The Global Theme Park Industry

From the first pleasure gardens to the global theme park companies, this book provides an understanding of the nature and function of theme parks as spaces of entertainment. It portrays the impacts of theme parks as global competitive actors, agents of global development and cultural symbols, in the context of their role in the developing economy.

OBriens multi-book series pays homage to the greatest of the great--those who made the amusement parks, theme parks, and waterparks what they are today.

This essay sheds light on the future of the theme park industry, explicates how advanced technologies can revolutionize the theme park industry, and demystifies the benefits of companies leveraging robots in the theme park industry. The future of the theme park industry will not only be characterized by dynamism as it continues to metaphorically evolve, but will also be eminently auspicious for competitors in the theme park industry. Technological advancements are profoundly changing the theme park industry and are rendering it all the more of a technology-driven industry. The behemoth theme park industry shows no signs of contracting anytime in the imminent future. Theme parks are also known as “a type of amusement park”. The rides and attractions of theme parks are often based on “a central theme”. Theme parks often feature a multitude of “areas with disparate themes”. Competitors in the theme park industry are aptly poised to have lucrative and auspicious futures as more tourists visit theme parks and as the popular franchise-based attractions of theme parks garner more interest worldwide among customers. “The global amusement parks market size was valued at $45,200,000,000 in 2017” (“Amusement Parks Market,” 2018). “Amusement Parks market size is set to grow at a compound annual growth of 6.2% during 2020-2025, projected to reach $72,440,000,000 by 2025” (“Amusement Parks Market,” n.d.). There are a multitude of reasons as to why the theme park industry is projected to expand in the pending future. “Innovative rides, accommodation facilities, and merchandise in amusement parks are gaining popularity among visitors of all age groups. As a result, there is a rise in the number of adults and children visiting amusement parks, thus expanding the size of the target audience. Sale of merchandise and food and beverages through retail outlets and restaurants located inside the amusement parks are anticipated to be the key sources of ancillary revenue for amusement parks. Additionally, increasing urban population, international tourism, and rising disposable income of middle-class population are providing an upthrust to the amusement park market worldwide” (“Amusement Parks Market,” 2018). There are ample factors that are able to accelerate the growth of the behemoth theme park industry. The rapid growth of the global population can also contribute to the robust growth of the theme park industry. Theme parks are replete with franchise-based attractions that manage to garner interest worldwide among customers. Theme parks allow people to experience unalloyed excitement and provide a thrilling divertissement which causes people to divert their attention away from dwelling on stressors. In the coming years, more virtual reality technologies will be apt to be ushered into theme parks. Virtual reality technologies can be utilized (“How Technological Advancements,” n.d.) in order to render “rides more entertaining and immersive, transporting riders to a world entirely separate from their own. Virtual reality technologies allow theme park owners to revitalize existing rides and create a brand-new experience through a software update instead of an overhaul of physical infrastructure” (“How Technological Advancements,” n.d.). Virtual reality technologies can allow existing rides to become all the more immersive, engrossing, and dynamic. It is possible for theme park companies to furnish customers with a robust virtual reality experience without the customers needing to wear bulky virtual reality headsets to experience virtual reality. Virtual reality technologies can allow creative theme park ride designers to eminently revamp rides to the extent that the customer feels as though they have been transported into a vibrant fantasy world. Ample “rides at Universal Studios Hollywood, for instance, already feature HD and 3D screens that create an immersive ride experience without the hassle of a headset” (“How Technological Advancements,” n.d.). It stands to preponderantly reason that the future of the theme park industry will be apt to feature more virtual reality rides for customers to indulge in experiencing. In the coming years, more augmented reality technologies will be apt to be ushered into theme parks. Augmented reality technologies are able to digitize the real world by “overlaying digital elements on top of the real world” (“How Technological Advancements,” n.d.).

A photographic retrospective covers more than 100 years of images from the history of the American amusement park.

This book provides an ethnographic contribution to research on children’s consumption, family life and happiness. Various and shifting notions of happiness are explored, as well as conditions for and challenges to happiness, through an analysis of video-recorded interviews and mobile ethnography conducted in two of the most popular theme parks in Sweden. Initially, the study outlines how previous research has conceptualized happiness in association with time and place in a rather static way. Based on a treatise of notions of happiness in philosophy and the social sciences, there is a turn in this thesis towards practice. It generates fundamental knowledge about the complexity of happiness. By employing this approach, it is possible to highlight how happiness is enacted as part of and in relation to ideals of family life, time, childhood, money, consumption, experiences and material things. As we explore the practices of children and their families, we discover that shifting meanings of happiness are located in contemporary culture, where emotions and consumption are of central importance. The approach is interdisciplinary, and draws on theoretical and methodological contributions in sociology, anthropology and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Notions of meshwork and enactment become important for the exploration of happiness as a complex and changing matter, which productively involves social relations and material things. Throughout the thesis there is a dialogue with previous research on happiness, consumption and childhood which highlights the importance of exploring messy practices, in movement. It is argued that explorations of practice contribute to a critical understanding of how happiness and contemporary ideals of childhood can be approached – through consumption and as part of citizenship in a consumer society where happiness is of central importance. Abstract [sv] Denna avhandling utgör ett etnografiskt bidrag till forskning om barns konsumtion, familjeliv och lycka. Genom en analys av videoinspelade intervjuer samt familjebesök till två av Sveriges mest välbesökta temaparker utforskas skiftande betydelser av lycka, liksom dess förutsättningar och utmaningar. Tidigare temaparks-forskning har generellt tagit lyckans existens för given. Utifrån en inledande diskussion om bland annat olika filosofiska och samhällsvetenskapliga lyckoteorier argumenterar avhandlingen för att studier av praktik tillför ny och grundläggande kunskap om lyckans komplexa sammansättningar. Avhandlingen visar därigenom att lycka iscensätts som en del av – och i förhållande till – ideal om familjeliv, tid, barndom, pengar, konsumtion, upplevelser och materiella ting. Genom att fokusera på barn och deras familjers praktiker lokaliseras lyckans skiftande betydelser i en samtidskultur där emotioner och konsumtion är centrala. Avhandlingens ansats är tvärvetenskaplig och hämtar teoretisk och metodologisk inspiration från sociologi, antropologi samt teknik- och vetenskapsstudier (STS). Genom denna ansats synliggörs sammanflätningar av sociala relationer och materiella ting som produktiva i iscensättandet av lycka. Genom en dialog mellan empiriska beskrivningar och forskning om lycka, konsumtion och barndom belyser avhandlingen nödvändigheten av att synliggöra och utforska röriga och rörliga praktiker. Det bidrar till en kritisk förståelse av praktik som kan förändra hur vi närmar oss lycka och samtida barndomsideal – som konsumenter och medborgare i ett lyckosträvande konsumtionssamhälle.

This book offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary introduction to theme parks and the field of theme park studies. It identifies and discusses relevant economic, social, and cultural as well as medial, historical, and geographical aspects of theme parks worldwide, from the big international theme park chains to smaller, regional, family-operated parks. The book also describes the theories and methods that have been used to study theme parks in various academic disciplines and reviews the major contexts in which theme parks have been studied. By providing the necessary backgrounds, theories, and methods to analyze and understand theme parks both as a business field and as a socio-cultural phenomenon, this book will be a great resource to students, academics from all disciplines interested in theme parks, and professionals and policy-makers in the leisure and entertainment as well as the urban planning sector.

You Will Have Fun. Or Else. Nowhere in the world is there a more bizarre theme park than Happy Fun Land. Nick "Nike" Farmington's twelve years of thrill-seeking and roller coaster riding has brought him to exotic locales like Perth, Australia, Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, and Santa Claus, Indiana. He's marathoned a roller coaster for ten consecutive hours and conquered the world's tallest and fastest. Yet nothing has prepared him for the insanity of Happy Fun Land and it's mind blowing attractions. China's amusement park industry is booming and the newest themed entertainment mecca is about to come online. In order to ensure a successful launch, they're looking to build world-wide buzz through any and all means. Nike is roped into becoming the crash-test dummy of a humongous drop tower ride with no mechanical brakes, a wooden roller coaster that goes upside down, and a death simulator (yes, you read that right). What could possibly go wrong? Follow Nike on his hilarious misadventure through China during the Chinese New Year holiday to attend the grand opening of Happy Fun Land, the world's craziest theme park. Who Should Read Happy Fun Land? Anyone who wants to read a funny story. Those looking for thoughts from a Westerner on what it's like to travel to China and what to expect. Disney theme park fans or anyone interested in theme park design or themed entertainment. If you call yourself a roller coaster enthusiast you might pick up some of the inside jokes. "It's like Jurassic Park meets Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets...something completely new, original, and ridiculous."

A propulsive and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.” Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin. But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, “Snow brings a historian’s eye and a child’s delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative” (Ken Burns) that “will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history” (Publishers Weekly).