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The Chinese Videotreataming Company IQiyi announced on March 13, 2025, will open a theme park later in the year in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province.
Iqiyi
Beijing – Chinese Video Platform Iqiyi He announced on Thursday that he plans this year later to open his first complete theme park in China based on characters from his own programs.
The next “Iqiyi Land” will open in the city of Yangzhou in the province of Jiangsu, just over two hours of Shanghai per high -speed train. The company said the theme park will include seven types of attractions, including immersive theater, interactive films sets and experiences that use virtual reality, largely based on characters from movies and television dramas of IQiyi.
It is the last company to bet that local consumers will spend more on experiences, despite warm retail sales.
LEGOLAND is opening his China’s first resort In Shanghai this summer, while Warner Bros. Discovery announced last month that it will open a “Harry Potter Studio Tour” in 2027 in the same city. Chinese toy company Martón He opened a thematic “pop” in Beijing at the end of 2023, which has become the most popular attraction in the city’s commercial district, according to Dianping’s classifications.
IQiyi’s planned theme park is based on the company’s recent success with specific VR attractions.
The company has developed technology that combines VR headphones with move platforms, which gives visitors the impression that they are walking, riding in boats or sitting in a flying carriage. That means that an experience similar to a theme park can be tablet in a space As small as a square of only 57 feet long.
Since Iqiyi’s first VR experience was inaugurated in Shanghai two years ago, the company has worked with commercial partners to open more than 40 locations in at least 20 Chinese cities. A virtual reality experience based on “Strang Tales of the Tangnasty of Iqiyi: towards the West” won more than 100,000 visitors in its first year of opening, according to the company.
Virtual reality, games and artificial intelligence have allowed the appearance of “distributed” thematic parks that are more compact, interactive and capable of iterating the content more quickly, Hang Zhang, senior vice president of IQiyi, said in a Chinese statement translated by CNBC.
He said that some of VR -based experiences will be launched for the first time in Iqiyi Land before launching in other places.
Iqiyi shares closed almost 3% more in the US negotiation. UU. Thursday and have increased by 14% for the year so far.
Growth after covid
It is forecast that the income from the Continental China theme park will exceed 480 billion yuan ($ 67 billion) this year, with more than 500 million visitors, according to data shared by the International Association of Parks and Amusement attractions. That would be exponentially 30.39 billion yuan registered in 86 main theme parks in Continental China in 2023, just after the COVID-19 pandemic controls ended, according to the data.
The parks are increasingly using a combination of virtual reality to involve guests, while using AI tools to manage crowds, the association said. He added that parks are also combining global intellectual property franchises with national narratives in China.
The Association announced Wednesday that Disney Parks International Head would speak in his Asia Expo this summer in Shanghai.
Disneywhose Disneyland in Shanghai opened in 2016, reported a Annual 28% increase in international parks and experiences Operational income in the quarter ended on December 28, in contrast to a 5% decrease in the US.
Comcastwhose universal studies Beijing opened in 2021, said higher income In their international thematic parks, they compensate for the assistance of lower guests in their US parks in the fourth quarter.
A hard environment
Tourism has been a rare brilliant point in China’s dazzled consumer market. The consumer price index, an indicator of domestic demand, increased only 0.2% last year, while the tourist component increased in 3.5%.
China’s plan to increase consumption this year specifically called to develop the economy of experience. Iqiyi has previously worked with a local tourism board to produce a TV Drama set in a remote part of Chinadrawing visitors.
However, competition in content remains fierce. Iqiyi reported an 8% drop in revenues from 2024 to 29.23 billion yuan, reversing an increase of 10% the previous year.
Thematic parks projects can also face delays.
A Legoland in the province of Sichuan from western China was Originally scheduled to open for 2023. When CNBC contacted Operator Merlin Entertainments on the project, the company only emphasized Legoland’s summer opening in Shanghai this summer.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCuniversal, CNBC parent company.
Clarification: This story was updated to reflect the correct title of the IQIYI drama, “Strang Tales of the Tangnasty: To the West.” An earlier version was based on a translation provided, which was inaccurate.
