How Japanese theme parks achieve counter-cyclical growth during economic downturns
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2025 China Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Industry Annual Conference
March 18-20, Beijing
Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming
Editor | Liu Kaiye
After the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in 1990, the economic recession lasted for more than 30 years, known as the "Lost Decade." Despite the prolonged economic slump and shrinking consumer market, Japan's theme park industry has achieved counter-cyclical growth through a series of innovative strategies and refined operations. During this period, large theme parks such as Universal Studios Japan in Osaka and Tokyo DisneySea opened successively, along with numerous other amusement and theme parks. I believe that the management secrets of Japanese theme parks are of significant reference value to the global tourism industry, especially for tourism projects operating during economic downturns.
Theme parks and other leisure and entertainment facilities actually face two major risks.
The first is the "economic downturn" that we often discuss. That's right, theme parks, as non-essential goods and services in people's lives, are greatly affected by economic fluctuations. Not only the theme park industry, but the leisure and entertainment industry as a whole globally is affected by economic fluctuations. Unfortunately, when the economy is sluggish, the theme entertainment industry is often the first to feel the impact, and when the economy is on an upward trend, the theme entertainment industry is the last to benefit.
Looking back at Japan's situation, since 1990, Japan has been in a state of economic decline. Between 1990 and 1995, many theme parks and amusement parks across Japan faced closure due to a sharp decline in visitor numbers and revenue. However, the situation improved later, and after 2000, some new parks and leisure facilities emerged. Those parks and leisure facilities that survived the economic downturn gradually appeared. Those facilities that found ways to survive during the economic downturn are still operating and generating stable income today.
Another threat to theme parks and other leisure and entertainment facilities is the prevalence of smartphones. More accurately, it is the prevalence of social media platforms brought about by smartphones. Before the advent of smartphones, theme parks were places where "you could only get a unique experience by going there in person." However, with the popularity of social media platforms, information about theme parks, including the content of performances, the atmosphere of fireworks displays, and service quality, has been widely disseminated. Unintentionally, theme parks have also created scenarios that allow for "cloud check-ins" and "cloud visits." This has led tourists to more thoroughly research their travel destinations on various social media platforms before making travel decisions. When negative reviews of parks and other destinations appear on social media platforms, it may lead tourists to develop inaccurate stereotypes that do not match reality, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of tourists who used to "try it first." In addition, the emergence of smart electronic products and online games has led to a huge change in people's choice of leisure and entertainment, with more and more young people choosing to stay at home and play games.
In Japan, the economic downturn began after 1990, while the impact of social media on theme parks and the tourism industry gradually became apparent after 2010. Let's look at how the Japanese theme park industry has responded to the economic recession.
I have been engaged in theme park and leisure entertainment industry consulting for more than 30 years. After the collapse of Japan's bubble economy, I have helped many theme parks overcome operational difficulties and achieve steady profitability. I have found that during periods of economic downturn or slow economic growth, parks that can achieve stable income usually pay attention to three "predictions" in their operations management.
The first is "prediction".
The prediction involves many aspects, including visitor numbers and sales. Successful parks often share this operational information as records and use past records to generate information that supports operational decisions. Instead of just using "prediction" as the basis for operational decisions, this allows for a more scientific replacement of traditional operations that "rely on personal memory" or "experience judgment." When recording operational information, the attributes of visitors and changes in visitor numbers need to be considered.
The second is "prevention".
Prevention is to eliminate the risks of failure in operations as much as possible and to develop plans to take the most efficient and optimal countermeasures for failures that may still occur. To achieve this, it is often necessary to think more carefully about operational plans.
The budget should be set within a realistic range. That is, the budget cannot be set too low, and of course, it cannot be set to a number that is impossible to achieve; that would be completely meaningless. The budget should be a range that can be "barely" achieved through effort. In addition, the business goal should be a profit goal; visitor numbers and sales alone are not enough to be considered as achieving the budget goal. At the same time, costs need to be highly valued, and operations need to strive to improve cost efficiency.
On March 18, I will be at the main forum of the 2025 China Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Industry Annual Conference to share on the topic of How Japanese Theme Parks Improve Revenue Through Refined Operations sharing Three "Predictions" in theme park operations management how to operate in detail Welcome everyone to Scan the code to register for the conference for free and exchange ideas with me on-site 。
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