ABSTRACT
The theme park industry is relatively new in China, with some of the early parks developed only in the mid-1980s. By 1998, however, there were an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 amusement or theme park attractions (Xu, 1998; Yang cited in Xu, 1998). Some of the early largescale parks were, in fact, amusement parks, offering rides and entertainment. Probably the first and most widely recognized theme park on the Chinese mainland was Splendid China, containing miniature replicas of major national attractions of the country, which opened in 1989 at Shenzhen. Despite the success of some parks and tremendous growth in the number of theme parks and amusement attractions in China since the mid-1980s, the industry has been fraught with problems. Many parks have not been successful from a financial and operational viewpoint, with attendance much lower than projected, and by the mid to late 1990s the industry was facing crisis. The failure of many parks and attractions has served to damage the image of the industry and tarnish its reputation. It has left many in China asking, “What happened?” Why did so many theme parks and attractions fail?
