On March 11th, Shanghai Disney Resort announced the start of preliminary work for the construction of a new attraction, which will be located within the park and adjacent to the "Zootopia" area. At present, the project is still in the early planning stage, and Shanghai Disney Resort, its shareholders, and management have expressed expectations for future progress and plan to disclose more details in a timely manner.
At the same time, the development project management team of Shanghai Disney Resort has completed the pile foundation work for the third Disney themed hotel, laying an important foundation for the official launch of the main project in the next stage. The hotel broke ground in August 2023 and is located on the shore of Xingyuan Lake, with 400 guest rooms. After completion, it will provide tourists with a wider range of accommodation options.
It is reported that on December 20, 2023, the eighth largest theme park of Shanghai Disneyland and the first park in the world with the theme of "Zootopia" was officially opened at Shanghai Disneyland. Just three months later, Shanghai Disneyland announced the addition of new attractions and supporting facilities, marking its continuous expansion of its entertainment landscape, providing tourists with more diverse experiences, and creating a tourist destination suitable for multi day play.
Image source: Shanghai Disney Resort official website
Since its opening in June 2016, Shanghai Disneyland has been open for nearly eight years, with two expansion projects meeting visitors, including the Disney Pixar Toy Story theme park that opened in April 2018 and the Zootopia theme park that opened in December last year. The importance that Walt Disney attaches to the Chinese market is evident.
As of the opening of the "Zootopia" theme park, Shanghai Disneyland has received 13 million visitors in 2023, maintaining strong market competitiveness and tourist stickiness. With the introduction of new IPs, the sales of related derivatives will also bring considerable secondary consumption income to Shanghai Disney.
While Shanghai Disneyland continues to bring tourists a sense of freshness, Universal Studios Beijing, thousands of miles away, is also trying to "hold back the big moves".
According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, preliminary statistics show that in 2024, Beijing will open a new commercial area of 1.4 million square meters and continue to promote the opening of key projects to welcome customers. At the same time, we will accelerate the construction of four international consumer experience zones: Wangfujing × Xidan × Qianmen, CBD × Sanlitun, Universal Studios × Grand Canal, and Lize × Beijing New Business District.
The Three Year Action Plan for the Development and Construction of Beijing Sub center Cultural Tourism Area (2023-2025) released in March last year clearly proposed to build an international consumption experience area of "Universal Studios × the Grand Canal". This means that Universal Studios and the Grand Canal, the two sub center tourism "golden cards", will bring more wonderful tourism experiences to global tourists in the future.
Among them, after the first phase of the Universal Studios theme park was opened, it became the cultural and tourism landmark of the sub center of Beijing. In February this year, Gai Chang, deputy director of the Tongzhou District Bureau of Culture and Tourism of Beijing, said that Universal Studios theme park has become the king of domestic theme park traffic, and successfully entered the high-speed growth channel of tourists and business income. In 2023, the added value of the cultural, sports and entertainment industry in Tongzhou District increased by 37.3% year-on-year, with a growth rate of over 30% for two consecutive quarters, driving up the GDP growth rate by 1.58 percentage points.
Image source: Beijing Universal Resort official website
In June last year, it was reported that with the steady construction of Universal Studios North Integrated Transport Hub and Tongma Road Integrated Transport Hub, three more resort hotels of different levels will be added in the future, including five-star Intercontinental Crowne Plaza Hotel, four-star Wanda Jinhua Resort Hotel and Intercontinental Smart Select Holiday Hotel,
Specifically, the five-star Intercontinental Crowne Plaza Hotel and Universal Studios North Integrated Transport Hub Project are integrated, and the hotel is equipped with high-end banquet hall, Chinese restaurant, cafeteria, multi-functional conference room, swimming pool, gym, lawn wedding site and other spaces. The four-star Wanda Jinhua Resort and Intercontinental Smart Choice Holiday Hotel are supporting projects for the comprehensive transportation hub of Tongma Road. In addition to guest rooms, restaurants, conference rooms, and swimming pools, there is also a semi open immersive commercial street, atrium garden, landscape stairs, and pedestrian crossings built here.
At present, Universal Studios Beijing is stepping up its planning for the construction of Phase II and Phase III, which will reach 30 million people every year after completion. With the completion and operation of the three major cultural buildings in Tongzhou District, the 5A level creation of the Grand Canal Cultural Tourism Scenic Area has entered the public notice period, and the high-quality development of cultural tourism in the urban sub center has also entered the fast lane.
By 2035, the sub center cultural and tourism area of the city will be built into a demonstration zone for the integration of cultural, tourism, business and sports development, and an internationally first-class theme park. The comprehensive function of cultural tourism in the resort has been comprehensively enhanced, and the influence of the Universal Studios business district has been greatly enhanced, driving the prosperity of surrounding businesses and active consumption, and forming an international consumption experience area with high ecological charm and strong linkage of characteristics.
Today, the topic of "Which is the best one between Shanghai Disney and Universal Studios Beijing" has brought a steady stream of discussions on social networks, which also proves that the two are evenly matched and enjoy great influence in China's theme park market. On this basis, the Chinese theme park market is also welcoming more players, exploring a broader market and tourist base.
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