Merlin Entertainments CEO Fiona Eastwood says that the leisure sector in Asia, and particularly in China, is experiencing a boom.
Talking to Bloomberg after the opening of Legoland Shanghai, she said that while China is a competitive market and its economy has faced challenges in recent years, Merlin’s two decades of experience in the country stand it in good stead:
“We’ve operated in China for just shy of 20 years, so we are at an advantage. We know the market. We’ve catered to millions of guests.”
“In terms of the market, there are good signs in the last few months. If you take retail spending as a good gauge of consumer sentiment, that has been up in the last few months, six and a half percent.”
Legoland Shanghai, the first Legoland resort in China and the biggest to date, was sold out over the opening weekend, she adds:
“It’s a very competitive market, but it’s also a significantly huge market. Legoland Shanghai…has 55 million people living within the drive time for the theme park. And then, if you consider we’ve also built a themed hotel that has a quarter of a billion people living nearby because of the high-speed train links that have been built to cater for the park.”
Merlin scales its big brands
In terms of what she is most excited about for the year to come, Eastwood says the new Legoland park in Shanghai is just the beginning:
“It is our biggest at launch. It’s our 11th Legoland Park, and you’re going to see much more of that from Merlin in terms of scaling on much-loved brands. We have Lego, which is the biggest toy brand in the world. We did a deal last year with Minecraft, which is the biggest gaming brand in the world. And we also have several Peppa [Pig] parks around the world, and that’s the biggest toy brand.”
“I’m really excited about the brand partnerships.”
Regarding AI, she says that Merlin is developing various use cases.
“Our Merlin Magic Making team have been using AI in terms of rides and…creativity, but it’s probably got the biggest role in terms of back of house, how we become better, faster and more pace in our decision making based on AI.”
The company will also utilise it in the park to enhance the guest experience, including aspects such as queuing and ride maintenance. AI technology, according to Eastwood, can help Merlin better predict consumer trends, understand its customer base more effectively, and inform future business decisions.
See also: Legoland Shanghai: the creative vision behind the flagship new resort
