the park
Most domestic water parks only operate in the summer, and the rest of the time are in the closed period, and the park only retains some employees. The non-operation of the water park does not mean that guns and guns are put into the warehouse, and horses are placed in the Nanshan Mountains. The important work of the water park during the closed period is the maintenance, repair and renovation of the park, and we must make adequate preparations for the next business season. Successful water parks have made great efforts in the maintenance of the park, and rectified and repaired the problems found during the business season. At the same time, the remaining employees must be systematically trained and summarized, and the next year's operations must be formulated. plan.
Like other theme parks, Lishui Water Park must be continuously constructed. Its purpose is only one, to improve the quality of water parks, and to give visitors a better experience!
The spring of 2020 has arrived, and the summer is not far away, and the operating season of the water park is about to begin! Over the past ten years, the "water boom" of water parks has slowly subsided. After the big waves have been washed, some water parks will be ruthlessly eliminated by the market. As a person in the industry, I sincerely hope that my little opinion can be accepted by the investors and managers of the water park, and work hard to create a number of high-quality water parks for the industry, society, and people's good life contribution!
Author: Fang Long, source (recreational community micro-channel public number)
Water park equipment 
