Wansui Mountain has recorded a 15-fold revenue growth over three years. Why could blindly copying its low-price strategy potentially drag your scenic area into collapse?
During the National Day holiday, I took my family to two scenic spots.
There are three of us in the family, and one of the tickets cost over a thousand yuan. After the visit, I am very sure that I will not take the initiative to visit these places again for a very long time in the future.
The high ticket price threshold is one of the reasons. The other reason is that after visiting, I can't find a reason to come back. The supporting experience is not good enough, and the surrounding catering options are not very suitable, which hardly makes people want to stay longer or spend more.
As a tourist, I can choose to go to another place. But if I were the owner of the scenic spot, things would not be that simple.
Tourists come this year but not the next, so the scenic spot has to keep attracting new visitors. To increase revenue, the operator can continue to invest in new projects and carry out promotion, but it is not certain whether more tourists will stay longer and spend more after the investment is made. If they try to lower ticket prices, they are worried that the newly added passenger flow cannot make up for the reduced ticket revenue.
With these questions in mind, I looked at Wansui Mountain, which has been extremely popular in recent years.
According to the data disclosed by the scenic spot, the total comprehensive revenue of Wansui Mountain increased from more than 80 million yuan in 2022 to 1.27 billion yuan in 2025, of which ticket revenue reached 790 million yuan, and secondary commercial consumption revenue reached 480 million yuan, accounting for 37.8% of the total.
The 100-yuan ticket allows unlimited entry within three days, coupled with a large number of performances, interactive activities and affordable consumption, and this set of operation model is indeed worth studying.
I would like to call it a "new species" among traditional scenic spots. The "new" feature lies in that it has rearranged the relationship among ticket prices, content and in-park consumption.
However, after seeing this case, the most intuitive move that most operators are likely to take may be exactly the most dangerous one: cut ticket prices first to expand the passenger flow.
What can make up for the lost revenue from reduced ticket sales? After tourists enter the park, what makes them willing to stay and keep spending?
No matter you run a scenic spot, a physical store or other consumer businesses, to figure out whether price cuts can bring growth, you have to find answers to these questions in the end.
01
Don't start by researching what other revenue you can make
First find out what unmet needs tourists still have
Many traditional sightseeing scenic spots can get tourists to pay for their first visit, but can hardly give them a reason to come a second time.
At the same time, ropeways, roads, visitor centers and supporting facilities require continuous maintenance. Some projects also carry loans, so operators cannot just wait for returns in the distant future.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that operators attach great importance to the ticket revenue of each visit. If you were in their position, you would also prioritize the immediate financial status first.
Wansui Mountain provides another idea: Through content, interaction and supporting consumption facilities, make tourists willing to spend more time staying here.
The on-site report from *China Economic Weekly* mentions that tourists can participate in treasure hunting tasks and side plots by interacting with NPCs, and then exchange the obtained silver notes for gifts.
Tourists can leave after watching the performance, but if the task they are participating in is not finished, they may want to stay for a while longer.
After they stay, will they need to eat? Can they take a rest when they get tired? Are there any goods they like to buy? For the content they didn't experience today, do they want to come back to continue tomorrow?
All of these are real needs of tourists.
To increase revenue, scenic spots should not only study what else they can charge tourists for, but also figure out what needs of tourists have not been met.
When it comes to increasing catering revenue, one approach is to raise prices, while the other is to make people who originally planned to leave the park for meals willing to have a proper meal inside the park. These two approaches have completely different impacts on tourist experience and long-term operation.
The mineral water in Wansui Mountain costs 1.5 yuan, and the stewed noodles cost 12 yuan, and these prices have been mentioned in multiple public on-site reports.
When tourists are less on guard against being overcharged in the scenic spot, they will be more willing to stay and consume normally.
According to reports from CCTV Finance, the rich programs and the 3-day pass have extended the average stay time of Wansui Mountain tourists from 3-4 hours to more than 8 hours.
Staying for a few more hours means more opportunities to meet more needs, and also brings more consumption opportunities in catering, retail and other sectors.
This is the operation relationship worth studying behind the low ticket price strategy: After lowering the entry threshold, do you have the ability to continuously provide value that tourists are willing to spend time and money on?
02
Wansui Mountain has also raised its ticket price before,
What is worth learning is how it calculates its accounts
At this point, people may easily draw a conclusion: tickets are responsible for attracting traffic, and secondary consumption is responsible for making profits.
But the actual operation is far more complicated than that.
In 2025, ticket revenue of Wansui Mountain still accounts for 62.2% of its total comprehensive revenue. The ticket itself is an important source of revenue, and cannot be simply regarded as customer acquisition cost.
The 480 million yuan secondary consumption revenue does not mean that the scenic spot has earned 480 million yuan directly. There are costs for goods, labor, operation and other items behind it; the commercial operating revenue and the final profit obtained by the scenic spot need to be distinguished clearly.
What is more noteworthy is another detail.
To cope with the cost pressure brought by expansion and new content updates, Wansui Mountain once raised its ticket price from 80 yuan to 100 yuan.
This shows that the scenic spot itself adjusts the ticket price according to its investment.
Therefore, the inspiration Wansui Mountain brings to operators cannot be summarized as "the cheaper the ticket, the better". The ticket price should not only make tourists feel that it is worth the money, but also support the continuous supply of content and services.
Wansui Mountain has more than 2,000 actors, providing nearly 3,000 performances every day, including a large number of small-scale shows and NPC interactions. Even so, the scenic spot still maintains a 30% annual program update rate in 2026.
Behind this number are character design, actor training, shift scheduling management, on-site interaction, and continuous content adjustment.
Asking a few people to wear ancient costumes is just a simple action. Being able to provide tourists with stable and interesting experiences every day is a real operational capability.
That's why I say Wansui Mountain is a scenic spot management company plus content planning and operation company.
Low price is easy for tourists to perceive, but only operators know how difficult it is to continuously deliver good experiences after setting low prices.
For other scenic spots, what they really need to judge is: whether their own customer base, revenue and cost conditions can support similar operation arrangements.
03
Before you decide to copy the model, calculate four accounts clearly first
Even if two scenic spots sell tickets for 100 yuan each, their operation results may be completely different.
When studying Wansui Mountain, you need to see clearly why it can make it, and also figure out what cost you need to pay to do the same thing.
The first account: Cash flow account: How long can you sustain when other revenue streams are not connected?
For some scenic spots, salaries, supplier payments and loans are mainly paid by the revenue from ticket sales.
Once the ticket price is cut, the ticket revenue may drop first, while the newly added passenger flow and consumption will not appear automatically as planned. Even if the passenger flow increases, the reception costs for safety, sanitation, catering and services may rise first.
Therefore, you cannot directly take "price cuts will definitely bring more passenger flow" as a premise in your budget.
At the very least, you need to think clearly: if the passenger flow growth is lower than expected and tourist consumption does not increase significantly, what is the maximum loss you can bear? At what point do you have to make adjustments?
The already invested ropeways, hotels and visitor centers will not stop maintenance and loan repayment just because you changed your operation strategy.
The return that others can wait for may not be affordable for you. Preconditions matter a lot.
The second account: Content account: Is the money you spent buying a temporary boom, or the ability to continuously supply content?
Wansui Mountain can continuously design characters and interactive activities around themes such as martial arts and the martial arts world.
What stories can your scenic spot tell? Why are tourists willing to participate? After participating once, what else is worth them continuing to experience?
Cultural background can provide materials, but turning these materials into products that tourists are willing to experience requires another set of capabilities.
Where do the actors come from, how to train them, how to arrange their shifts, what to do in the off-season, and how often to update the content, all these need to be calculated.
If you rely on large-scale external production every time, spend money again after each activity ends, your operation account will be completely different from the model of having resident teams and daily content updates.
Therefore, you should not only ask "how much does it cost to hire a few NPCs", but also ask: Can this whole set of experience be continuously supplied throughout the year? Can the team keep improving it in daily operations?
Equipment needs maintenance after being built, and content also needs continuous operation after being launched.
Wansui Mountain uses content to replace the homogenized heavy-asset "amusement equipment", which is also a kind of innovative attempt.
The third account: Customer group account: Do you want long-distance tourists to stay one more day, or local families around the scenic spot to come several more times a year?
These two goals seem to be both "retaining tourists", but the products and investment behind them are completely different.
If your main customer group is long-distance sightseeing tourists, you cannot easily apply the assumption that surrounding tourists will come many times a year. What is more worth studying first may be: can you turn their half-day tour into a one-day tour, and turn their same-day return plan into an overnight stay?
If you mainly target surrounding families, you need to further ask: why are families willing to come again after a period of time? Is it because there are new activities for children, or new leisure arrangements for weekends?
The former relies more on the content density and supporting services in the current trip, while the latter needs to continuously meet the needs of the same group of people.
It is also necessary to make a clear distinction here: Re-entering the park within the 3-day pass is an extension of the current stay; buying a new ticket and coming back after a few months is a real repurchase.
Both of them have operational value, but they cannot be mixed into one single indicator.
You don't have to require all tourists to become repeat customers. First find out the group of people who are worth continuous operation and are likely to choose you again, then consider what products to design for them and how many resources to allocate.
If you don't think this step through, a waste of resources is very likely to happen: you spend money on all tourists, but no group of people gets a clear enough reason to come back.
As for how to find the crowd worth investing in and avoid wasting resources, you can find the answer by watching this video of mine.
The fourth account: Organization account: Who is responsible for the complete experience of tourists and the final operation results?
If the marketing team is only responsible for attracting visitors, the content team is only responsible for performances, and the catering team is only responsible for increasing their own revenue, the complete experience of tourists will easily fall into the gap between different departments.
You say you hope tourists stay longer, but eating inside the park is not convenient; you hope tourists visit again, but no one is responsible for content updates and follow-up services.
The assessment method will also affect the execution effect.
If all departments still only focus on their own current revenue, it will be very difficult to ask them to take the initiative to make concessions for the overall experience.
Operators need to implement the goal to specific people and collaboration mechanisms: who takes the lead, which departments cooperate, how to calculate the newly added costs, how long the pilot lasts, and what results are worth continuing to invest in.
Stay time, consumption contribution, and revisit rate can all be observed, but in the end, everything has to return to revenue, cost and profit.
Longer stay of tourists is just a process; whether the newly created value can cover the extra cost determines whether this operation model can be sustained.
Of course, traditional scenic spots relying on ticket revenue does not mean backward operation. The key is whether they have the conditions to increase other revenue, and whether the overall operation can be better after the change.
On November 20th, I was invited to give a speech at Zhejiang Cultural Tourism Innovation Exhibition. The on-site case analysis will help you find new answers. If you are interested in participating, you can leave a message in the background, and I will send you the registration channel.
04
Final Note
After finishing the research on Wansui Mountain, the most important point I want to remind scenic spot owners is:
When you see other people get more passenger flow through low prices, don't rush to cut your ticket price first. First check what unmet needs the tourists you already have still have.
You can start this work from a very small point.
For example, if you find that families with children start to leave the park one after another at 2 p.m., you can first go to ask them (conduct research and return visit):
Have they finished watching all the content? Are the children tired and there is no place to rest? Or is it inconvenient to eat, so they just choose to leave the park?
Different reasons correspond to completely different investment plans.
Only when the content is all consumed, you can consider adding suitable activities; when the rest condition is not convenient, you can first improve the rest area; when the catering does not meet their needs, you can adjust the catering supply.
You don't need to transform the entire scenic spot from the very beginning. First select one type of tourists, carry out a small-scale pilot around one clear demand, record whether they are willing to stay longer, whether their consumption increases, and whether the newly added revenue can cover the cost.
First give one type of people a reason to stay, then judge whether it is worth expanding this practice.
By moving forward step by step in this way, you can gradually find answers to more long-term questions: which tourists are worth continuous operation, what products can make them choose you again, and what capabilities the enterprise should build for this purpose.
Treating users as assets for operation is the starting point: Identify the group of people worth continuous service, and create reasons for them to choose you next time around their needs.
What is worth learning from Wansui Mountain is how it combines tourist needs, content supply, price and consumption arrangements. It provides a sample of the vitality of the "low ticket price + high repurchase" model in the current consumption environment.
Learning from benchmarks ultimately needs to help you form your own judgment on your business.