If you want to make, create, or build an amusement park that can really attract families, children, and young people, only depending on the “fun” is not enough. A successful amusement park is not just a combination with a few pieces of equipment, but it is a set of complete business, operation, theme, and experience systems.
From the first ideas to the site choosing, investment, equipment purchasing, and flow line planning, and then to the post-opening operation and marketing, this guide will systematically explain that how to open a profitable, sustainable, and developing amusement park starting from zero.
First step: Ensure what type of amusement park would you like to open
Before really starting to build amusement park, the first step is not buying the equipment, but it is ensuring the park location.
Different types of the amusement park, its investment scale, target customer, and profit model are totally different.
1. Large-scale Theme Park
Its features:
A strong thematic immersion
Large-scale mechanical amusement facilities
IP character and storyline
Long dwell time
High per customer price
It is suitable for:
Some areas surrounding the large cities
A travel destination
A heavy capital investment project
Its common items:
Roller coaster
Dark ride
Performance show
Water sports items
A nighttime light show
2. Family Entertainment Center
The Family Entertainment Center is one of the fastest-growing models at present.
Its features:
Its investment is lower than the large theme park
It can be operated indoor
Its payback period is shorter
It is more suitable for the city commercial complex
Its common equipment:
A soft play area
A trampoline park
Ninja obstacle course
VR games
Rock climbing
Go-karting
Ocean ball pool
3. Children’s theme play park
It mainly targets:
Children aged 2–12 years
Family and parent-child spending
School team building activities
Its key points:
Safety
Interactivity
A combination of education and entertainment
4. Water Park
Its advantages:
It has a strong explosive power in summer
A high passenger flow volume
Easy to form a social spreading
Its shortcomings:
A clear seasonality
A high maintenance cost
Its water management system is complex
Second step: Ensure your core ideas
A simple play park and a play park that is “worth to go to play once”, their differences is ling in the ideas.
A good play park idea usually has:
1. Strong memory points
The visitors will remember something in your play park after they leave.
For example:
A giant volcanic slide
A starry sky theme area
A jungle exploration route
A technology city is the future
2. It is suitable for taking photos and spreading
Nowadays, the passenger flow in many parks is coming from the social medias.
So you must to considers:
A check-in area
A nighttime lighting
A landmark building
Theme roles
3. It can cover the all age groups
A really profitable amusement park only serves one age group rarely.
Some ideal combinations:
Items for children aged 2–5: Soft play equipment
Items for children aged 6–12: Climbing + Slide
Items for teenagers: Stimulus item
Items for adults: Interactive experience + catering
Items for families: A joint challenge item
Third step: Set a business plan
Many amusement parks have failed that are not because of not fun, but its the business model is wrong.
So a business plan must include:
1.An first investment budget
Its includes:
Land
Building
amusement facilities
Decoration
Fire safety
Insurance
Manual
marketing
software systems
2. Income source design
A good play park don't make money only depending on the tickets.
Its profit structure usually includes:
Tickets account for: 40%–60%
Catering accounts for: 15%–30%
Goods sales account for: 5%–15%
Birthday party accounts for: 5%–20%
VIP service accounts for: 5%–10%
Seasonal member: Stable cash flow
3. The payback period
The common situations:
The payback period of a small indoor amusement park: 1–3 years
The payback period of a family entertainment center: 2–5 years
The payback period of a large-scale theme park: 8–15 years
Fourth step: Market research and competitive analysis
Before creating an amusement park, you must know:
Who is your competitor?
What is lacking something in your area?
What is the families’ consuming ability?
Where is the peak passenger flow?
Why are visitors willing to repeat consuming in your play park?
The data needs to be researched
1. Surrounding population
You need to focus on:
Proportion of the children’s population
Number of families
Level of income
2. Business passenger flow
It includes:
Weekend passenger flow
Holiday passenger flow
Parking capacity
Metro/highway entrance
3. Competitive items
You need to research:
Ticket prices
Equipment types
Reason for the negative reviews
Long queuing times during peak hours
Social media feedback
Fifth step: Find investors and financing
A large-scale amusement park rarely and totally depends on the personal funds to finish.
The common ways of financing:
1. Bank Loans
It is suitable for:
Have a land
Have a pledge of assets
Have a mature operations plan
2. Investment Institutions
The investors will care about most:
The payback period
The passenger flow prediction
The operation team
The market space
3. Joint operation model
For example:
The mall offers the area
The operator offers the equipment
Income sharing
Sixth step: Choose a suitable area
The location will directly decides the success or failure in the future.
An ideal site selection standard
1. Easy to go
It includes:
Highway exit
Metro
parking lot
Public transportation system
2. A large enough space
You need to keep:
Future expansion
Queuing area
Catering area
Storage area
3. High density of surrounding families
An idea place
A new residential area
A commercial complex
Seventh step: Design the amusement park layout
A good layout will directly affect:
Visitor dwell time
Secondary spending
Flow line efficiency
Passenger flow stress
An area that must plans
1. Entrance area
It includes:
Ticket sales
Security check
Storage locker
First aid station
2. Main visual area
It is used for:
Check in
Gathering
Brand spreading
It usually will add:
Giant IP
Fountain
Castle
Lighting devices
3. Core play area
It is recommended to:
The stimulus items have a dispersed layout
The children's area is independent
The family area is in the center of the play park
4. Catering and rest area
Many parks will forget:
Parents' rest need
Air conditioning area
Shading area
These will seriously affect the dwell time.
Eighth step: Purchase the amusement equipment
The equipment is the core of your park, but “expensive” is not equal to “good”.
So you need to focus on when purchase the amusement equipment:
1. Security certification
The common standards:
ASTM(America)
EN1176(Europe)
ISO(international)
ADA(accessibility standard)
2. Maintenance cost
The post-maintenance of many devices is higher than the purchasing costs.
And you need to focus on:
Motor service life
Quick-wear parts
After-sale service
Spare parts supply
3. Visitor capacity
For example:
A small item: 100–300 people/per hour
A medium-sized item: 300–800 people
A large roller coaster item: 1000–2000 people+
The capacity will directly affect the queuing time.
Ninth step: To create a differential experience
The core competition of future amusement park: Not “number of devices”, but it is experience.
The most popular amusement park trends at present
1. Immersive theme
The visitors are more like to “enter another world”.
2. Night economy
For example:
Light show
Evening show DJ
Fireworks
Night activity
3. Interactive technology
It includes:
AR
VR
Projection interaction
AI roles
4. Social communication design
Many items will specially design:
A selfie spot
A popular area
Colorful lighting space
Tenth step: employing and operating team
A better amusement park also needs to operate.
Core posts
The Role of the operations manager: Overall park management
The Role of the equipment engineer: Security maintenance
The Role of the safety officer: Risk management
The Role of the paramedics: Emergency handling
The Role of the performing artists: Atmospheric interaction
The Role of the market team: New customer acquisition
Eleventh step: Trial operation before opening
A really mature amusement park will all has a trial operation.
The key test items for a trial operation:
A queuing system
Payment system
Staff collaboration
Emergency process
Equipment stability
Visitor feedback
It is recommended to invite first:
Local families
Schools
KOL
Media
To have a small-scale testing.
Twelfth step: Marketing and promotion strategy
Many amusement parks have failed, not because of a bad product, but is that doesn't know how to market the park.
Some effective promotion ways
1. Short video platform
It is suitable for spreading:
A moment of screaming
A lighting effect
An interactive experience
2. Member system
It is recommended to set:
Annual card
Points system
Birthdays benefits
These ways can improve the repurchase rate.
3. School cooperation
It includes:
Spring outing
Summer camp
Team building activity
4. Festival activities
For example:
Halloween haunted house
Christmas light festival
Water-sprinkling festival
Bubble party
Thirteenth step: Must focus on the security and regulations
This is one of thee most important parts in the all amusement parks.
It is must recommended to set:
1. Daily inspection system
Before opening every day:
Equipment check
Electrical check
Fastener check
2. An emergency plan
It includes:
Power cut
Fire
Equipment failure
Extreme weather
3. The insurance system
It usually includes:
Public Liability Insurance
Equipment Insurance
Employee Insurance
Fourteenth step: A new trend that worth to focus on
1. Indoorization
More and more items turn to full-year operation.
2. Small boutique amusement park
Low investment, high interaction, and a strong theme.
3. Mixing sports and entertainment
For example:
Ninja obstacle course
Adventure park
Trampoline park
4. AI and digital interaction
The future amusement parks will be more intelligent.
Let Tongle play equipment improve your amusement
Creating a successful amusement not only needs a stimulating amusement item, but also needs an interactive experience to attract family visitors. So rich and diverse play equipment can bring more fun and dwell time for all visitors.
In the Tongle Play, our focus on an innovative, safe, and customizable playground solution. From the indoor soft play area to a adventure challenge item, Tongle can help you to create a more attractive amusement park according to your theme and area needs.
And you will make your park standing out that uses the high-quality amusement facilities and creative ideas. Come to contact Tongle, and to start your item plan.
If you want to make a really successful amusement park, its core is not “buying the equipment”, but to build a complete business system.
From ideas creativity, market research, site selection, design, equipment purchasing, to operation, safety, and marketing, every step will affect the future profit ability. And a high-quality playground equipment and a professional partner can also help your items ti improve the competitive power.
FAQ
1. How much to build an amusement park?
The common investment ranges:
The investment range for a small indoor children's playground: $100,000 – $500,000
The investment range for the medium-sized FEC Entertainment Center: $500,000 – $5,000,000
The investment range for the large-scale theme park: More than $50 million
2. What is the most profitable item in an amusement park?
The most highest profit margin is:
Catering
Game console
VIP quick pass
Souvenir
Annual membership
Secondary spending in some parks accounts for over 40% of total income.
3. What is the average dwell time at the amusement park?
The common industry data:
The average dwell time in indoor children's playground: 2–4 hours
The average dwell time in the family entertainment center: 3–6 hours
The average dwell time in the large-scale theme park: 8–12 hours
4. What is the usual service life of the amusement park equipment?
The average service life of the soft play equipment: 5–10 years
The average service life of the steel structure equipment: 15–30 years
The average service life of the roller coaster: 20–40 years
And the The premise is that these equipment has a regular maintenance.
5. When is the most profitable time each year in an amusement park?
Usually in:
Summer vacation
Christmas Day
Spring Festival
Halloween event season
These are the passenger flow peaks.
6. What is the usual annual income per square meter in an amusement park?
The clear differences in the play industry:
The annual income per square meter for a simple children's playground: $300–800/㎡
The annual income per square meter for a high-end FEC: $1000–3000/㎡
The annual income per square meter for a top-tier theme park: Higher
7. What do visitors care about the most things in the amusement park?
The following usually rank at the top in some surveys:
Safety
Queuing time
Health
The novelty of the devices
Catering price
Service attitude
