Korean theme parks recover to near pre-pandemic levels

Everland and Lotte World, South Korea’s two largest theme parks, posted their highest-ever profits in 2023, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic shock, thanks to a sharp increase in visitor numbers and ticket price hikes.

In pursuit of new growth drivers, they are utilizing the intellectual property (IP) of webtoons, or digital comics, to create new events based on their characters, props and environment designs.

Everland is also upping the marketing for animals such as giant pandas in its zoo, which drew large crowds of visitors and media attention last year.

Everland, owned by Samsung C&T Corp. posted 66 billion won ($48 million) in operating profit in 2023, up 16.8% from the year prior, according to industry sources on Sunday.

Lotte World, run by Lotte Hotel, earned 45.4 billion won in operating profit, a 9.3% increase on-year.

The results mark their highest-ever profits since their foundation.

In 2023, revenue at Everland came in at 775.2 billion won, with that of Lotte World reaching 382.6 billion won.

Amusement parks were hit hard by lockdowns and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, Lotte World, with one of the largest areas of indoor theme parks in the world, took a severe battering.

In 2020, guest numbers at Lotte World shrank by nearly one-fourth to 1.55 million from 5.78 million in 2019. It logged an operating loss of over 100 billion won in 2020.

The same year, Everland suffered an operating loss of about 80 billion won with a slide in its visitor numbers to 2.75 million in 2020 from the previous year’s 6.60 million.

Since the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in 2022, the two theme parks' earnings have returned to near pre-pandemic levels.

Everland increased its one-day free ticket price to 58,000 won in 2022 and 62,000 won in 2023, compared to 56,000 won in 2021.

Lotte World raised its ticket price to 62,000 won in 2022 from 59,000 won in 2021. Last year, its visitor numbers recovered to 90% pre-pandemic levels thanks to the increase in foreign visitors.

In the first quarter of this year, attendance at Lotte World rose 25%, compared to the year-earlier period.

EVERLAND WITHOUT ‘FU BAO’

This year, Everland is working hard to fill the void left by the celebrity panda Fu Bao, a giant panda born at the amusement park in July 2020 from Le Bao and Ai Bao. Her parents were gifted to South Korea by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a symbol of friendship.

At the height of COVID-19, she became a social media sensation and created a Fu Bao fan base. But the four-year-old panda was sent to China early this month as agreed with China.

Regardless, Everland will strengthen its panda marketing by holding a panda festival focusing on Fu Bao’s mother, Ai Bao.

It also has introduced events featuring Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty created by Japanese entertainment company Sanrio Co. It also offered tickets to visit only its garden separately without going on the rides. 

Lotte World also has joined hands with Naver Corp. to use the IP of a popular webtoon published by South Korea’s largest online portal: “Green Apple Moisturizing Academy at the End of the Century.”

It has built public phone booths, stationery stores and arcades, mimicking the world of the webtoon set in 1999, across the theme park.

Lotte World is also seeking to collaborate with overseas companies to create events based on their intellectual property.

Write to Jae-Kwang Ahn at ahnjk@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article