Travelling to Fantasy World: Use of Animation Content to Sustain Korean Theme Park Industry

Due to growing middle class and building new parks, China expects for the world’s largest themed industry with an increasing number of visitors. However, with the emergence of new entrants of Chinese operators, Korean parks experience the harsh decline of international visitation level. To sustain themed entertainment industry, Korean parks’ operators started focusing on content-driven attractions instead of featuring incoherent array of rollercoasters to satisfy sophisticated customers’ needs and scrutinize utilizing popular media content such as animation or game. This article aims to investigate and examine the key role of animation content storytelling for the theme park and its sustainability.