Brief discussion on the water park development trends

water park development trends

Share This Post

As a kind of leisure and entertainment project, water parks have become more and more popular among consumers in recent years, and are growing and developing, and the scale of the industry is expanding rapidly.

As an important part of theme parks, the market size of the water park industry is estimated to reach 10 billion yuan in 2026, gradually entering the track of rapid industrialization development, and the market prospects are very optimistic.

The popularity of water entertainment theme travel remains high, with the number of trips in July increasing by 134% month-on-month. Among them, parent-child families are the main consumer, accounting for 42% of the trips.

The water park development trends should not be underestimated

In recent years, the water park industry has developed rapidly, mainly due to the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, improved consumer confidence and economic conditions, improved park facilities, and frequent development and opening of large parks.

According to data, the global water park market value in 2020 was US$25.1 billion, and it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% during the forecast period of 2021-2026.

It can be seen from these data that the scale of the water park market is constantly expanding, and the momentum of industry development cannot be underestimated.

The current national policy environment is also conducive to the development of the water park field, especially the government’s strong support for safety supervision and environmental protection. These policies have played a positive role in promoting the development of the water park industry.

Is the water park bigger, the better?

In 2023, the competitive landscape of the water park industry will be in the form of “small and medium-sized support, water dripping through the stone”, with small and medium-sized water parks as the main and a few large water parks as the auxiliary.

At present, there are more than 200 large and medium-sized water parks with a total investment of more than 50 million yuan in the country, most of which have an investment of about 80 million yuan, an annual passenger flow of about 200,000 to 300,000 people, an annual turnover of about 20-30 million yuan, a general operating profit margin of about 45%, and an investment payback period of about 5-8 years. A very small number of parks with good locations, moderate investment scales, and market opportunities have quickly recovered their investment costs within 2-3 years.

The core principle of investing in a water park is “suitability”. The investment scale of the park should be determined according to the local economic level, surrounding population, project location, traffic conditions and consumption habits of the project, and the “first” and “largest” should not be blindly pursued out of the market. It is not recommended to invest too little in first- and second-tier cities, and it is not recommended to invest in medium- and large-scale water parks in fourth- and fifth-tier cities.

How to improve the competitiveness of water parks

Investment in parks can be considered from the following aspects.

Diversified development. With the change of tourism concepts, more and more people are tired of sightseeing tourism and are turning to leisure and vacation tourism based on leisure, relaxation and entertainment. The integration of water parks with hot springs, hotels, skiing, etc. to form a development model of leisure tourism resorts can not only radiate surrounding market consumption, but also enhance tourists’ loyalty to the park. At the same time, the complementarity of different types of projects and the staggered off-seasons also solve the problem of personnel deployment and reduce labor costs.

Increase differentiation. In the case of multiple water parks in the same area, in addition to reducing homogeneity through equipment differences, you can also make a fuss on the theme. IP is an important means to connect tourists’ emotions, transforming rational requirements into emotional narratives to achieve a unique emotional positioning, and by extracting IP characters, stories and other elements, creating supporting performances, activities, and services, so that tourists can pay for emotions.

Improve interactivity. The peak season of water parks coincides with the summer vacation. The main force of summer vacation tourism is parent-child families. Increasing parent-child facilities and parent-child products and improving parent-child interactive experience will help improve the competitiveness of the park.

Reasonable application of technology. In recent years, the application of water park technology has been continuously improved. From the construction of amusement facilities to the application of VR technology, it has provided technical support and market growth space for the water park industry. While using the progress of science and technology to continuously develop various novel and surprising game projects, it can also improve safety and service.

Written at the end

Water parks need to continuously optimize the entertainment experience and service quality, and continuously integrate various ways of playing such as night parks, music festivals, and fireworks festivals. The water entertainment projects that were originally limited to summer have been built into a comprehensive leisure and vacation destination that integrates water world, theme parks, theme shopping streets, high-end hotel clusters, and other food, accommodation, travel, shopping, and entertainment. It has become a must-visit place for many parent-child families and young customers in summer.

More To Explore