Chinese entertainment venture plans $400 million Gold Coast theme park

A Chinese entertainment company has unveiled plans to develop a $400 million cultural theme park on the Gold Coast.

The board of the SongCheng Performing Arts Development Company, which operates six theme parks in China, has approved its local arm’s plans to build the ‘The Australia Legendary Kingdom’ project at Nerang on the Gold Coast, a filing to the stock exchange shows.

SongCheng has also gained Foreign Investment Review Board approval for the project, according to China’s Securities Journal.

Plans for the theme park show an ‘Australian Legend’ performance stage and culturally orientated precincts including an Australian Aboriginal Cultural Village, Wild Australia and Mysterious Orient.

The company’s filing advised “the project will also offer a mixture of Australian culture and oriental culture, which will meet diversified tourist demand from different age groups.”

The Gold Coast plan will be the first overseas project, for SongCheng, which entered the list of the world’s 10 largest theme park operators in the TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index  in 2015.

Based in Hangzhou, SongCheng brands itself as the biggest stage performance operator in China with 30 stages and 65,000 seats. Its stage performances are held in some of China’s most famous tourist cities, such as Hangzhou, Sanya, Lijiang and Jiuzhaigou.

The company is controlled by China’s most successful theme park entrepreneur, Huang Qiaoling, who has a background in literature studies and once undertook acedamic research into one of China’s four great classical novels, ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’.

As is often the case when announcements of new theme parks are made on the Gold Coast, local media, politicians and tourism executives are enthusiastic about the proposal.

However, it will have to surmount planning and environmental controls to develop the site.

According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, Australian Legendary Kingdom would be built on a flood-prone land between the Nerang River and Nerang train station. The 40.45-hectare land at Lakeview Drive is close to Metricon Stadium.

Gold Coast Tourism Chief Executive Martin Winter explained “this particular company is very serious.

"They're a very big player in the market - they've got a great track record of delivering fabulous theme parks.

"It definitely will cater to Chinese tourists, but there's no business model that can be run on that alone, so it will be equally attractive to Australians."

The Gold Coast attracts 340,000 Chinese visitors a year and there are four Chinese airlines that fly direct to South East Queensland.

Next year a fifth airline, Air China, will begin direct flights from Beijing to Brisbane.

The proposal would appear to leapfrog the Dalian Wanda Group’s plan to develop or acquire a theme park on the Gold Coast. 

Images: SongCheng's Hangzhou attraction.

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