18 Sep 2014
Santa Claus is coming to China in form of theme park
BY Tom Anstey
A new Christmas-themed attraction is now under development in the Chinese city of Changdi in the form of SantaPark – the “official” home of Lapland’s own Santa Claus.
The company behind the project, SantaPark, has teamed up with Finnish attraction specialist Lappset Group, in addition to a local developer, to create the 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) indoor attraction, which is to be based on the original SantaPark in Finland.
Set to open six-months away from Christmas in June 2016, the indoor attraction will be linked with Chengdu Floraland theme park, while there are plans to launch “another five or six” Christmas parks in China, should the inaugural SantaPark prove to be a hit.
“There has been a lot of interest in the authentic Christmas theme park from different parts of the world, especially in Asia,” said SantaPark CEO, Ilkka Lankinen.
“Establishing a Santa’s theme park in Chengdu is an extension of our well-proven concept for the Chinese market. We will continue running our SantaPark as the official home of Santa in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, and hope to attract even more Chinese tourists to visit the Arctic Circle.”
The new park in China is likely to feature an Elf show, Santa’s Workshop, Gingerbread Kitchen, Sleigh Ride, Elf School, Elf Workshop and Post Office – similar to that at the original park.
The Finnish SantaPark opened in 1998 at a cost of €6.7m (US$8.7m, £5.3m), failing to meet economic goals the first time round. The concept was renewed in 2002 with a new ownership structure in the nearby municipality of Rovaniemi and has proved to be a success ever since.
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