China’s Wanda to Become World’s Largest Tourism Operator in Five Years: Wanda Chairman

Wanda Group’s goal is to become the No. 1 tourism company in the world in five years, said Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin in the opening ceremony of another amusement park in the eastern city of Hefei on Sept. 24.

The amusement park is part of 5.2 billion U.S. dollar Hefei Wanda City, which includes a theme park, hotels and shopping malls.

On its opening day, the park drew 500,000 tourists. Many of them were thrilled by the world’s fastest and highest vertical ring roller coaster.

“It is so thrilling that I think it could be the ultimate version. Ordinary people could hardly handle it,” said a tourist.

“It is so exciting up there that I felt like flying up at the end,”said a boy.

It is not the first tourism complex opened by Wanda this year. It followed Nanchang Wanda City, which opened three months ago and attracted more than two million tourists in a month.

In contrast, it took Shanghai Disney Resort more than a month to see its tourist number surpass one million.

Wang said Wanda planned to open 15 such Wanda Cities at home and five more abroad by the end of 2020.

Some said it could a besiege to the Disney resort in China, since Wang openly said Shanghai Disney could not be profitable for ten to 20 years in China in rivalry with Wanda.

“The programs that have opened have their local characteristics. The Xishuangbannan park features the distinctive Dai style and the parks in Jiangxi and Anhui had their local inks. When Harbin park opens, it will present an ice and snow culture. That’s our advantage. Tourism will be Wanda’s pillar industry and our goal is to become the world’s No. 1 tourism company in five years, with the projected tourist flow reaching 200 million,”said Wang.

There will be 59 new theme parks in China and its tourist flow is estimated to reach 220 million by 2020, equivalent to that in the United States, according to consultancy firm AECOM.
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Video originally published at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTY-6Z8LtU0