Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming
With the boost of network traffic and fan economy, today's popular animal parks are transforming into "Disney alternatives"—animals, originally confined to cages for viewing and performing services as "employees," have become the "owners" of the zoo. Star animals "attract traffic," promoting the "cute economy," while the zoo's creative IP ignites cross-border marketing. Animals even start live broadcasts to interact with fans, mastering the traffic code.
In recent years, the CityWalk trend has blown from city streets to zoos, and a ZooWalk focusing on immersive natural experiences has become popular among young people. With the boost of network traffic and fan economy, today's popular animal parks are transforming into "Disney alternatives"—animals, originally confined to cages for viewing and performing services as "employees," have become the "owners" of the zoo. Star animals "attract traffic," promoting the "cute economy," while the zoo's creative IP ignites cross-border marketing. Animals even start live broadcasts to interact with fans, mastering the traffic code.
Zoos, once primarily attracting children, have seen a significant shift in visitor demographics. Data from the Hongshan Forest Zoo ticketing center shows that from 2024 to the present, the 20-30 age group has become the main visitor group, accounting for 61.91% of total ticket purchases. Similarly, data from Shanghai Zoo over the past two years shows that about 60-70% of visitors are young and middle-aged people. Today, zoos are no longer traditional playgrounds for children only. Driven by the "Zoo+" concept, they are integrating creative shopping, education and research, food experiences, entertainment and social interaction into diverse lifestyle scenarios, transforming into fashionable new landmarks for all ages, offering visitors richer immersive sightseeing options and participatory interactive experiences.
New Inspiration for Tourism: Zoo Transformation as Seen Through ZooWalk
A year ago, Citywalk became popular online. This urban exploration method, emphasizing relaxation, slow pace, and participatory observation, has led more people to explore their "neighborhoods" on foot, forging deep connections with the city through everyday life and local culture, touching the city's texture and local historical context. It has also made more and more people realize that Walk is not just a walking path, but an immersive way to experience life in the present.
The emergence of ZooWalk offers a different way to experience zoos, transforming them from sightseeing spots into landscapes with narrative meaning. Looking back at the development of zoos in recent years, before the rise of the ZooWalk concept, Hongshan Forest Zoo had already become a popular zoo through a series of transformative explorations on social media platforms. Here, there are no animal performances, no traditional paid feeding programs; the animals are the masters of the zoo, and visitors are simply guests visiting their homes, with all actions following the principle of "guests following the host's lead." Hongshan Forest Zoo, centered on the concept of respecting animals, not only creates animal habitats that better suit their natural habits, allowing animals to freely display their nature, but also creatively transforms star animals into IPs, resonating with young people's humanistic and emotional sentiments and achieving traffic conversion.
Today, Hongshan Forest Zoo attracts over 6 million visitors annually from around the world. The 2023 visitor traffic was more than double that of 2019 and nearly 10 times that of 2008. Over 70% of visitors come from outside Nanjing, and over 70% of visitors are under 30 years old, making it a gold medal in Nanjing's tourism and a typical example of zoo transformation in China.
IP + Immersive Natural Experience: The Traffic Code of "Zoo+"
(1) IP: Star Animals Triggering the Net Red Effect
The popularity of zoos often depends on the traffic boost from the "net red effect" of star animals. Giant pandas, with their inherent friendliness and gentle nature, have always been top-tier animals in zoos. With the popularity of the panda "Hhua," panda families around the world have also become popular, becoming the signature animals of various zoos. For example, panda Hhua not only made the zoo popular but also created a unique vibrant image for the city, first appearing in the promotional video for the Chengdu Asian Games and then appearing on a large screen in Times Square, New York. In April of this year, Chengdu Tourism released a "Bear Appointment," officially announcing giant panda "Hhua" as the honorary director, single-handedly driving the development of Chengdu's tourism.
In addition, the Pallas's cat family at the Xining Wildlife Park followed the same path to popularity, winning countless fans with their personalized characteristics and lively and interesting daily lives. Beijing Wildlife Park has developed "three net-red items": putting oranges on capybaras' heads, taking photos with red pandas, and being pinched by pelicans. Looking at the popularity of star animals in zoos, the keyword may be "personalization"—by exploring the unique personality characteristics of each animal, creating a unique and memorable persona for them, attracting visitors to spontaneously "create stars." This can enhance the emotional connection between animals and people and trigger the net red effect to promote the popularity of the zoo.
(2) Creative Products: Animal IP Promotes Cross-Border Marketing
The emergence of star animals provides zoos with abundant IP development resources, transforming fan bases into consumer power and opening up the zoo's marketing and operation paths. Currently, creative product development and cross-border collaborations are two major ways for zoos to monetize IPs. Taking Hongshan Forest Zoo as an example, its successful path lies in combining high-quality IPs with commercial operations. The IP foundation is built on the zoo's rich star animal resources and strong fan effect. Product designs incorporate animal stories, emotions, and popular topics. Data shows that in the first half of 2023, the sales of Hongshan Zoo's creative products exceeded 5 million yuan. In the first five months of 2024, the sales of creative products at Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo exceeded the total sales for the whole of 2023, and the product categories have expanded from the initial refrigerator magnets to over 200 categories, including plush toys, clothing, and blind boxes.
The popularity of creative products, in turn, deepens the zoo's IP image and brand effect, making the zoo a sought-after place for collaboration by major consumer brands. This year alone, Hongshan Zoo has collaborated with Tmall diaper brands to hold the "Tmall Dolphin Conference," collaborated with the well-known beauty brand Judydoll on makeup, and collaborated with Samsung on new mobile phones, creating "Hongshan Zoo Meets AI"... Through cross-border collaborative marketing, it showcases the zoo's strong brand building and market expansion capabilities, reflecting the zoo's innovative exploration in the expansion of tourism business.
(3) Immersive Natural Experience: Animal Enrichment Based on ZooWalk
Enrichment is a zoological term referring to a series of measures taken under captive conditions to enrich the lives of animals, meet their physiological and psychological needs, and encourage them to exhibit more natural behaviors. Taking Hongshan Forest Zoo as an example, animal enrichment is divided into two major categories: basic and daily. Basic enrichment mainly refers to the construction of venues and facilities, while daily enrichment enriches the animals' lives from aspects such as food, community, perception, and cognition. By constructing and changing the animals' living environment, allowing animals to exhibit normal behaviors and providing them with more choices, it aims to alleviate boredom in animals.
Animal enrichment improves animal welfare, encouraging animals to exhibit natural behaviors and wild states. It also provides visitors with a more nature-friendly way to visit, encouraging participation in interactions with animals. In addition to enrichment efforts, Hongshan Zoo focuses on animal rescue and conservation, eliminating traditional practices such as animal performances, feeding, and contact, creating a utopian ideal life for animals: launching cloud adoption through online live broadcasts; individually naming each animal and introducing its living habits and personality traits; writing handwritten letters and obituaries for sick and deceased animals. In addition, the zoo holds over 200 public events annually, including the Spring Festival Zodiac Culture Festival and April Bird-Loving Week, impacting over 5 million people online and offline.
From Animal Homes to Cute Economy: Inspiration and Thoughts on "Zoo+"
Shen Zhijun, director of Hongshan Forest Zoo, once said, "A zoo is not a place to pay to watch animals, but a place to learn to look at animals." Today's "Zoo+" attempts, on the surface, combine high-quality animal IPs with sound commercial operations, using creative methods to promote the sustainable growth of zoo economic benefits; in reality, it is about establishing emotional connections and cultural identity with visitors, telling animal stories, creating a utopian ideal life for animals, thereby stimulating natural emotions and narrative resonance between humans and animals, projecting the relationship between visitors and animals onto products, and thus converting it into recognition of the zoo's IP.
"Zoo+" not only provides zoos with a practical and effective transformation path, but its resulting internet celebrity effect will also radiate to surrounding areas, driving local economic growth and becoming a city's cultural and tourism brand. For example, Chengdu, relying on the strong IP of giant pandas, has integrated panda elements into all aspects of city life, establishing a highly recognizable city image, which is undoubtedly a win-win for culture, tourism, and the economy.
ZooWalk has become a trend, reflecting the diversification and high quality of the current cultural and tourism industry development. This way of visiting zoos implies respect for life and reverence for nature. Visitors are no longer passive observers but experiencers of the natural environment; animals are no longer exhibits confined to cramped spaces but creatures that can run freely in nature. When humans and animals meet in the field of the zoo, an immersive natural experience narrative is generated. The warm narratives and humanistic care about zoos touch the sensitive and pressured spiritual world of contemporary young people, accurately grasping the current social emotions.
Animal science writer Hua Shi once wrote in "Visiting the Zoo is a Serious Matter": A good zoo will not only allow visitors to gain pleasure and knowledge but ultimately reflect all the gains and insights in the improvement of daily behavior; this change in behavior will reduce the pressure on the environment, so that humans and these lovely wild animals can survive on Earth for a longer time. As a line in the film "Miracle Zoo: Asahiyama Zoo Story" says, zoos are to make people exclaim, "Life is so warm." Today, when we ZooWalk, perhaps it is to witness those moments that make life feel warm.
Special Survey on Investment in the Tourism Industry
To gain a deeper understanding of the investment and development of the tourism industry, the China Tourism Academy, in conjunction with the China Amusement Machine and Amusement Park Association and other organizations, is conducting a special survey on investment in the tourism industry. We sincerely invite all member units and tourism enterprises to participate in the survey.
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