Sichuan Legoland, which broke the news of the signing early on, has finally made the latest progress. On March 8, Beijing Business Daily reporter learned from people familiar with the matter that the project has been officially started and is expected to be completed in 2023. In fact, in addition to the Sichuan Legoland under construction, it was previously reported that Shanghai LEGO Park also recently announced the start of construction during the year. At the same time, Beijing LEGO Park has also been officially identified in the Fangshan Qinglong Lake Town. As a result, merlin Group, the international theme park operator, is accelerating its expansion in China through its LEGO brand. Industry experts said that the impact of the outbreak of global theme park traffic fell sharply, China due to better return to traffic, has become a major IP plus code layout of the focus area. However, Legoland does not have a mature sample at home, and it remains to be seen whether it will be welcome in the future. At the same time, due to the relatively young audience of Legoland, play time is not long, how to attract tourists of all ages, and further extend the length of stay has also become a lego park project must be considered.

Photo Credit: WeChat Public Number in Southwest Region

Construction of the Sichuan project has started

Another toy IP is about to break through in the field of theme parks in China.

On March 8, a reporter from the Beijing Business Daily learned from people familiar with the matter that the previously signed Legoland project in Sichuan had been officially opened and was progressing smoothly. The park as a whole is expected to be completed in 2023. Just a few days ago, the southwest region also through WeChat public number "official announcement" of the above-mentioned project update. According to WeChat Public, the Legoland Resort in Sichuan is expected to open in 2023 and is expected to receive tens of millions of visitors a year when completed. Overall planning for the theme park, water park, experiential consumption of three areas, including LEGO Brick Street, LEGO City, Dinosaur Island, LEGO Water Park and other more than 10 plates. At the same time, the park will also reflect the cultural elements of Sichuan characteristics, to create a comprehensive experience-based park.

In fact, the first news that China is going to build Legoland was a few years ago. According to reports at the time, Sichuan Legoland was located in The Meishan Area of Tianfu New Area, covering an area of 365 acres with a total construction area of 159,000 square meters, and was operated exclusively by Merlin Entertainment Group of the United Kingdom, with an estimated total investment of 3 billion yuan. At that time, it was reported that the completion of the above-mentioned projects, will further enrich the supply of theme parks in western China. In response to the latest construction of Legoland in Sichuan, Beijing Business Daily reporter also contacted the relevant person in charge of Merlin China, as of the time of writing, the other side did not reply.

According to Lin Huanjie, director of the China Theme Park Research Institute, there are not many theme parks in the Midwest that currently have international IP. However, it should also be noted that in recent years, the development momentum of local theme parks in the central and western regions, such as Huaqiang Fangte, Happy Valley, Changlong and other theme parks are not small, LEGO wants to seize the advantage in the central and western regions, the competitive pressure is not small.

Speed up the domestic layout   

Lego, which emerged from Denmark in 1932, saw a group of young children grow up, and Lego expanded into more areas.

In 1968, LEGO opened its first LEGO theme park in its native Denmark. To date, a number of LEGO theme parks have opened worldwide. There were rumors years ago that China would build a Lego theme park. At the time, however, neither Lego nor Merlin had "positively finalized" the news. In recent years, with Universal Studios and other international IP landings in China, LEGO Group has also begun to increase the size of the layout of the Chinese market.

In September 2019, a few months after Sichuan Tianfu LEGOLand officially announced the location and information of the project, at the 2nd China International Import Expo, Shanghai Jinshan signed an investment cooperation agreement with Merlin Entertainment Group, Danish LEGO Brand Group and Chinese Culture Group to officially announce the layout of legoland theme resort in Jinshan District, Shanghai. In February this year, the Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office official WeChat public number also announced that the Shanghai LEGO Park Resort project joint venture has completed the registration of industry and commerce, project design, construction and other into the substantive stage of promotion. Construction of the project is expected to begin this year and officially open in early 2024.

In addition to the two Lego parks in Sichuan and Shanghai, Lego has also dropped a son in Beijing. In April last year, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily confirmed to legoland's Chinese operator, The relevant person in charge of Merlin Group China, that Beijing Legoland had now confirmed that it would set up a new joint venture to manage the park in Qinglonghu Town, Fangshan District. However, so far, there has been no information on the opening time of The Legoland in Beijing, the scale of the investment and so on.

It is worth mentioning that there are also industry insiders pointed out that at present, The Beijing LEGO Park has not yet had a specific completion time, Shanghai LEGO Park "official announcement" opening time is also later than 2023. If the Lego project in Sichuan is completed in 2023, it will be expected to attract a group of tourists with the country's first LEGO "brand name".

Traffic concerns remain to be solved

In recent years, the parent-child market has gradually become a "must-win place" for tourism suppliers, many tourist attractions, hotels and hostels have focused on the parent-child group. Legoland's appeal speaks for children who can "stand shoulder to shoulder" with happiness with a beloved toy. According to Gu Huimin, dean of the School of Tourism Sciences at beijing's Second Foreign Chinese College, Lego's main target audience is relatively young, and in recent years, the number of parent-child tourists in China has been growing, both in terms of quantity and spending power. "Especially during the outbreak, outbound travel and long-distance travel is still a certain degree of difficulty, suburban family and parent-child market dividends accelerated overflow, tourism enterprises are competing for this market, Legoland at this time plus code layout of the Chinese market, is also a better time."

However, Gu Huimin also said that as early as a few years ago, Disney, Universal Studios, Six Flags, DreamWorks and other international theme park giants landed in China, and occupied a certain market. For the "latecomer" Lego, the best location is not much. "At present, There Is Disneyland In Shanghai, Universal StudioS In Beijing Is about To Open, LegO'S Several LocationS Are Not Small Competitive Pressure. Although after the completion of the park, due to the 'hunting' mentality, there will certainly be a lot of tourists to card in the early stages, but how to promote multiple punching and consumption, repeatedly retain visitors, will become LEGO must face the problem. Gu Huimin said

Lin Huanjie analysis points out that from the current experience, LEGO Park to building blocks, stitching toys as the main form of experience, whether it is the tourist group, experience or immersion are relatively limited, and the park's main targeting group, that is, children's groups, there are many other uncertainties, such as lack of economic and time initiative, by the holiday and other factors more seriously affected. "As a result, due to the limited overall width, it is expected that the "honeymoon period" for legoland visitors in China will be shorter than that of theme parks such as Disney. ”

In the face of this situation, Lin Huanjie also suggested that the future Legoland can increase the brand effect, through the introduction of large international brands, to create tourist resorts, while supporting business, wellness, catering, shopping and other content, as far as possible to extend the stay time, enhance brand value and consumption level. "However, the requirements for operators in tourist resorts are also relatively high, requiring rational planning of projects, improvement of infrastructure packages and the division of the size of internal industries." Lin Huanjie said.

Source: Beijing Business Daily, author: Guan Zichen, Yang Hui, original title: "Southwestern Legoland Opens Shanghai LEGOLand Construction During the Year Merlin Accelerates Layout of domestic Theme Park Market."