The Growth of Theme Parks in Tourism Industry - Research Paper

Introduction

Tourism is regarded as the largest and fastest growing industry of the modern business world. The industry has a significant economic impact in almost every country. The world is full of natural beauties and attractive places that makes people travel for pleasure and education. However, these days some of the attractions are artificially constructed by man for tourism. Artificial establishments such as theme parks have an equally significant impact on tourism. The concept of theme parks is an idea that has been in existent since medieval times. This paper intends to analyze the scope and practice that has shaped themes parks as a global tourist attraction. The article will firstly review the history of theme parks and its evolution to what is seen today. The paper will then report on the current scope of the theme park industry introducing the characteristics that shape such installations. The article ends with a description of what the future theme parks will look like.

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Historical Evolution of Theme Parks

The origin of theme parks is considered as typically American even though such setups existed in the old world as well. According to Milman (2010), the origin of theme parks can be attributed to ancient medieval trade fairs and religious festivals. During such events, merchants, food vendors, and entertainers gathered to offer their goods and services to the large crowds attending these celebrations. It is here that the idea of amusement parks would be coined and in the 17th century, the concept was spreading from France to other parts of Europe. There would be the first permanent sites dedicated to the entertainment of the general public. Much like what is offered in the modern theme parks, there were gardens, fountains, bowling, music, staged spectacles and dancing. Milman further mentions that right now, the oldest known record of an amusement park is Bakken, situated somewhere in Denmark which opened in 1583. Trade fairs and the religious festivals helped shaped amusement parks from where theme parks evolved. The Ferris wheel is an idea seen in the ancient trade fairs and a very popular aspect of theme parks today.

Fast forward to 18th century America; there was a significant economic growth as a result of the advancement in agriculture. Agriculture fairs emerged in the mid-18th century where farmers would showcase their produce. These fairs offered an opportunity to entrepreneurial entertainers to showcase their skills as well which includes clowning, puppet shows, tightrope dancing, and strolling fiddlers. In addition, there were international expos where countries around the world showed their manufactured commodities and technological innovations and also the opportunity to showcase amusement equipment as fun houses, rides, and other midway games. The first international expo in the USA would be the 1853 54 Works of Industry of All nations which despite the failed venture, the creation of an amusement area was an integral part in increasing the popularity of outdoor entertainment venues (Balloffet, et al., 2014). A similar event, the 1893 Columbian exhibition in Chicago became the major turning point for themed entertainment. This exhibition was designed like a city accommodating displays of about 72 nations. International themes were offered here including Algerian, Persian, Chinese, Indian, and Tunisian villages. The theming was not only architectural but also in costume and entertainment. It was here that renowned William Cody also known as Buffalo Bill did his first exhibition of the Wild West. Also, the famous Ferris wheel was used here for the first time to amuse visitors. The success of the Colombian fair guaranteed continuity in scientific exhibition creating an opportunity for more themed entertainment. However, the popularity of trade fairs would go down when entertainers started their own theme parks independent from the exposes.

Another phenomenon in the 19th century that can be linked to the theme park industry is the Coney Island in New York (Clave, 2007). This place was originally a seaside resort though later transformed to an outdoor leisure destination providing games and rides, fortune tellers, burlesque acts and cabaret entertainment. Coney Island acted as a model for the theme parks, and similar destinations would soon emerge in other places as New England, and Long Island. By the year 1919, there was a variety of them parks all over the United States with estimates of around 1500. In the 1920s and 1930s, the theme park industry would continue to attract newer patrons seeking to relieve themselves off the stress of the depression. However, the world war would lead to a decline in the industry following a lack of needed material, vandalism, and other disasters. However, Gennawey and Kurtti (2014) states that the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1955 would mark the revolution in the theme park industry. Walt Disney with his concept of creating a park organized with rides and themed shows was the initial step at the beginning of a new era in for outdoor mass entertainment. While new theme parks continue to emerge all over the world, Disneyland formed the model of modern theme parks an opposite of the old amusement parks in its focus on quality, security, safety and an atmosphere of cleanliness. Since then the global theme park industry has continued to grow to offer various developments worldwide with variety in regards to size, capacity and entertainment provided.

The Current Concept of Theme Parks, it's Meaning and Features

In defining the concept of theme parks, the best definition is offered by Milman (2009) when quoting Goeldner (1992) in his article. According to the author, theme parks are subcategories of visitor's attractions in the tourism industry. The description of visitors' attractions ranges from a variety of resources designed, managed and controlled with the intent to entertain, amuse, and educate the visitors. There are several types of such attractions designed for visitors such as wildlife parks, historical buildings, museums, art galleries, archaeological sites, and leisure parks among others. The other description of visitor's attraction is offered by Swarbrooke and Page (2012) who considers them as designated places or geographical areas or individual sites accessible and motivate people to travel in numbers from distant places to visit them at their own time. Despite this description failing to mention the control and management aspects, it is quite clear that it is implicit in these aspects.

Despite the designation of theme parks as a subset of visitor's attraction, Milman (2009) states that some feature distinguishes them from other kinds of visitors' attraction and specifically entertainment attractions. Milman mentions four features that create this distinction to be the single pay admission or charge, humanmade attractions, huge amounts investments capital and an environment different from that found outside fashioned by a blend of food and drinks retail, souvenir shops and a great deal of entertainment. In light of the features of a theme park, Raluca and Gina (2008) further provides the meaning of theme parks offering an industrial and academic definition of the establishments. Two industrial definitions are offered where the International Association of Amusement Parks states that theme parks are 'amusement parks' themed with various attractions as rides, retail shops, costumes, food, and entertainment. The other definition is according to Forrec who state that theme parks are places of escape where people spend time away from their daily sorrows. The academic description presented by Raluca and Gina is that of Heo and Lee (2009) where theme parks are regarded as themed attractions in architecture, landscape, shows, rides, food service, retail shops, and costumed personnel all for entertainment purposes. However, despite the various definition, one aspect in the descriptions stands out clear and this is the overall application of themes to give visitors interesting experience different from that of their daily lives.

As seen above, the theme is the primary concern for the visitor's experience which is selected in the planning of the park with a focus on design, development, and operations. As a result, the theme developers pick for a park is a crucial aspect in the success of such a business. Generally, theme parks operations try to develop an atmosphere of a different place or time, with the emphasis on a single theme around which the design, its architecture, the landscape, shows, rides, costumed personnel, orchestra, food services, and retail shops are built. Nonetheless, some parks offer multi themes designating various sections of the installation to different attractions. For instance, the Ocean park of Hong Kong adopts nature as its primary theme but has others as wildlife and marine life within the establishment. Other examples of themes that are applied these days include fairy tales, futurism, adventure, international, nature, history and culture, movies and fantasy. It is these themes that sustain the feeling of involvement in a park and separation from daily life experiences. Lastly, its worth noting that theme parks are usually isolated units which are equally self-contained.

The Future Trends and Direction of Theme Parks

Since its inception, theme parks continue to evolve as a component of international tourism. The current trends in theme parks are modeled in line with the United States design as for where this business has achieved high success. Presently, the trends in theme parks include the incorporation of international brands and intellectual properties in the pleasure experience that majority follows the Disney model. However, there is evidence of a global trend and predictions hints on theme parks evolving to be more sophisticated with tourism as the primary source of market support. For the future of the theme parks, Jung, et al. (2015) predict that much of what will develop will revolve around technology, the need to offer visitors improved experience and the impact of the economy on the visitors spending patterns. Technologies are becoming a significant part of theme parks especially in the streamline of sale, managing the reservations, promoting interactivity, personalizing customer's experience and tracking consumer behavior for the maximization of profits and improved customer loyalty. The issue of waiting in long lines has since been recognized as a frustrating thing about visiting theme parks (Luo & Liao, 2010). Subsequently, there are predictions of virtual queuing systems being incorporated in the future. Such an invention is already in the trial at Universal Volcano Bay in Orlando.

Still on technology, futuristic-themed parks will offer more pleasure to visitors through innovations that will enable them to partake a multisensory experience. Something that visitors would enjoy is being deeply immersed in an entirely different experience. To create evocative and unforgettable experiences, theme parks will be transforming the experience from rather passive pleasure to full participatory adventure (Raffe, et al., 2015). This is through technology that can appeal to all the senses and make someone to feel as if they are part of what is going on. For instance, various theme parks are already exploiting the sense of especially when on the rides which offer an improved experience. This coupled up with other 4D features can be used to create special effects in future theme parks like fog, wind, and water. The paper predicts that sense will be the next big park of theme parks.

Ultimately, the future designs of theme parks wi...