Attention is becoming increasingly scarce. For those who have revisited Universal Beijing Resort many times, what on earth are they after?
Scenic spots are fixed, while stories are flowing: Five years of Universal Beijing Resort.
On one side there are increasingly rich entertainment options, on the other side there are increasingly prudent consumption decisions. For offline entertainment destinations, the competition for consumers' time and attention has become a long-term contest.
This competition does not mean that consumers no longer go out. On the contrary, the just-concluded National Day holiday once again proves that there is still strong demand for offline experiences. What has really changed is that when faced with more and more choices, people will measure more carefully: whether a trip is worth the time and money invested.
Research Report on the Development of China's Online Audio-visual Industry (2026) shows that as of December 2025, the time that online audio-visual users spend on video and audio content per capita reaches 201 minutes per day; offline options are also increasing rapidly. In the same year, there were 640,400 commercial performances nationwide, and concerts, commercial spaces and immersive cultural tourism projects are all competing for consumers' weekends.
During the 2026 National Day holiday, the number of domestic tourist trips nationwide reached 826 million, and the total domestic tourism expenditure reached 738.375 billion yuan, with an average daily year-on-year increase of 6.3% and 4.3% respectively. However, the per capita one-time expenditure roughly calculated by the total number of tourist trips and total expenditure has declined. People are still willing to go out, but when facing an experience that requires investment of time and money, the value judgment has become more detailed: in addition to the novelty of a single project, immersion, sense of participation, emotional value, and whether there are new contents when visiting next time, all affect the choice.
The scarcer attention becomes, the more important a reason worth visiting repeatedly is.
Theme parks are particularly sensitive to this change. In addition to tickets, tourists also need to pay for transportation, queuing and a whole day's time; the park itself has the characteristics of heavy assets, long construction cycle and relatively fixed physical space. The freshness at the opening can solve the problem of "why to come for the first time". After entering long-term operation, the more difficult question to answer is "why to come again".
Universal Beijing can be used as a phased reference. Data from Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) shows that the number of tourists at Universal Beijing Resort increased by 8.6% year-on-year in 2024, the highest growth rate among the top 15 theme parks in the world by passenger flow. During this year's National Day holiday, Universal Beijing Resort ranked at the top of the national popular scenic spot list formed by Meituan according to the booking popularity of scenic spots. For this theme park opened in 2021, growth can no longer only rely on the freshness at the opening.
Five years after its opening, what does Universal Beijing Resort rely on to continue to provide reasons for "the next visit"? From seven theme zones at the opening in 2021, to the continuously enriched seasonal activities and local IP cooperation over the past five years, and to the "Fast & Furious" indoor themed ride experience and the nighttime entertainment show on Lagoon announced in September this year, it is trying to use content updates of different cycles to make the relatively fixed park continuously generate new stories, new participation methods and new reasons for visiting.
How do heavy-asset theme parks operate the "content cycle" with high-frequency updates
When it opened on September 20, 2021, Universal Beijing Resort relied on seven theme zones and a number of classic movie IPs to build the attractiveness for first-time visitors, and the corresponding brand expression at that time was "Where the World of Blockbusters Comes to Life".
These scenic spots have many "firsts". Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness is the first Kung Fu Panda themed zone in Universal theme parks, Transformers Metrobase is the first Transformers themed zone in the world, which created an exclusive story line with China as the background, and Minion Land debuted as the world's largest Minion themed zone at the opening.
In the year after opening, Universal Beijing Resort won the 29th Annual TEA Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement - Theme Park, known as the "Oscar of the theme park industry".
If the seven scenic zones and pioneering projects solve the problem of "why it is worth visiting for the first time", then the content experience that covers the hardware of these scenic zones and has changed the most in the past five years answers "why to come again". To continuously generate new reasons for visiting in a relatively fixed space, it relies on this layer of content experience.
In the Spring Festival of 2022, Universal Beijing Resort launched the first "Universal Chinese New Year" after opening. According to public reports in 2024, the average tourist satisfaction during the first two sessions of the activity was over 80%; after that, the "Halloween Horror Nights" in spring, summer, autumn and winter holiday activities gradually formed an update rhythm covering four seasons. By 2026, the annual theme activities have expanded to nine, covering major travel nodes from the Spring Festival to the end of the year.
Classic IPs are also included in this calendar. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ has successively launched Back to Hogwarts season, Butterbeer season, "Death Eaters™ Attack" and Christmas season, the views of related popular topics have exceeded 100 million, and the topic views of Back to Hogwarts season on mainstream social platforms have also exceeded 60 million.
Familiar worlds present new content by seasons, and re-visiting has formed a sense of ritual. Soso, a tourist who entered the park in the rain on the first day of opening, described it like this: "Every year when I come back, there is a familiar sense of ritual, and I can always encounter new stories." Ticketing also caters to multiple visits. The "Universal Youth Fun Pass" launched this year allows visitors to enter the park 6 times within 180 days.
Source: Xiaohongshu @Soso
The pace of new content introduction is getting faster and faster. In 2022, Universal Beijing Resort cooperated with Honor of Kings for the first time, and the Hero Parade launched again in 2023 was a 30-minute mobile stage play; in the autumn of the same year, the original character Demon Rabbit made its debut in the "Halloween Horror Nights"; in 2025, Genshin Impact entered the park in the form of an interactive themed restaurant.
This year's changes are the most concentrated. The "Universal Unlimited Spring" in spring introduced Genshin Impact, Chang'an, and One Piece at the same time. Chinese virtual singer Luo Tianyi joined the related seasonal activities. The "Halloween Horror Nights" in autumn brought The Lost Tomb and Identity V into the theme park for the first time, and two brand new experiences were officially announced at the 5th anniversary node.
The spaces carrying these contents are also changing. Most new IPs enter in the form of themed restaurants, interactive themed zones, performances and scare zones, with supporting themed catering and limited commodities. The construction of a large ride facility often takes years from planning to opening, while the content update cycle of restaurants, performances and scare zones is much shorter. When the construction cycle of large facilities is calculated in years, consumers' interests are constantly changing. Being able to continuously launch new content in the existing space has become an important ability for theme parks to maintain market relevance.
Five years on, Universal Beijing Resort has formed an operation rhythm of "stable supply of core facilities and quarterly update of content layer". The next question is, what does Universal Beijing Resort rely on to transform these diverse contents into experiences worthy of a special trip?
Open IP operation, creating the same destination for different passions
On Hollywood Boulevard on September 16, Huang Lei, who dubbed Po in Kung Fu Panda 3, reunited with Po. Nan Pai San Shu appeared together with his characters Wu Xie, Zhang Qiling and Wang Pangzi. Li Bai and Gao Shi from the Tang Dynasty Poetry Banquet of Chang'an also walked onto the avenue, with Universal classic characters such as Shrek and Minions before and after them.
Characters from different sources walking on the same street is the most intuitive picture of Universal Beijing's open IP operation.
Traditional theme parks usually build a closed world around IPs they own or have long-term binding with, while the path of Universal Beijing Resort is more open. Resident IPs such as Harry Potter, Kung Fu Panda and Minions form the foundation and operate all year round in the seven scenic zones, and are continuously refreshed through seasonal activities; on this basis, local IPs such as games, animated films, novels and virtual singers also enter the park in a limited-time form through seasonal cooperation; original characters gradually accumulate audiences, Demon Rabbit continues to iterate in the next two sessions of "Halloween Horror Nights", and the original character Enchanting Fox was added in 2025.
This diverse structure of IPs corresponds to the increasingly scattered interest preferences of consumers. The 2025 White Paper on the Development of China's Licensing Industry shows that among the IP categories preferred by Chinese consumers, film and television ranks first with 62%, games and animation both account for 52%, and novels account for 36%. Universal Beijing's brand proposition is also adjusting, from "Where the World of Blockbusters Comes to Life" at the opening to today's "Unlimited Worlds", and the content boundary has expanded from movies to more types.
After the content becomes richer, new problems come along — what IP is suitable for being moved offline? What can tourists do after they are moved here?
The three projects in spring this year have different focuses respectively. "Celebration! Bang Bang Boom - Genshin Impact Ball Festival Interactive Themed Zone" focuses on task exploration, where tourists take commissions as "Travelers" and follow different characters into different story branches. The Tang Dynasty Poetry Banquet interactive themed restaurant of Chang'an takes the movie scene as inspiration to create a grand Tang Dynasty banquet, where actors address tourists as "Honored Guest" and "Young Master" and invite tourists to the banquet. Sanji's Sea Side Restaurant of One Piece focuses on character interaction.
The "Halloween Horror Nights" in autumn changed the theme, the Seven Stars Lu Palace and the Xisha Underwater Tomb of The Lost Tomb were made into walk-in scare zones, and Identity V allows tourists to advance and unlock different plots through clues and games. As a result, tourists have changed from people who watch stories across screens and pages to people who participate in stories on site.
Behind the on-site impromptu interaction is a strict set of plans. According to the introduction of the entertainment creative team of Universal Beijing Resort, the director has written character guidelines for the characters, which specify character biographies, action details and impromptu lines approved by the team. Each actor in the Genshin Impact project needs to master more than 10,000 words of impromptu framework. Chris Clark, Senior Director of Entertainment Creative at Universal Beijing Resort, said, "Most of the interactions are impromptu, but they are strictly restricted in what they can say and do."
In Mondstadt in the Genshin Impact themed zone, the width of the streets has also been calculated, taking into account the compactness in the game and the flow of people in reality. Operation is the last link of transformation. When developing the Tang Dynasty Poetry Banquet, the catering team specially went to Wuhan to learn about the food culture and characteristic ingredients around the Yellow Crane Tower. After the dishes were launched, they completed adjustments within two days according to tourists' suggestions.
This set of capabilities has brought two-way transformation. In the Genshin Impact interactive themed restaurant in 2025, 89% of the participating tourists were Genshin Impact players. During the three-month activity period, related topics received more than 45 million views on social platforms, and tourist satisfaction reached 98%. IP cooperation provides players and fans with offline experience opportunities, and also allows them to access more stories in the park.
Conversely, ordinary tourists also have the opportunity to get to know new IPs in seasonal activities. Sanji's Sea Side Restaurant, which does not require separate reservation and ticket purchase, has attracted many passers-by who have not watched One Piece. For IP parties, the park provides offline expression and new audience touch points, and Universal Beijing Resort reaches more interest groups through each cooperation.
Long-term relationships ultimately fall on specific people. Alasu, who has visited all Universal theme parks around the world, came during the trial operation of Universal Beijing Resort. In the past five years, she has changed from a senior player who checked in alone to a mother who often brings her twins to play. The children's first independent experience of a ride and the first photo with characters all happened here. "Every time I come, I feel there are new surprises. For me, Universal Beijing Resort is really a place worth bringing my children to visit over and over again."