Study tracks post-COVID attraction re-openings in China

By | May 28, 2020

SHANGHAI — MR-ProFun, Inc. announced today that its Shanghai-based subsidiary is now in the sixth week of its on-going tracking of post- COVID re-openings of visitor attractions in mainland China.     The results of this study are now providing clear indications of what attraction operators may expect as other parts of the world begin to emerge from COVID-related shutdowns.

The company, a leading provider of independent Advisory and Management Services to the global attraction industry, has been tracking the status of a variety of operational metrics for a broad cross-section of attractions in several major metropolitan areas in China. Metrics related to re-opening status, social-distancing measures, and guest entry policies are among those being studied.

“Attraction operators around the world are looking to the experience in China for examples of when and how to address their own re-openings,” said Jim Higashi, MR- ProFun’s Managing Partner for Planning & Advisory Services. “Being able to provide comprehensive and comparative information on that China experience has already proven enormously helpful to our clients in many other parts of the world.” The tracking study is already illuminating a path forward for global operators.      Estela Yang, the study’s lead researcher in China, pointed to consistent week-over-week gains in re-opening status “with only 28% of our tracked attractions re-opened when we began in April to over 65% now re-opened in our most recent weekly update.”

The study is also revealing how operators may expect to see operations evolve in the wake of post-COVID re-openings. 

“We have already observed a ‘phasing’ of re- opening activity,” added Ron Merriman, MR-ProFun’s General Manager in China. “The initial phase has been a standardization of operating parameters and a gradual re-opening of most attractions under those parameters.  We are now seeing movement into a second phase wherein operating parameters are cautiously being expanded.  We expect these expanded parameters will also standardize—and their implementation will gradually accelerate among local operators.”