Theme Park Experience Research Articles

Brand Behavioral Intentions of a Theme Park in China: An Application of Brand Experience

Despite theme parks being a research hotspot, there is a paucity of research to understand the forming process of brand behavioral intentions (i.e., the intention of revisiting a theme park and the visit intentions of other theme parks under the same brand). For identifying the developing process of brand behavioral intentions from the perspective of experience, the current study developed a theoretical framework in which brand experience and memory affect visitors’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions to revisit a particular theme park as well as to visit other theme parks of the same brand. The empirical results of current study showed that visitors’ theme park experiences were good enough antecedents of their memories and satisfaction. It was also found that, when visitors’ memory and satisfaction are high, they are likely to have stronger impact on intentions to revisit the theme park and to visit theme parks of the same brand than did memory.

Investigating the consequences of theme park experience through the lenses of self-congruity and flow

PurposeThis paper aims to propose and test a conceptual model of theme park experiences by investigating the relationships among brand experience, self-congruity, flow and brand-related outcomes.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from guests who had visited a theme park in the past 12 months. Confirmatory factor analysis, consisting of second-order factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the incorporation of alternative model testing, was employed.FindingsThe findings revealed that theme park customers’ internalization of brand experience influenced their attitudinal and behavioral tendency with regard to the brand through self-congruity and flow.Practical implicationsThis study provides strategies for theme park designers and marketers under pressure to create a desired experiential setting that motivates visitors to engage in activities through various brand stimuli. Well-designed theme parks can create an optimal state of focus and attention, immersing visitors to the extent that they lose their sense of time and place, affecting their attitude and behavior toward the theme park brand.Originality/valueTheme parks provide a highly experiential, immersive and personally relevant experience with brand elements. Very few studies have attempted to investigate the consequences of theme park experience from the theoretical perspective of customers’ connection with the brand. This study proposed and validated a conceptual model to capture how theme park experience influenced visitors’ commitment to and active engagement with theme park brands through the mechanisms of self-congruity and flow.

The joy of riding or walk of shame? The theme park experience of obese people

This exploratory study focuses on obese people’s perceptions of their theme park experience. Given this study’s objective and the gap in the literature on obese people’s tourist experience, a qualitative research approach was adopted. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Participants revealed that their theme park experiences included a strong sense of humiliation. This is clearly associated with the interaction between their body, the physical environment and most importantly the human environment. Managerial implications are suggested.

체험경제이론을 중심으로한 테마파크 체험, 몰입, 러브마크, 재방문의도 및 추천의도간 영향 연구: 한·중 관광객을 대상으로

체험경제이론을 중심으로한 테마파크 체험, 몰입, 러브마크, 재방문의도 및 추천의도간 영향 연구: 한·중 관광객을 대상으로

Theme Park Experience: Factors Explaining Amount of Pleasure from a Visit, Time Allocation for Activities, Perceived Value, Queuing Quality, Satisfaction, and Loyalty

Theme Park Experience: Factors Explaining Amount of Pleasure from a Visit, Time Allocation for Activities, Perceived Value, Queuing Quality, Satisfaction, and Loyalty

테마파크 체험요소가 러브마크 및 추천의도에 미치는 영향 : Pine과 Gilmore의 체험경제이론을 중심으로

테마파크 체험요소가 러브마크 및 추천의도에 미치는 영향 : Pine과 Gilmore의 체험경제이론을 중심으로

Effects of virtual reality on theme park visitors' experience and behaviors: A presence perspective

Advances in virtual reality (VR) technology exert increasingly influential impacts on tourism. Drawn upon a presence perspective and a process theory, this research aims to explore how VR technology may help enhance theme park visitors' experience and behaviors. Data was collected from 396 theme park visitors who had experienced VR roller coaster over the past twelve months. Results of stepwise regression analysis suggest that users' sense of presence is predominantly driven by their feeling of control, followed by participation, effectiveness, curiosity, vividness, temporal association, and enjoyment provided by VR system. Results of simple linear regression analyses reveal positive impacts of sense of VR presence on visitors' overall theme park experience and intentions to revisit and recommend. Further sensitivity tests are performed using Hayes’ PROCESS model to accommodate the potential influence of two individual factors (i.e., personal innovativeness and VR familiarity) on the results. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented.

Customer emotions minute by minute: How guests experience different emotions within the same service environment

For years, the importance of customer emotions has been recognized in the service literature. Despite existing research, the discrete emotions generated by each service encounter within the theme park setting deserves more attention. The present research uses a quantitative research method to ascertain the various customer emotions experienced throughout the theme park experience using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Data was analyzed using multinomial logistic regression as well as correlation analysis. Results indicate that the emotions most likely to produce a satisfying theme park experience take place when enjoying rides, dining, and interacting with others. In contrast, the emotions generated while buying tickets were negatively associated with a satisfying theme park experience. Based on the results of this study, the authors provide a series of recommendations to generate positive emotions at key service encounters within the theme park experience.

Welcome to the Jungle: Rockwell Enhances the Theme Park Experience [Women to Watch

Karen Rockwell may have been good at math and science as a kid, but that doesn't mean she had any interest in becoming an engineer. There was no way she was going to spend her days sitting alone behind a computer. But then her older brother set her straight. If she was looking for a career where she could work with people and help them, she needed to check out industrial engineering.

Alligator Song

Abstract Alligators were perceived as dangerous by early settlers in Florida, and they also reflected the untamed and potentially untameable Florida wilderness. By the 20th century, alligator farms capitalized on the thrill of alligator encounters in controlled theme park experiences. Alligators are tamed in the current farm context and valued increasingly for the products that can be derived from their bodies. This anthrozoological investigation of perceptions of Florida alligators explores how farms define alligators and why visitors might accept these particular constructed images of alligators, concluding with a wider view to consider these perceptions of farmed animals in relation to the idea of the nuisance alligator. The discussion is framed by multi-species studies that rest on notions of embodiment and attentiveness, which in this case push the importance of alligator experience and agency to the foreground.

Exploring experiential consumption dimensions in the theme park context

Although theme park products play a significant role in experiential consumption, there is a lack of attention on the components of theme park experience in the experiential consumption framework. Therefore, the current study was conducted to develop a scale to measure theme park visitor experience by applying Schmitt’s [(1999a). Experiential marketing: How to get customers to sense, feel, think, act, and relate to your company and brands. New York, NY: Free Press] five strategic experiential modules of SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT, and RELATE. The scale was tested on an online sample of 400 US residents who visited at least one theme park in the past twelve months. Three different analyses were used to test the reliability and validity of the 5-factor experiential consumption model. First, principal component analysis to identify the number of meaningful factors revealed a 4-factor model structure. Second, confirmatory factor analysis to test the psychometric properties of the measurement and structural models supported the 5-factor model structure, with a few convergent and discriminant validity issues, particularly on the ACT factor. Third, partial least squares analysis with both formative and reflective specifications fully supported the 5-factor model structure with a minimal concern on the convergent validity of the ACT factor. Theoretical, managerial, and methodological implications regarding visitor experience in theme parks are discussed.

The Walt Disney Company: Mickey Mouse Visits Shanghai

The strategic and tactical problems of managing the operations function in a service environment can be examined through the context of the Walt Disney Company (DIS) opening Shanghai Disneyland. The company and its investors were excited about the Shanghai opening for a good reason: demographics. The resort would be located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, easily the wealthiest of all of China's districts. A massive 330 million people lived with a three-hour driving radius of the resort site, compared with 19.6 million who lived within the same radius at DIS's most profitable park, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Still, risks remained. Construction complications had delayed the opening almost a year longer than expected and cost overruns and alterations had increased the final price tag of the project. The Chinese economy had also hit a rough patch following the Chinese stock market slump in the summer of 2015. With the world watching, could the classic Disney theme park experience be delivered with the right cultural balance to appeal to its largely Chinese customers? Could DIS get it right? Excerpt UVA-OM-1545 Rev. Oct. 3, 2016 The Walt Disney Company: Mickey Mouse Visits Shanghai We're building something that's authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese. It definitely will be Disneyland in China, but we'll obviously be respectful of the Chinese culture and relatable to the people of China. —Walt Disney Company (DIS) Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger Even for a company built on the creative risk-taking culture instilled by founder Walt Disney, the 2016 opening of Shanghai Disneyland (SDL) was an audacious bet. The sixth global Disney resort would occupy nearly 1,000 acres of land in Shanghai, China—twice the acreage used in the Anaheim, California, Disneyland (DL) and almost eight times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) at its launch in 2005. The Shanghai resort, the first in mainland China, would feature several themed lands such as Tomorrowland, Treasure Cove, Disneytown, and the Enchanted Storybook Castle, which would be the biggest and tallest Disney castle ever. Indeed, it wasn't just the exhibits that were large: “We've never built a park as big as this to open on opening day,” said Chairman and CEO Robert Iger. “This is the biggest.” . . .

Creative choices and fan practices in the transformation of theme park space

This article describes and interprets fan activities within the theme park space related to a particular fan object. It examines an evolving paradigm wherein the role of theme park visitors is changed. Rather than being perceived as observers of spectacles, they can participate and interact with the environment in new ways. An example of this is Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom (2012), an interactive role-playing quest and collector card game at Disney's Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. Fans participate in a variety of practices that have dynamically redefined theme park activities. Together, management, designers, and fans have cocreated and reconstructed the theme park experience as one of exploration and participation. Despite multiple levels of control, fans will likewise persist in engagement with activities (in park and online) that help shape and interrogate the theme park space.

Let’s ‘Meetup’ at the theme park

Many people enjoy theme park and other leisure experiences with their families; however, today a great number of single, geographically mobile individuals desire to partake in such experiences. ‘Meetup’ is the world’s largest social network of local groups and thus allows for both online and off-line (in person) interactions. Using an ethnographic approach, this study examines how individuals can enjoy activities centered on common activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) via immersion in a Meetup group over the course of a year. Notably, members visited with greater frequency, had less tolerance for long lines, and were more likely to attend special events, eat at specialty restaurants, and consume alcohol. Group members also exchanged travel advice and both contributed and detracted from the enjoyment of the theme park experience. Membership in this Meetup group increased the frequency of visits and deeper exploration of the theme park resort, thus improving behavioral loyalty among annual pass holders. Managers can learn from these online communities to foster interactions among their guests and better target this new market.

The Walt Disney Company: Mickey Mouse Visits Shanghai

The strategic and tactical problems of managing the operations function in a service environment can be examined through the context of the Walt Disney Company (DIS) opening Shanghai Disneyland. The company and its investors were excited about the Shanghai opening for a good reason: demographics. The resort would be located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, easily the wealthiest of all of China’s districts. A massive 330 million people lived with a three-hour driving radius of the resort site, compared with 19.6 million who lived within the same radius at DIS’s most profitable park, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Still, risks remained. Construction complications had delayed the opening almost a year longer than expected and cost overruns and alterations had increased the final price tag of the project. The Chinese economy had also hit a rough patch following the Chinese stock market slump in the summer of 2015. With the world watching, could the classic Disney theme park experience be delivered with the right cultural balance to appeal to its largely Chinese customers? Could DIS get it right?

Delighted or Satisfied? Positive Emotional Responses Derived from Theme Park Experiences

ABSTRACTThis study uses cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to explain why some visitors may be delighted and others satisfied having had similar experiences, as well as the respective effects of these two outcomes on revisit intentions. A survey (n = 645) of visitors to a theme parks showed that tourists’ different evaluations of their experience on certain appraisal dimensions proposed by CAT, such as the degree of goal realization, goal relevance, and novelty, led to either delight or satisfaction. Tourists’ level of loyalty intentions also varied systematically with their particular emotional response. These findings provide practitioners with an understanding of how to design favorable experiences for their customers.

Changes in human health parameters associated with a touch tank experience at a zoological institution.

Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) institutions provide a variety of benefits to visitors. However, one area that has received little study is the direct human health benefits from zoo and aquarium visits. With the increase in stress related non-infectious diseases in industrialized countries, understanding the extent of these benefits is important. We studied the effects on visitor stress of an experience at a touch tank exhibit featuring stingrays, sharks, and horseshoe crabs. Stress was measured by physiological and psychological parameters. Heart rate was recorded before, during, and after interacting with the animals, and mood was assessed before and after the experience using a psychological instrument. Multilevel models of heart rate show a quadratic trend, with heart rate elevated (b = -3.01, t = 26.4, P < 0.001) and less variable (b = 3.60, t = 15.9, P < 0.001) while touching the animals compared to before or after. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests on mood data suggest that most visitors felt happier (V = 174.5, P < 0.001), more energized (V = 743.5, P < 0.001), and less tense (V = 5618, P < 0.001) after the experience. This suggests that interacting with animals led to a physiological response during interactions reminiscent of a theme park experience along with a decrease in mental stress. The effects of confounding variables such as crowd size are also discussed. Further studies should be conducted to help deepen our understanding of the health benefits of experiences at AZA institutions.

The Theme Park Experience of Teaching Science from the Constructivist Paradigm

Using Theme park rides to teach science/physics is one of the possible authentic experience one can offer to the science students. The physics of the rides as an alternative way of teaching forces, such as, G-force, centrefugal/centrepetal, free fall, acceleration, and conservation of kinetic and potential energy, is definitely an innovation students love to have in their learning experience. And, allowing students to actually experiencing the forces in action and enabling students to actually measuring the forces using a gravitometer that they designed are grand examples of not only meaningful learning can be established but learning with enjoyment can be made achievable too in the students’ learning outcomes. As, students by their youthful nature enjoy the rides such as the roller coasters and the freefall towers that deliver white-knuckle thrills in a safe environment.In our UiTM science education program, among the courses included is a course named SCE553- Creativity and Creative Teaching in Science and Theme Park is one of the major units of the course. This paper shares the course experience in general and in particular pertaining to the unit of Theme Park as an alternative way of teaching science/physics. The unit of Theme Park organized around three main innovative activities, there are, 1. Designing a gravitometer, 2. The theme park rides, and 3. A class presentation/discussion of the science/physics of the rides. The SCE553 course structure is designed using the constructivist framework emphasizing inquiry approaches in teaching, highlighting among others, the creative dimension in the learning outcome. The paper also offers a brief description of the course philosophy and its outlines. Learning outcomes as seen from the eyes of student-teachers as appeared in their reflective essays will be shared in order for the reader to capture the true essence of a constructivist approach in teaching that not only nurturing the creative and innovative elements in the student- teachers but also the soft skills, such as, leadership, communication, and presentation.

Customer delight from theme park experiences: The Antecedents of Delight based on Cognitive Appraisal Theory

This study empirically tests the ability of cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to explain the antecedents of emotions from tourism experiences. Delight, an emotion related to hedonic consumption and characterized as aroused positive affect is the particular emotion selected for this study. Data was collected from 645 tourists leaving a theme park and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results identify a set of appraisal dimensions that are antecedents of delight. Different evaluations on these dimensions provide multiple paths eliciting delight. This contrasts with previous research which has only noted one path involving surprise. The results allow concepts, such as magic joy, and real joy, to be parsimoniously explained. These findings are useful in designing tourism experiences.

Projection-Based Augmented Reality in Disney Theme Parks

Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Research Zürich are building a projector- camera toolbox to help create spatially augmented 3D objects and dynamic, interactive spaces that enhance the theme park experience by immersing guests in magical worlds. A related video can be seen here: http://youtu.be/wjrylXl0tTk. It shows examples of projection-based augmented reality techniques being employed in Disney theme parks.