With seven million visitors a year, Lotte World is one of the industry’s big hitters. Now the company has announced plans to build 20 ‘little Lotte’ theme parks in China and beyond. Kath Hudson finds out more

The world’s largest indoor theme park, Lotte World, pulls in more than 7.5 million visitors a year, mainly from South Korea, putting it in the big league in terms of attendance, ahead of the likes of Hong Kong Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Still going strong after 26 years, the cartoonish theme park owes much of its success to its great location in downtown Seoul, with excellent transport links. Additionally, being indoors, the attraction is not affected by South Korea’s hot, humid summers or cold winters.

The six-storey venue is owned and operated by a huge conglomerate, Lotte Co Ltd. Founded in Japan and based in both Japan and South Korea, Lotte’s other businesses include candy companies, fast food restaurants, cinemas, shopping malls and department stores.

Expansion Plans
Now, Lotte is looking to the future as it plans to open around 20 kids’ parks and expand the business beyond South Korea.

“The kids’ park concept will be an interesting challenge for us,” says Lotte World designer Liz Lee. “It’s our first attempt at making a theme park for a narrower target audience.”

The first is expected to open in December 2016 and the others are still under review. The 6,000sqm (64,583 sq ft) parks will have five rides: two family rides and three children’s rides as well as a live show and two play experiences. Using the Lotte World brand identity, they will target one to 10-year-old children and 31 to 40-year-old parents.

One of Lotte’s strengths is the fact it’s such a large company, with many complementary businesses so – going forward – the new theme parks are likely to become anchors of Lotte’s retail ventures.

“Our new kids’ parks will be designed following a strategy of making attractive anchor tenants for Lotte’s new complexes,” says Lee. “We hope we can use our theme park know-how to make different and more competitive shopping complexes.”

“Our goal is to open 20 kids’ parks, which will be like small versions of Lotte World, in South Korea and to expand the business into China. In fact, we are already developing a theme park in Shenyang, China, which will open in October 2018,” says Lee.

The 67,000sqm (721,182sq ft) Shenyang park will have five different zones: Adventure, Stars, Dream, Giant Ride and Heritage. There will be 25 attractions, nine F&B outlets and eight retail outlets.

“Of course, it will follow the brand identity of Lotte World, such as service and operations protocol, characters and facilities, but it will also introduce some new attractions,” says Lee.

Lotte’s Success
Back in Seoul, Lotte World has enjoyed longevity, popularity and increasing success over the years thanks to its continual investment in new attractions.

The park now has more than 50 different attractions, including the adjacent outdoor park Magic Land, an aquarium with shopping and retail areas.

“Introducing new attractions is an important way of bringing in new visitors and keeping the site fresh for our loyal repeat customers,” Lee says.

When it first opened in 1989, just after the Seoul Olympics, Lotte World was mainly made up of zones depicting different countries. While this theme has provided the glue for the attraction over the years, Lotte World is now moving away from this to depict more of South Korea’s own fairy tales and to create new and unique fantastical experiences.

The involvement of the Goddard Group, a Hollywood, California-based masterplanner and consultant, has helped steer this new course. The Goddard Group came on board in 2006 as Lotte World looked to invest and modernise for its 20th anniversary in 2009.

Dream Park
“When we came on board, we wanted to create a dream park rather than a theme park,” says Goddard Group executive Taylor Jeffs. “Creating a fantasy world has been a really successful way to bring Korean fairy tales and mythology into the park.”

“We saw this as a huge opportunity because no one else is doing anything like this,” says Jeffs. “Judging by attendance and guest satisfaction levels, this approach is working. When we first started talking in 2006, Lotte World was achieving 5.5 million visitors a year. In 2014, they were up to 7.6 million – that’s a huge gain.”

One fairy tale which has been adapted into a ride is Brother Moon and Sister Sun, about a brother and sister who are chased into a tree by a tiger and climb into the sky to become the sun and the moon.

The Tall Tale Ride has one tower themed as the sun and one themed as the moon.

“Lotte had two un-themed Frog Hopper rides and this story was a perfect fit,” says Jeff. “The ride lifts you up and the tiger swipes at you. It was a simple, low-cost way to bring in a Korean story.”

Another new area is Underland, a themed zone under the park, with restaurants and shopping. Lotte wanted to bring in a retail area, but also wanted to keep the area themed, so the Goddard Group designed a story about mischievous ogres living below the park. The ceiling and columns are covered with dirt and tree roots, and a sleeping ogre clutches a treasure chest.

“We made efficient use of the space to create Underland, and harmonised the story with the existing themes,” says Lee.

Kimhae Lotte Waterpark
In May 2014, Lotte launched a $400m (£260m, €358m) brightly coloured, Polynesian-themed waterpark. It was an immediate hit, receiving approximately 18,000 visitors in its first four months.

The waterpark is not in the capital. Lotte chose the location of Kimhae in the south of the country, close to the its second-largest city, Busan, which has a population of 3.5 million and an international airport serving Japan, China and other Southeast Asian countries.

Phase one opened in May, followed by phase two in June 2015. Phase three of the waterpark – exclusively supplied by WhiteWater West – is yet to be completed. The waterpark’s icon is Volcano, situated in the middle of the park. When the volcano erupts, a big wave is created towards the main wave pool.

“There hasn’t been a similar themed waterpark in Korea until now, so we thought the Polynesian style would work well and offer a unique experience,” Lee says.

“We have both an indoor and an outdoor waterpark, with 43 attractions. The outdoor part is composed of a wave pool, torrent river zone and rapid river zone. We’re the biggest waterpark in South Korea and we have the longest slide and the largest wave pool in the nation as well,” says Lee.