Universal Studios and partner Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Company have received the go-ahead from authorities to develop a US$3.3 billion theme park in the capital.
The Beijing Universal park, on a 120-hectare site in the southeastern Tongzhou district, is expected to open in 2019, according to state media.
Tom Williams, chairman and chief executive at principal developer Universal Parks and Resorts, said yesterday that Beijing Universal would probably expand to cover about 405 hectares as a resort hotel and retail and entertainment facilities were added.
The opening of the park will follow the launch next year of Walt Disney's US$5.5 billion theme park and resort complex in Shanghai's Pudong district.
Disney's partner is Shanghai Shendi Group which, like Beijing Shouhuan, is a consortium of state-owned companies.
Disney Shanghai and Beijing Universal represent a formidable new group of major domestic attractions that could help to drive theme park attendance on the mainland.
Investments in theme and amusement parks across the mainland had grown over the past five years to meet greater consumer spending on leisure activities, said market research firm IbisWorld.
It expects total domestic industry revenue to reach US$2.9 billion this year, up 9.6 per cent from last year.
A report by US professional technical services firm Aecom estimated that 59 new theme parks were being developed on the mainland.
The developments are located in two geographic clusters, northeast and southeast. Aecom said Tianjin and Beijing were at the heart of the northeast developments, while the Pearl River Delta region and Hainan were supporting rapid tourism growth in the southeast.
Aecom said theme and amusement parks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and South Korea led Asia-Pacific in terms of attendance last year. Songcheng Park in Hangzhou was the only mainland attraction to crack the regional top 10 list last year, with attendance of 4.1 million.
