Trends in Parent-Child Leisure Products Development
1. Products become more specialized and refined
The characteristics of parent-child activities determine that the form and content features of parent-child leisure products are greatly related to the child's age and cognitive level. Different stages of growth require parent-child leisure products that cater to different dimensional needs, which is different from most mass tourism products with stronger universality. Therefore, future parent-child leisure products will evolve from the current rough development towards a more specialized and refined direction.
Children aged 18 months to 3 years are in the cognitive stage, having just learned to walk and being in the budding period of thought. They need more perception of the outside world to lay the foundation for their intellectual development, and the psychological development at this stage will determine the entire process of the child's psychological evolution. Parent-child products for this stage will also have the highest safety requirements.
Children aged 3 to 6 years are in the curiosity stage, enjoying exploring the unknown world. Various novelties and things that are untouchable in the city are very important for them to experience the unknown world. Generally, children of this age group can only concentrate for 15 minutes, so setting up play spaces and activities needs to continuously provide excitement, with a variety of options and smaller quantities.
Children aged 6 to 12 years are in the interest stage, with a wide range of interests, particularly in natural ecosystems and hands-on activities. For children of this age group, on the basis of ensuring safety, some challenging games can be moderately increased. It is also suitable to conduct small class teaching or group activities to cultivate communication and collaboration skills among children.
Children aged 12 to 16 years are in the knowledge-seeking stage, having generally developed their own interests and a certain level of independence. They need products that are more sports-oriented, challenging, adventurous, skillful, and knowledgeable, so that they can grow and gain in ability with each parent-child vacation.
2. Strong self-generated profitability
The increasingly saturated domestic large-scale theme park market, coupled with the unpredictable downward trend in the real estate market, will gradually reveal the limitations of the high-profile, real estate-subsidized approach. Therefore, future parent-child leisure products will place increasing emphasis on their own operational profitability and cash flow balance. In summary, it can be described as: making the heavy lighter, the light heavier, small but comprehensive, and small but beautiful.
The investment intensity of future parent-child leisure products will be significantly reduced, to the range of tens of millions to hundreds of millions, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than the current large-scale cultural and tourism complex projects that often cost tens of billions, known as "making the heavy lighter." Meanwhile, activities, education, and services will be increasingly valued and enriched, using these soft products to extend the experience time, promote secondary consumption, and even achieve long-term customer loyalty, which is "making the light heavier."
What does "small but comprehensive" mean? Although the investment amount is significantly reduced, the business formats still cover a wide range of different parent-child needs, forming a small closed loop. For example, some parent-child resorts may include entertainment, sports, education, dining, shopping, performances, night tours, and accommodation, all of which are comprehensive and not inferior to large-scale cultural and tourism complexes.
"Small but beautiful" refers to design and quality. Design is the soul of all cultural and tourism products. For parent-child products, it is not only about focusing on innovation and aesthetics, but also about considering the needs of various educational courses for collaborative customized design. The reduction in investment intensity does not mean producing inferior quality; on the contrary, all young families have high quality pursuits for what they provide to their children. Therefore, parent-child leisure products need to balance quality and cost-effectiveness in the context of an economic downturn.
How can these goals be achieved while significantly reducing investment intensity? I believe that in addition to controlling costs through long-term industry accumulation and the development of core products, a reasonable product system design and practical investment research calculations are also crucial for the overall optimization of business formats and the successful profitability of projects.
3. Convenient transportation, high frequency, and high stickiness
With the popularization of self-driving, parent-child leisure will show a "combination of long and short" pattern. That is, during long holidays and winter and summer vacations, parents will take their children to well-known tourist destinations for parent-child resorts. However, a higher frequency will occur on weekends when parents take their children on outings, and short-term, short-distance, high-frequency parent-child leisure projects in nearby cities will become hot spots.
To achieve high stickiness, using marketing strategies such as annual passes and package deals is a standard approach, but more crucial is the ever-changing content of products and systematic outdoor courses that integrate education with entertainment, allowing children to continuously gain new experiences. This way, parents will have the motivation to bring their children multiple times. Therefore, parent-child leisure evolves from parent-child travel, but there are distinctions in many aspects.
4. ”Parent-Child Plus" opens up endless possibilities
Parent-child leisure is not a single product; "Parent-Child Plus" will spawn infinite possibilities. Parent-child plus vacation, parent-child plus rural, parent-child plus parks, parent-child plus communities, and so on. For example, in the context of rural revitalization, increasing the value of agricultural products alone can be very slow and difficult, while parent-child leisure projects can serve as a link for rural regeneration and the shared prosperity of urban and rural areas. As urban construction shifts from an era of growth to one of stock, combining parent-child leisure projects with municipal parks and urban renewal projects will stimulate the vitality and value of urban communities.
