How a Canadian company is driving water park development in China

China’s shifting consumer demographics and government support of the country’s middle class have seen a rise in recreational spending, and subsequent development of recreation facilities to meet the growing demand. One sector witnessing dramatic growth in China is the water park industry, and this article looks at several drivers behind that trend.

Consumer growth in China

Over the past couple of decades China has evolved to a new economy with advanced manufacturing technology and growth in financial and service sectors, including tourism.  Against this backdrop, the country has called for further focus on the development of the middle class and a coordinated initiative to expand internal consumption.

Money for fun

Spending on recreational activities – including travel, dining out, sports and gaming – is much lower in China than in other countries. It is anticipated that as incomes rise and the middle class balloons, recreation and tourism will see the biggest growth.

With this growth in tourism and recreation, large property developers have been driving to diversify their activities and expand operations beyond the traditional commercial and residential projects into the tourism and leisure sector. With a lower barrier to entry than traditional amusement or theme parks, water parks are proving to be a popular choice among developers. The past decade or so saw the first wave of Chinese water parks as the industry “got its feet wet” in the country.

Chinese water parks come of age

These days, an eager Chinese consumer audience is demanding more unique and dynamic experiences for their destination dollars. As a result, developers are demanding more from the industry: they need customized, high-performance attractions, manufactured to the highest quality standards in the industry.

ProSlide® RideHOUSE® WaterKINGDOM™ at the Happy Magic Water Cube in Beijing, China

Calling in the leader

Enter ProSlide. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, ProSlide is the global leader in water slide manufacturing and water park planning and development, and provides water park design for new and expanding indoor and outdoor water parks around the world. With the reputation as the worldwide industry leader, ProSlide started to receive more and more requests from a Chinese market hungry for superior performance, relentless quality, and award-winning innovation. Why ProSlide, a Canadian company?

Who is ProSlide?

When former Canadian National Team ski racer Rick Hunter founded ProSlide in 1986 he partnered with one of Canada’s largest sailboat manufacturers and introduced the highest-quality fiberglass – built to withstand harsh marine conditions – to the water park industry. And so decades of innovation led to inventingiconic rides that have since taken over the industry and driven the technology revolution.

For many Chinese developers, it comes down to this:

• ProSlide is the only global water ride manufacturer with the product breadth and depth, experience and proven ability to introduce thrilling and reliable new innovations year after year.
• ProSlide pioneered every major water ride innovation in the industry, and has won more Best Water Ride awards than all other water slide manufacturers combined. They are the only company in the world to win the industry’s highest honor – the IAAPA Impact Award – more than once. They’ve won it three times!
• ProSlide is the only global water ride manufacturer single-sourced by the biggest and best amusement brands in the world. Their rides power parks built by Disney, Universal, Six Flags, Great Wolf Lodge, Wet ’n’ Wild, Lotte World and many more, with installations in more than 50 countries worldwide.

A transforming market

ProSlide first entered the Chinese market in the late 1990s. Seeing rapid growth and the clear trend toward tourism and leisure, ProSlide established a permanent presence in China with an office in Shanghai to support the ongoing opportunities in the region, and to drive the next wave of water park and water theme park development in Asia.

In just the past seven years ProSlide has worked with leading Chinese organizations such as OCT, Wanda, Evergrande, Fosun, and Chimelong, building the best parks across China, including:

• Happy Magic Beijing Water Cube
• OCT Playa Maya best parks in Tianjin, Shanghai, Yunnan, Wuhanand Chongqing
• Wanda projects in Hefei and Wuxi
• The most popular rides at Chimelong– the BehemothBOWL™ 60 and TORNADO® 60
• The newest Atlantis Resort in Sanya, Hainan
• The Coastal Water Park destination on Ocean Flower Island located inHainan, China

Rendering of the new Atlantis Resort in Sanya, China.
Opening December 2017

What’s next for China’s water park industry?

As demographics continue to shift and more and more emphasis is being placed on fun and recreation, ProSlide is working very closely with their Chinese clients, helping them usher in the next phase of water parks and water theme parks in Asia. Together they are transforming dreams into reality and creating some of the highest-performing, smoothest-running parks on the planet.

 IGNIS mobile display

IGNIS Innovation Inc. (IGNIS) is a Canadian display technology company based in the heart of Canada’s technology triangle: Waterloo Ontario. Our company is focused on improving the quality of active matrix organic LED (AMOLED) displays. We do this by using patented technologies to compensate for AMOLED displays’ inherent weaknesses. Over the years the flat panel display industry evolved from economies such as Taiwan and South Korea to now include the Chinese mainland. Today, China is a dominant force in the flat panel industry when it comes to LCD displays. The next generation displays are now becoming thinner and more complex using AMOLED technology. Mainland-based companies are working hard to become a major player in this sector, but lag behind the technological know-how of their counterparts inSouth Korea and Japan.

Over the past five years, IGNIS, the only independent company with the ability to help advance the mainland-based AMOLED display makers so that they can overtake the others, has concentrated our efforts to build relationships with many Chinese display and integrated chip companies. These companies are powerhouses such as CEC Panda, BOE Technology Group, Tianma and TCL, just to name a few. IGNIS offers these partners a patented approach to improve display quality, increase output and extend the useful life of the display to meet today’s requirements. This is accomplished through both a licensing of technology, and a transfer of the knowledge and know-how. This is why LG Display of South Korea licensed our technology in 2016.

IGNIS tablet display

What IGNIS offers these companies is to collaborate with their internal engineering teams and guide them to design, build and produce top quality panels. Whether it is for television, computer, automotive, notebook, tablet or mobile displays, our experience and intellectual property focus on the basics of what the best design is given the current materials and production capabilities used by the customer. No other company in the world is independent and able to provide such services.

Our competition is limited to a few select engineers who have worked forcompanies in countries and regions such as South Korea, Japan andTaiwan that invested heavily in AMOLED and these individuals have a fraction of IGNIS collective knowledge and experience. Be it basic optical compensation for initial Mura correction or lifetime compensation known as Tn, IGNIS has the solution.

As a proud Canadian company, IGNIS is pleased to be a part of this special Canadian edition celebrating 150 years for Canada. By strengthening Canada’s relationship with China, the opportunity to collaborate more fully on advancing technology through the licensing and transfer of knowledge will benefit both countries economically.

When Canada and China first established formal diplomatic ties in 1970, China had yet to begin its program of economic reforms which would eventually turn the country into an economic powerhouse.

At the time, the Western world was still reluctant and remote towards China. The building of the relationship between the two countries signaled willingness on the part of Canada to engage China and create mutual prosperity between the two countries.

From that point on, Chinese nationals slowly started to arrive in Canada and by the 1980s, Chinese businesses had begun to establish offices in Canada.

“I saw the changes that Toronto went through as Chinese immigrants arrived in Canada,” recalls Jimmy K. Sun, Founder and Senior Partner of Toronto-based law firm Sun & Partners. “Our firm essentially grew inline with this wave of Chinese settlers to Canada.”

Jimmy K. Sun, Senior Partner, Sun & Partners.

Derek Lee, Sun & Partners Councel and former Member of Canada’s Parliament for 23 years.

Sun was also appointed by the Bank of China, Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of East Asia and First Commercial Bank of Canada as an approved lawyer for commercial mortgage and lending advice.

Today, real estate and the natural resource sector represent the firm’s core practice areas.

“In addition to our business clients, we are also legal counsel to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto and act as a special advisor on economic development to the city of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province,” says Sun. “I encourage Chinese investors to consider opportunities in Canada as it is a safe place in which to invest and has a highly-respected legal system.”

Fluent in Cantonese, Shanghai dialect, Mandarin and English, Sun understands the importance of recognizing that Chinese business customs are essential to successful cross-border business transactions.

As a specialist in corrugated plastic pipe manufacturing equipment for over 40years, family-owned Corma is building on its international reputation.

Last year Corma was presented with the Leadership Award of Excellence at the 2016 Ontario Export Awards and the company is today recognized as a leading producer of machinery and die tooling equipment for the corrugated plastic pipe manufacturing industry.

“We were a very small start-up when we began in 1973,” recalls Manfred Lupke, Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and an inductee into the Plastics Academy Hall of Fame.

“Our company consisted of myself – a mechanical engineer, a colleague of mine and my wife who was responsible for the entire office.”

Today, the company employs over 250 people and has delivered over 1,300 machines to more than 100 countries. With headquarters in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Corma has regional sales and services offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America and a manufacturing facility in China.

Manfred Lupke, President & CEO – Induction into the Plastics Hall of Fame

A CORMA Service Technician next to a 1400mm ID PP pipe with patented double layer in-line coupling produced on Corma’s 6030 corrugator.

In recognition of the company’s technical innovations, Corma was awarded the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Award for Innovation in Production or Technological Advancement last year.

By delivering a patented range of pipe manufacturing machinery, dies and die tooling equipment, downstream equipment for manufacturing PVC pipes and polyethylene  and polypropylene  plastic tubing, Corma is winning new customers.

“We are driven to innovate, deliver quality products and be a reliable partner for our existing and future customers,” says Lupke. “We have over 1,000 international patents and many more in various stages, and from a manufacturing perspective, China remains a very important part of our value chain. We are proud to have been one of the earlier Canadian companies to visit the country and we are more than happy with the close relationship we enjoy with our friends in China.”