Leofoo Village
Leefoo Village is a well-organized theme park at Guanxi, Hsinchu County at Taiwan. The park is quite near to Taipei as it can be reached in around 1 hour from downtown Taipei by travelling on road, thus making it the nearest major theme park to Taipei.
Within Leofoo Village Theme Park, there are four themed areas. The four themed areas are Arabian Kingdom, Wild West, South Pacific and African Safari (the first park in Asia to combine a Zoo with recreational facilities). The architecture, facilities, attractions, rides and restaurants in the theme park are designed to complement to these themes. For example, in the Arabian Kingdom, there is a restaurant called the “Aladdin Restaurant” where the waiters are dressed up in beautiful bright Arabian uniforms to serve authentic Sultan Royal delicacies. This shows the theme of the restaurants is aligned with the theme of the area. Hence, this shows that Leofoo Village Theme Park adopted the “theming” dimension.
In Leofoo Village, there are a wide range of activities, rides, facilities and programmes catered to different group of visitors. For example, animal lovers can go African Safari section to take part in the animal trails. After which, they can go to see an animal show which showcase the performance of flamingos. Then, they can proceed to the Leofoo Resort which is located right beside the theme park to rest. The resort is the first African safari resort in Asia. With these facilities and attractions, the animal lovers will be satisfied. As for other guests who wish to seek adrenaline rush, they can take thrilling roller coaster ride in other areas. All these show that the theme park adopted the “hybrid consumption” dimension where different forms of facilities, attractions, activities etc that caters to different type of people are all available in the same area.
The employees in the theme park play the roles of performers. Part of the employees’ job scope in the theme park is to put on smile of enthusiasm while interacting with customers and ensuring that they are delighted. It was a deliberate display of a happy mood. The whole idea is to entertain the guests and make them satisfied. When the guests are delighted and satisfied, they would come back to the theme park to enjoy the wonderful experience again.
The two main mascots of Leofoo Village are “Happy” (male) and “Honey” (female). Just like Disneyland, they have several mascots such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse etc. The mascot’s main purpose is to draw attention to the brand it represents and also attract and entertain people, especially the children. With the mascots around in the theme park, people will tend to take photo with them and the mascots will entertain them at the same time to make them happy. I think Mickey Mouse is the perfect example! When people see Mickey Mouse, the first thing that they will think of is Disney. This shows how brands are actually associated with mascots.
Next, visitors can shop at Happy House at Magic Mountain for T-shirts, hats, accessories, dolls, candies, snacks and other merchandise that are related to “Happy” and “Honey” mascots. This shows that the company adopted the Disney Consumer Products (DCP) business model which is to extent its brand to merchandise items. Hence, this allows the theme park to establish a branding through merchandising.
Lastly, the logo for Leofoo Village theme park is similar to the logo for Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland etc. As you can see from the three logos, the similarity is that there is kingdom-like structure in each logo. This shows that the logo for Leofoo Village theme park may be influenced by the Disneyland Park logo. As the logo for Disneyland Park is well known in the world, by having a similar logo would be easier to help create an impression and expectation for the visitors. Hence, more visitors will come as they will have the impression that Leofoo Village theme park is similar to a Disneyland Park.
All in all, the above mentioned points show that the design for Leofoo Village theme park is heavily influenced and modeled after the Disneyland Park. Even some tourists claim that this theme park is Taiwan’s Disneyland because of the striking similarity between the two theme parks.
Dinosaur Themed Restaurant
As shown in the video, after 20 years, locals and tourists are still attracted to this “Dinosaur” themed restaurant. Furthermore, they are also repeated customers to this restaurant. This shows that people are curious and wanted to seek unique and quality experience. This relates to one of the dimensions of Disneyization which is “theming”. Therefore, the restaurant with a dinosaur narrative and theme is applied.
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