especially for the more complicated equipment, while looking at the most active countries in the region as far as development is concerned and those existing venues that are continuing to invest, he comments: “Singapore is the country that started off very well. The new casinos and parks are doing excellently. For the waterparks in Asia, the waterpark business will grow a lot in the near future. “The parks that have the financial recourses available and
which have also withstood the crisis are the fittest. These companies normally have more businesses to spread the risk and include Disney Hong Kong, Chime Long Guangzhou and the new Zhuhai parks, Happy Valley Park (OCT), Ocean Park Hong Kong, Sentosa Singapore, Sunway Lagoon Malaysia, Enchanted Kingdom Manila and the main parks in Taiwan and Korea.” As far as the future is concerned, van Bilsen believes
that the combination of casinos and leisure/amusement – waterparks in Asia is one that will certainly grow in the near future in Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Manila and Vietnam. He also envisages more professional zoos and marine parks, as well as the big chain parks looking to start parks in Asia.
Dennis Speigel, President, International Theme Park Services, US “The Asian theme park market seems to move in a strange, circuitous manner, continuing to slowly progress,” says Speigel. “During the last decade, parks that you would have bet would have been enormously successful (such as Hong Kong Disneyland) have not (as much as expected), and Ocean Park (the competing park with Disney Hong Kong that everyone would have bet would have failed) has grown to enormous proportions and success. “The Far East in general holds the greatest future growth
for our industry. During the next 30 years, operators will ‘get it right.’ Already a major Chinese company has emerged
about which a great number of global operators are not yet familiar – the OCT Group. Mr. Ren Keiei, CEO and President, is the driving force behind OCT and is a true visionary who understands China, culture and entertainment. OCT is a major expanding force in China and potentially throughout Asia. In my opinion, this will be the company that Disney, Universal and the larger western operators (who have come to Asia) will be competing against.” So what trends has Speigel noted currently exist in
the region? “Just recently, one of the oldest parks in China (Beijing
Amusement Park) closed its gates. Well located but archaic in its style and entertainment attraction presentation, it is still sad to see this park close. The trends emerging in China and Asia are bringing forth much more sophistication to the entertainment theme park concept than ever before. Rides, shows and attractions in many parks are first class, offering true entertainment value to the Chinese market. The OCT Group is leading the pack. “However, not everyone is getting it right, i.e. the sex
oriented theme park which opened briefly and was closed by the government. There are still shoot-from-the-hip developers who come up with incredibly wacky ideas which seem to have a very brief run. ” Speigel observes that the global economic recession
has slowed the pace of development in Asia and, for that matter, around the world. “It killed the Middle East (Dubai) which was a market
that was the most affected - literally stopping all of the projects that were being planned. Frankly, it was ludicrous that 13 theme parks were being built in Dubai, a city/ country of 1.2 million people. This stoppage should not have been a surprise to anyone knowledgeable in our industry.” And he continues: “There are many different types of parks being considered for development throughout Asia – most
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