Harry Potter Theme Park Construction

Introduction

The Harry Potter Theme Park is a park in Orlando, Florida themed to the Harry Potter media franchise that adapts elements from novels and film series by J.K Rowling. The park is home to different rides, gifts shops and restaurants, a recreation of the Hogwarts Express and also a recreation of the Diagon Alley. This project involves the construction and full set up of a theme park.

Assessment Criteria

PESTEL analysis was chosen for analysis of the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors that would affect the setting up of a film school in the five different countries that are being considered. These include Canada, USA, Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates. Through examination of the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors, valuable advantages would be gained by the planners of the setting up of the film school. The advantages would be import for the planning, set up, marketing phases of the film school. PESTEL is a cheap assessment criterion that offers a deeper understanding of businesses, provides alertness to threats and helps in identification of means of exploiting opportunities. While the amounts of research, time and frequency of carrying out PESTEL analysis are optional, the costs of carrying out any forms of analysis are optional. PESTEL analysis helps notice environments that would directly or indirectly affect the project (Phillips and Moutinho, 2018). For instance, some safety laws could be overlooked in the setting up of the theme park. PESTEL analysis encourages the development of strategic thinking that builds a better understanding of strategic planning (Leyva et al., 2018).

For the economic part of the analysis, information drawn from the World Bank was used. The political part of the analysis relied on information from leading political journals, namely Perspectives on Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, and the journal of Public administration Research and Theory. The social part drew its information from the Nature Climate Change journal and from the Social Issues and Policy Review journal. Data for the analysis of technological factors was drawn from credible websites like cnet.com. The journal of Environmental Science and Technology and Journal of Earth Science and Climate Change were used for analysis of the environmental factors. The analysis of the legal aspects relied on information from the constitutions of the different countries.

Ranking table

Discussion

China scored the highest having a weighted total of 157 points. China would thus, as seen from this study be the best place to set up a theme park.

Political-legal aspect

China is a permanent member of the United Nation`s security council and is one of the world`s most powerful countries (Yakubi, 2018). Generally, the political environment in China is stable. However, the lack of political freedom is one of the areas of concern (Dreyer, 2015). There are a lot of questions on the openness of the political system of China. The USA and Canada also scored 9/10 just as China in the political-legal aspect. Canada is considered to be one of the world`s safest countries as it enjoys very good political stability. The country has low crime rates and as such positions itself as a very prime location for the setting up of a film school. Canada has earned a very good image globally as a result of its focus on international peacekeeping (Cormier, Gutierrez and Magnan, 2017). The USA is one of the largest democracies in the world and with its enjoyment of a stable political environment, advanced technologies and infrastructure, the country positions itself as a great destination for investing. China scored an 8 in the legal aspects. China has different laws that regulate the practices of employment and these include: remuneration of employees together with their benefits, standards of labour, labour disputes and other relevant issues that are regulated by the 1995 PRC labour laws among other administrative regulations.

Socio-economic aspect

By nominal GDP, china is the second largest economy in the world and is actually the largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power (Breslin, 2016). The country’s economic development has however brought about serious challenges like high levels of inequality, environmental damages and rapid urbanisation. One of the reasons why the majority of global companies prefer to manufacture their products in China is that there is cheap labour available. The cheap labour in China is a great source of competitive advantage (Mathews and Tan, 2016). In the economic aspect, china scored a 9 and tied with the USA. The USA is the world`s largest economy with a GDP of over $16.760 trillion. The country’s economic system is well-developed even though it was affected adversely by the recession of 2009 (Guo, Xin and Li, 2019). China led in the social aspect scoring a 9. As of 2018`s statistics, China has a population of 1.4 billion making it the most populous country in the world (THE WORLD BANK, 2019). That creates a very large market for any sort of products (Wang, 2019). For the theme park, that would provide the required labour and even visitor populations. China also has a high literacy rate and that has led to a reduction in the levels of poverty (Macrotrends, 2019). USA which came second in this aspect scored an 8.

Technological aspect

All the countries scored equally in the technological aspect and that is because all of these countries have fully embraced technology. China had the largest online population globally in 2018 with up to 772 million users, with the country having set a vision to be a science and technology global leader (Bilings et al., 2018). The large number of internet users would make marketing easier for the film school once its operations kick off as it would easily be marketed through social media. For achievement of the vision, mass entrepreneurship and innovation programs were launched there in 2015. The programmes were aimed at spreading entrepreneurship in China in addition to helping China move to an innovation driven economy from a labour-intensive one. America is the global leader in science and technology with majority of citizens there having longstanding fascinations for technology. Technology has changed the way in which most of the things are done there with the USA being at the forefront for the adaptation and application of technologies in most of the fields (Smith et al., 2019). The UAE`s relatively young technology is observed to be tech savvy which allows most of the companies there to leverage technology. The wealth possessed by the country facilitates the purchase of new equipment. There has been growth in both the private and public investments in Canada. Additionally, the country has been made a fertile ground for entrepreneurial advancement by the country’s economic, political and social stability. Majority of the IT firms and professionals actually see Canada as one of the best countries where they can grow their businesses and advance their careers. Technology has been changing the landscape of most of the traditional industries in Canada and that has offered the people and companies endless opportunities. The internet users in Russia account for 73.4% of the population (Enikolopov, Makarin and Petrova, 2019). While Russia has been putting efforts to build a high-tech economy, the attempts have been affected by bureaucracy. The country has however, not given up on its attempts and has created several technology parks and high-tech zones. Innopolis is one of the technology zones. This is an IT-village that has its own IT-university and a special economic zone. Here, innovative projects begin their own paths.

Environmental aspect

In the environmental aspect, all the countries scored a 5 because they are all adversely affected by different environmental factors. Some of the environmental challenges that face China are loss of biodiversity, climate change, deforestation, industrial waste, and air and water pollution. Canada is also adversely affected by different environmental factors like climate change, smog, acid rain and air pollutants. The USA faces some of the world’s toughest weather conditions having sustained 218 climate and weather disasters since 1980. In 2017, there were 15 climate disasters that brought about losses that exceeded $1 billion (Abatzoglou et al., 2018). The climate in the UAE is hot and dry which tends to lower productivity. In China, pollution is an area of concern as the natural environment there has been severed by the rapid development of the economy.

Competition aspect

A report published by the ChinaWatch society considers theme parks to be the next biggest chapter in the consumption upgrade of China coming after the surge in outbound tourism flights and the rise in the numbers of cinema screens. China is projected by the Themed Entertainment Association to be home to the largest theme park facilities in the world by 2020. The rather optimistic growth projections are attributed to expanding middle income populations that have the willingness and capacity for spending discretionally. There are many theme parks in China today and it is expected that even more will be set up. These include; Hong Kong`s Ocean Park, Disneyland, the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, Songcheng Park in Hangzhou, Overseas China Town, Changzhou Dinosaur Park, Window of the World in Shenzhen, Guangzhou Changlong Holiday Resort, Beijing Happy Valley, the Shenzhen Happy Valley among many others. A report by Euromonitor, a consultancy, estimates that there are 59 theme parks in the pipeline currently in China. As such, there is plenty of competition.

Buying power of customers

The buying power of customers in all the three countries is moderate because the entrance ticket fees are set by the companies. As such, the bargaining power of customers is very low.

Challenges for setting up a theme park in China

Given the presence of other theme parks in China, it would be necessary for Harry Potter Theme Park to build up a strong image among the people in its initial years of operationthrough provision of unique services to its customers in comparison to the competitors. It is worth noting that image is more than just impression and mane and is a key element in the relations of a business with its customers. Image, in the case of Harry Potter Theme Park would represent the perception of visitors and their feelings of the levels of performance. A park`s real image would be capturing the preference and loyalty of customers. If they failed to build a positive and strong image, their chances of survival in the long term would be minimal.

Recommendations

The scope of setting up a theme park in China is quite comprehensive. It`s location in China which is politically stable, has a large population that can provide the required staff and customer numbers adequately and a strong economy helps boost up the business. The theme park also needs to invest in high quality equipment, that is, state of the art facilities and excellent guides to ensure that it stands out from the rest. Establishment of a world class park with first rate security and modern technologies, the park would be able to easily attain and also retain large numbers of visitors that would generally contribute to its well-being. The well-being of the park, translates to the well-being of the national and local economy. That is because the park will remit taxes to the national government which will be used for provision of services to the citizens and also create several job opportunities.

References

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Cormier, D., Gutierrez, L.G. and Magnan, M., (2017). Legal Regime, Investor Protection, Governance and Enforcement: A Comparison of France and Canada. Cahier de recherche, p.04.

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