Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s theme parks offer more than just thrills for all ages.

Like students the world over, Taiwan’s schoolchildren see field trips as the highlight of the academic year, especially graduation trips. These have become a rite of passage as students move from one school and set of friends to another. And where better to spend part of the trip than at a theme park with classmates, with everyone waving their hands in the air and counting down at the top of a spectacular roller coaster drop? Happily for the country’s students, they are blessed with world class rides at theme parks set in glorious landscapes, all of which offer a range of other attractions for the less adventurous and accompanying staff and parents.

Coasting Along Located on the northern tip of Taiwan, Yehliu Geopark in New Taipei City is one of the most popular sightseeing spots in the North Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area overseen by the Tourism Bureau (TB) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The area’s shorelines are home to some of the country’s most striking coastal rock formations, like the iconic Queen’s Head. Before the pandemic in 2019, the park sold around 2.68 million tickets, up nearly 10 percent each year, according to TB statistics. Many of the same ­visitors also went to nearby Yehliu Ocean World (OCW), with visits in 2019 rising by 4.6 percent.

  Currently, there are 27 licensed theme parks located throughout Taiwan operating under the Regulation for the Management of Tourist Amusement Enterprise. Their operators have formed the Taiwan Amusement Park Association (TAPA), headed by OCW General Manager Johnny Liao (廖俊斌), as a platform for business, academia and government units to develop a tourism sector that serves approximately 10 million domestic tourist trips a year. Amusement parks vary in their offerings and layouts but are all located close to major conurbations, making them a valuable and easily accessible recreation resource.

One of the oldest is Leofoo Village Theme Park in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County, which opened in 1979 as a private zoo and safari park, before adding other entertainment starting in the mid-1990s. The park features large-scale rides such as Pagoda’s Revenge, a three-second free fall from a height of 17 stories; Captain Cook’s Swinging Boat, which lives up to its name over a parabola seven stories high; and Screaming Condor, the country’s first U-shaped suspended spiral roller coaster.

   In northern Taiwan, another long-established theme park is Taoyuan City’s Window on World (WOW). It started as an attraction composed of detailed 1/25 scale models of famous Taiwan buildings and global landmarks. It now has a rhinoceros beetle eco-zone, a Jumbo Wave Water Park, theme rides and live song and dance performances. Lihpao Resort in central Taiwan’s Taichung City offers thrilling high-tech rides, while central Nantou County offers an introduction to indigenous culture at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (FACV). In the western county of Yunlin there is Janfusun Fancyworld, home to an 88-meter-tall Ferris wheel with 50 passenger capsules and views across the Chianan Plain. For hardened thrill seekers, the park’s roller coasters include the Diving Machine G5 built by premier Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard. In the southern city of Kaohsiung there is E-DA Theme Park, a shopping mall with a large Ferris wheel and dancing fountains, and in the eastern county of Hualien, Farglory Ocean Park has both high-tech and fairground type rides for smaller children, a walk-through aquarium, theater performances and educational displays on marine life. From north to south and east to west, Taiwan’s amusement parks truly have something for everyone.

Extra Traction
Liao said animals, plants, ecology, indigenous culture and hot springs are all big natural draws that can be augmented with other entertainment to further enhance interest. OCW, for example, stages professional diving shows and features an educational aquarium. “Aside from the major target group, which is younger visitors, theme parks cater to various demographics with diverse options ranging from food and beverage, dance and music performances to themed retail areas.”

Tsai Lung-ming (蔡龍銘), who teaches in the Department of Tourism Management at Taipei City-based Chinese Culture University, said that the two-day weekend adopted in the late 1990s spurred the development of theme parks as workers’ leisure time increased. Tsai added that it is now something of a tradition for elementary and high school students to visit theme parks on their graduation or year-end trips, with these groups comprising the bulk of visitors. The academic described the recreation facilities as “a locomotive for the neighborhood economy” because they act as a driving force for hotels, homestays, catering outlets, gift shops and shuttle buses. “It’s the multiplier effects in the tourism industry that benefit local residents,” Tsai said. Taichung’s Lihpao, for example, expanded its revenue scope in 2017 by opening an outlet mall and building a huge Ferris wheel. It saw a sharp rise in visits to more than 7 million, up from the previous year’s 0.91 million, and subsequently clocked close to 5 million visits per year thereafter.
  With competition from increased options in the entertainment market and the growing popularity of overseas travel, theme parks have had to work harder to attract visitors and cannot just rely on exciting rides for long-term ­business growth, according to Hsiao Po-hsun (蕭柏勳), former Janfusun manager and associate professor in the Department of Sport Management at National Taiwan University of Sport in Taichung. This has prompted thoughtful offerings ­encompassing seasonal activities and festivals at theme parks, closely linking the venues to local cultural and geographic characteristics. Examples include FACV’s annual Sakura Festival held during springtime next to Sun Moon Lake in Nantou. Thrill seekers visiting Janfusun can now opt for caffeine rather than adrenaline, as the park has developed its own coffee brand using locally grown beans from Gukeng Township, where the Yunlin County Government’s Taiwan Coffee Festival now takes place in October and November. Meanwhile, OCW is strengthening its marine education content to awaken visitors to the ocean ecosystem on its doorstep.

Upward Spiral
Hsiao is excited by Taiwan theme park operators’ enhancement of their world-class facilities. “Like the traditional manufacturing and agricultural sectors, they’re embracing the era of experiential ­economy,” he said, citing the hundreds of open house factories and leisure farms that offer fresh choices for domestic weekend getaways and vacations. Underpinning this link to local ­economies, 10 theme parks have been recognized under the 2011 Environmental Education Act. These include FACV, Janfusun and WOW, as well as forest parks such as Dongshi Forest Garden in Taichung, Sun-Link-Sea Forest and Nature Resort in Nantou and Yun Hsien Resort in New Taipei. “Theme parks are highlighting and integrating their natural attractions more than ever before,” Hsiao said. 

  Looking to the international market, seven theme parks including FACV, Janfusun and Leofoo have opened TB-certified halal restaurants aimed at attracting Muslim tourists from Southeast Asian nations. To explore overseas markets and learn from foreign business management, TAPA’s Liao and other members take regular promotion and observation trips to countries like Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. “Our theme parks may not be quite as large, but we’re equally technically competent and have our own stories to tell in fun and inspiring ways,” Liao said.

The success of the multipronged approach is evident from this summer’s figures: Combined ticket sales from 19 theme parks around Taiwan rose by 213 percent year on year. Sales were up by 61 percent from 2019, partly due to discounts subsidized by the TB as a post-pandemic domestic travel recovery project. From mid-July to September, around 1.3 ­million tickets were sold, boosting revenues by 115 percent from the prior year and up by 38 percent from 2019, according to TB Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰). He promised to continue advertising campaigns and international travel fairs featuring these recreation options as Taiwan’s borders reopen.
 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw