The Main Points of Water Park Theme Planning and Design

In the face of the increasing boom in the construction of water parks in China, the new era has put forward new requirements for water parks-the era of piling up water amusement equipment and simply “playing in the water” has passed, and the demand for tourists has become more and more critical. The park’s movement, theme scene atmosphere, amusement equipment story line, and immersive experience put forward higher requirements. Only in the planning and design stage can the water park be themed, entertained, and immersed in scenes, can it truly attract tourists and achieve long-term operation.

What are the main points of the water park theme planning and design? “Asia Water Park” specially invited companies such as Hansi Construction, Sidi International, New Daoxin Creative, and Guangdong Dalang to discuss the current and future trends of this topic.

Photo courtesy of Shanghai Hans

1. Key points: precise positioning and reasonable layout

A well-known domestic design agency, and the designer of the Changxing Taihu Lake Dragon Dream Pleasure World, which has attracted much attention in the industry this year, Shanghai Hansi Architects has rich experience and unique perspective on the planning and design of water parks. Zhang Xiaozhen, the company’s cultural and creative design director, believes that any theme leisure and entertainment project should achieve “precise positioning and reasonable layout” in the planning and design stage, especially site selection, which is a key consideration for many planning and design units. Zhang Xiaozhen said: “The site selection stage can determine the success or failure of the project! Because the site selection can solve the problem of’people’, the flow of people is very important for the water park project. The population base represents the target market and is also an estimate of the future income of the project. Important reference data. Generally speaking, the target population of the park should be the population covered by a 1.5-hour drive radius. In addition, the population base also determines the scale of the water park to be built. If the population base is not enough, build a super large water park. Paradise will bring great investment risks.”

Zhang Xiaozhen believes that the location of the water park is closely related to traffic and meteorological conditions. “The accessibility of tourists to the water park-including self-driving routes, urban public transportation (bus, subway, etc.), intercity transportation, etc., whether the transportation is convenient, will directly affect the number of people entering the water park. The climate also affects the operation of the water park Therefore, when planning and designing the water park, the meteorological conditions of the project site must be considered. The meteorological conditions determine the operating time of the water park, whether it has the conditions for opening the night field, whether it should be built outdoor or indoor water park or Take into account the two. Indoor parks can solve the impact of climate on the park, but the investment is much larger than outdoor water parks. Therefore, it is particularly important to balance the ratio of indoor and outdoor water parks, which will greatly affect visitors Comfort and the owner’s investment cost.”

CCDI, a well-known design agency that has participated in the planning and design of Shanghai Disney’s “Tomorrowland” theme park and the planning and design of Liuzhou Cree Bay Water Park, has extensive practical experience in the planning and design of park theme resort projects. Han Yingzi, Vice President of Siddhi International Design and General Manager of Cultural Tourism and Holiday Products Department, believes that in the planning and design of theme parks, the elements that designers need to consider include theme positioning, theme zoning (story line), and theme environment creation (architectural style, theme). Color, theme elements), theme of amusement items, etc.

Photo courtesy of Siddhi International

Regardless of story line or theme design, the park needs to have precise positioning and reasonable layout at the beginning of planning and design. Han Yingzi said: “Water parks are usually opened in summer. The theme creativity should arouse tourists’ associations with the world of cool water. Such as oceans, forests, lakes, etc.-Liuzhou Cree Bay Water Park, designed and completed by Sidi International in 2018, is based on the theme of Mediterranean style. According to the story line, the park is divided into Haiti City, Haiti Fantasy, Haiti Beach, and Haiti Adventure The four major areas have extracted the characteristics of typical Mediterranean buildings, blue roofs, white walls, lighthouses, and Mediterranean beaches, reefs, fishing boats and other elements, thus creating a romantic seaside atmosphere and satisfying being inside. Lu’s Liuzhou citizens yearn for the ocean.”

Xindaoxin Creative Design Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., as a well-known domestic high-quality theme entertainment project design agency and technical design company, has completed many high-quality projects in the planning and design of water parks in recent years. The company’s president, Wu Shiyun, believes that due to its unique amusement properties, the water park cannot simply consider the basic planning of tourist routes and equipment combinations when planning and designing. It is more necessary to start from the daily operation requirements of the water park to make the water park more unique. , Dining habits, rental requirements, performance features, and visitor safety throughout the entire planning and design of the park.

Creative image courtesy of Xindaoxin

Wu Shirong said that in the planning and design stage of the water park, attention must be paid to factors such as safety, area, and local conditions and precise positioning. When talking about how to plan the area and project ratio of the park in accordance with the local natural conditions, Wu Shiyun took the Yuntai Tianjie Water World project undertaken by Xindaoxin Creative as an example: “Through preliminary research, we found that Yuntai Tianjie Water World is close to The Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area has rich tourism resources, a deep tourist base, and relatively complete infrastructure. Therefore, after a lot of analysis and research, the designers of Xindaoxin Creative positioned the overall type of water park as’indoor + outdoor + hot spring leisure’ The multi-season water park has created a comprehensive tourist destination for tourists and enhanced the multi-season operation capability of the park.”

In addition, Wu Shijun believes that more technology is implanted in the design stage as an important way to enhance the tourist experience. “In 2019, Xindaoxin Creative undertook the planning and design work of a large hot spring water park project. In order to avoid the homogenization of the park, Xindaoxin Creative began to conduct more in-depth research on the latest technological water equipment on the market-such as Wiegand The VR slides introduced by (Weigang) and the TapuTapu Virtual Line smart bracelet system introduced by Universal Studios Volcano Bay. After in-depth research on these new technologies, Xindaoxin Creative actively introduces them into the park to further enhance the tourist experience .”

As a well-known domestic water park equipment supplier, Guangdong Dalang has a professional water park theme planning and design agency-Guangzhou Dalang Tengyun Tourism Planning and Design Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Dalang Tengyun Water Culture Design and Research Institute. Since 2013, Dalang Teng Cloud began to provide professional pre-project planning, theme landscape design, engineering construction technical guidance and other full-process or single-item design services for domestic and foreign customers.

Photo courtesy of Guangdong Dalang

Guangdong Dalang believes that the main points of the water park planning and design are the shaping of the theme, the age group of the target audience, the local history and culture, inland or coastal areas, the novelty and freshness of the theme, and the difficulty of construction. Among them, the age group of the target customer group is the part that the industry has paid more attention in recent years. “With the popularity of the parent-child amusement market, parks with family tourists as the main market have achieved good revenue in recent years. When planning and designing water parks for our customers, we will avoid stacking too many thrilling equipment and adopt the theme style More lively and lovely styles are used to create water parks with strong affinity and warm feelings for tourists. This type of water park is more likely to be patronized by parent-child families.” Guangdong Dalang said.

2.IP: Multi-path creation, differentiated design

For the water park to achieve differentiation and sustainable development from other market products, it is very important to have an IP that tourists like and accept (it can be self-designed or imported from outside), and it is also an important work for cultivating potential customers. This “IP style” first achieved excellent results in the film and television cultural industry, and then it was logically introduced into the theme park field. After abandoning the traditional “pure play” style of piling up equipment, the water park has gradually moved towards theming. A complete and interesting story line has been set up during the play, so that the entire travel process of the visitors is like “watching a movie”, thus leaving the park with Impressed. To do a good job in shaping the theme of the water park, IP is the key to success, and this type of work must be considered during the park planning and design stage.

Zhang Xiaozhen, Design Director of Hans Architecture Cultural and Creative Design, introduced Hans Architecture’s experience in using IP to create the theme of water parks, said: “In terms of IP building, the experience of water parks and land parks are mutually complementary. We can learn from the successful experience of land parks. Useful ingredients in the water park. As we all know, there are three sources of theme park IP at this stage. One is the introduction of mature IP familiar to foreigners (such as Disney’s IP image series, Sanrio’s IP image series, etc.), But for developers, the cost of introducing IP is not small; the second is to find IP suitable for the project among the many domestic IPs, and integrate the domestic relatively good IP to combine the project and explore potential advantages; 3. It is to build an independent IP, but this is a long way to go. Forming a good IP requires a huge investment of manpower, material and financial resources.”

When creating Liuzhou Keri Bay Water Park, Siddhi International took the Mediterranean as the theme and incorporated some maritime cultural IP. Han Yingzi, vice president of Siddhi International Design and general manager of the Cultural Tourism and Holiday Products Department, believes that for water parks and even more theme parks, fixed IP limits the parks to carry out differentiated theme activities or expand secondary consumption with richer formats. Therefore, Siddhi International uses the relatively general concepts of “exotic style” and “ocean culture” to integrate the theme of the park to create equipment, story lines and supporting services. As long as the sense of immersion is achieved, the effect estimated during planning and design can be achieved. Han Yingzi said to “Asia Water Park”: “For tourists, IP is an advance recognition. During the game, the content of the story will be strengthened and expanded to achieve a stronger sense of immersive substitution. What kind of IP is integrated , How to integrate IP should create a sense of immersion and differentiated services for the park.”

Photo courtesy of Siddhi International

Xindaoxin Creative President Wu Shijun said: “Unattractive water parks will eventually lose the market. In the increasingly homogeneous environment of water parks, the development or introduction of a good IP can mobilize and aggregate the emotions of tourists and enhance the park’s Recognition and differentiation, thereby effectively enhancing the visibility of the park. IP creation is an important means to improve the sales of water parks, and it can also increase the revisit rate of tourists who love these IPs.”

In the new Daoxin creative planning and design of the Sabana Dream Water World project, the company’s main creative team set a theme of “exploration of the lost ancient city in the future world”, and from this created relevant IP characters and unfolding the storyline. So as to bring visitors an impressive experience. “Stories composed of IP and themes can inspire visitors to learn about and explore more rides, thereby extending their stay in the water park-like a good-looking TV series attracting people to spend the whole weekend watching, an interesting immersion The story can attract tourists to spend the whole weekend in the water park.” Wu Shiyun said.

Regardless of how IP is used, creating differentiation is the key to success. Guangdong Dalang took the planning, design and construction of Thailand’s Xinglang Feihang Water Park as an example to introduce how to create a “differentiation” theme. “Thailand Xinglang Feihang Water Park adopts the theme of starry sky robots, which caters to young tourists’ fantasy of flying in the sky. In the overall planning and design, Dalang creates a magnificent sci-fi style, and in the planning stage, it designed a streamlined based on the local night scene culture. The emotional performance stage makes the night performances of the water park more shocking. After the opening of the park, this idea has received good feedback from tourists in practice, making the park an influential theme water park in Chiang Mai.” Guangdong Dalang aspect Introduced.

Photo courtesy of Guangdong Dalang

3. The future: integrated design, enhanced interaction

Talking about the direction in which the planning and design of the water park will develop in the future, Zhang Xiaozhen, the design director of Hansi Architects, cultural and creative design, said: “The planning of theme parks has developed in the direction of integrated design. The overall design is a complete process. From the overall planning and layout, From the design of architectural forms, the research and development of themed IP, the integrated design of landscape architecture, and the introduction of deductive shows…more and more elements have put forward new requirements for the planning and design of theme water parks.”

Zhang Xiaozhen said that the water park theme planning and design should do the following four points at this stage and in the future: first, the site selection of the project, a place with convenient transportation and beautiful environment should be selected to attract tourists; second, the accuracy of the product customer base Positioning, combined with the construction of the IP system to enhance market adhesion and stimulate secondary consumption; followed by reasonable planning of the overall layout to maximize reception; finally, product differentiation positioning, differentiation is to improve product market competitiveness Key factor.

Photo courtesy of Shanghai Hans

Han Yingzi, Vice President of Siddhi International Design and General Manager of Cultural Tourism and Holiday Products Department, believes that themed water park is the direction of future development, and even the first choice for tourists to choose the water park. The theme will enhance the immersive experience of tourists.

“The theme is the soul of the park. After setting a theme, the park is divided but not separated; the environment of each zone is built around this theme, and the result of the arrangement of various facilities will be more interesting; the theme can clarify the architectural style, Unify the architectural style of the whole park, make the style of the park more coordinated, and highlight the characteristics of the park; the theme can deepen and strengthen visitors’ awareness of the park, and enhance the immersive experience of visitors. The theme will be an inevitable part of the planning and design of the water park in the future “Han Yingzi added.

New Daoxin Creative President Wu Shijun said that in recent years, the customer positioning of the water park is undergoing significant changes. From the beginning of the young customers to the current family and parent-child tourists are increasing significantly, this requires the water park not only to Pursuing “faster and more exciting” as the direction, it is necessary to support more interesting, leisure and interactive light water sports. “The overall development trend of water parks is gradually transforming from a single park to a complex water park and tourist destination that integrates entertainment projects such as theme parks, hot spring hotels, leisure resorts, urban complexes and even performing arts. Tourists come to the water In the final analysis, playing in the park is about entertainment experience. What you want to have is a comprehensive service consumption experience in a region. New Daoxin Creativity is currently thinking from the planning and design level and actively implementing it.” Wu Shiyun said.

Creative image courtesy of Xindaoxin

Guangdong Dalang believes that shaping themes is an important means of differentiated management of water parks, and it is also a guarantee for increasing the revisit rate of tourists. The theme is to the water park as the decoration style is to a new house. The theme of the water park should have a distinct personality, which requires proper handling of the park in the design stage. In addition, in the planning and design stage of the future water park, more scientific and technological elements should be considered to allow the theme and visitors to interact, especially at night venues where performing arts and viewing are the main gameplay, and special attention should be paid to enhancing interactivity- Interactive night shows may be one of the most interesting development directions for the water park industry in the future.”

After experiencing the early water parks with amusement equipment experience, tourists have higher and higher requirements and expectations for the new generation of water parks. The creativity of themes and cultures and the integration of theme stories driven by IP have become more and more important. The pure water amusement equipment stacking can no longer meet the experience needs of tourists. For the old water park, the only way is to continuously improve and innovate. For the newly opened water park and the ambitious entrants behind it, it is important to pay attention to important points in the planning and design stage, cater to the trend, and grasp the future. The ultimate vision-profitability.