The Failure of Universal Studios Korea

this video is sponsored by surfsharkvpn in the early 2000s korea seemed to be a huge expansion opportunity in the world of themed entertainment parks were planned from disney warner brothers paramount pictures and more but the largest plans of them all belong to universal their plans didn't just call for a theme park but the largest universal studios development on the planet at the time a theme park a water park city walk hotels golf courses convention facilities and more all announced before universal studios orlando even had plans for a water park this park was announced with plans of grandeur but ultimately ended as a spectacular failure seeing itself announced and then cancelled and then announced and then cancelled and then announced again or without ground ever being broken on the project for review time i'm luke and this is the story of universal studios korea south korea has always been a country eyed off by theme park giants as being the perfect place for an international theme park expansion failed plans from disney mgm and warner brothers are only the beginning as although the country only has a population of 50 million people it already has two of the world's top 20 most visited theme parks with most other parks on that list being in countries with hundreds of millions of citizens at the time of the announcement it was only logical for universal to want to expand into this market more than one in six south korean citizens visited everland the country's most popular theme park every year making it the third busiest theme park in asia after tokyo disneyland and universal studios japan universal korea was first announced on the 22nd of may 2007 by universal parks and resorts as well as uskor the korean-based company set up to construct and operate the theme park universal stated they wanted to be part of the korean wave with the recent strong economic growth of the country and the dense and affluent population near the theme parks planned location making it the ideal place for their next park the project was set to open in 2012 cost around 3.1 billion us dollars attract 15 million visitors a year and create over 60 000 new jobs this incredible amount of money would have created a resort that would have dwarfed even universal orlando and was said to be even larger than other plans universal had in the works at the same time including universal studios dubai and universal studios beijing 2007 is right around the time we see big international companies try to break into the asian theme park scene even though disney tried and failed with hong kong disneyland a couple of years earlier there was still plenty of money on the table for other companies to try and take the asia pacific region was the fastest growing segment of the amusement park industry in the world and accounted for nearly half of the global 23.5 billion dollar market with most of that money going to theme parks owned by companies based in their own country the park was set to be located in hwasong where constructed bridges would have made it around a 35 minute drive from seoul's incheon airport 2007 wasn't the best time to announce a brand new 3.2 billion dollar theme park project though with the global financial crisis right around the corner things in regards to the project went quiet for a good few years however in 2010 uskor came out to say that the park was still happening and was now planned to open in 2014 hyping up the park again now saying it was bigger than all of the other universal studios parks around the world combined universal and other theme parks around the world have finally started to reopen but staying safe while traveling isn't something we've had to think about for a while that's why we're grateful to be sponsored this week by surf shark a vpn company that makes it easy to stay safe online when traveling you connect to a ton of unprotected public wi-fi hotspots in places such as theme parks and hotels thankfully surf shark protects you from these dangers by encrypting all data sent between your device and the internet helping to secure your personal information of course a vpn is also beneficial at home allowing you access to content from countries all around the world on libraries such as netflix when writing these episodes i love to listen to music in the background and surfshark allows me to access all of the tokyo disneyland music only available on japanese spotify to try out surf shark for yourself on a risk-free 30-day trial be sure to use our code time at the link in the description to get 83 off plus an extra three months for free thanks to surfshark for sponsoring this week's episode 2012 would see huge changes for universal studios with comcast gaining control of the entire company including the parks and resorts when they paid 13.75 billion dollars to general electric for controlling share in nbc universal comcast showed their passion and interest in the theme park sector of the company immediately by buying back the 50 stake in universal orlando owned by the blackstone group and immediately began on an aggressive expansion plan not just bringing about the one new attraction a year we now know for the us-based universal resorts but also announcing plans for universal parks in moscow and specifically noted that they were still planning a korean universal resort noting that the park was now set to open in 2016. the universal studios korea park went through several design changes over the years but some of the attractions and lands stayed constant throughout the park was said to include nine different themed lands all centred around a lagoon in a similar layout to islands of adventure at the universal orlando resort whilst a lot of the concept art released for this project is specifically vague like we often see some major attractions can be deciphered from the art and interviews around the park entering through the classic universal archway and entrance street taking a left would have put you into a new york themed land complete with a statue of liberty a large dark ride building rumored to be home to an attraction like spider-man as well as a roller coaster reminiscent of the incredible hulk jutting out into the central lagoon the next major deciberable land is jurassic park complete with a discovery center and jurassic park the ride another similarity to islands of adventure exiting the classic jurassic park gates would have been the ever-present water world stunt show arguably the best theme park attraction based on the lowest reviewed film one of the other major lands in the park would have been a mix of ideas from around the world including a revenge of the mummy attraction contained within an egyptian temple similar to universal studios singapore as well as the enchanted oak tavern restaurant making this almost a little land of legends also in this section would have been a dueling coaster though with how many issues universal would ultimately have with battle star galactica at universal studios singapore i doubt this would have ever actually been built the final land looks to be something similar to universal wonderland at universal studios japan essentially a dumping ground for the children's related ips in the park home to some indoor attractions character meet and greets and entertainment offerings the resort would have been much larger than just the park though with phase one of the construction plans also including a large city walk complex connected to a multi-storey car park within city walk would have been the nba experience restaurants shops and curiously marvel mania a copy of the failed restaurant concept from universal studios hollywood elsewhere on property was a hotel similarly themed to the hard rock hotel in orlando and a venice themed hotel complete with canals last and well probably least in the universal resort area would have also been the world's most underwhelming looking water park red tape and a lack of government approval would ultimately see the project cancelled in july of 2014 with tom williams the head of universal parks and resorts chalking it up to unsolved problems over real estate and properties this seemed to be the end for the project for about a year where in 2015 it was again announced that a universal studios park was coming to korea this time slated to open in 2020. strangely though this announcement wasn't made by universal themselves and was instead announced by a korean water resource management company k water a few months later when asked about the project universal themselves replied that whilst they were looking into the feasibility of a new project in korea they had no involvement in the park announced by k water meaning that this universal studios career was announced without consulting universal studios korean media and developers alike are known to announce huge name theme park openings with flashy announcement ceremonies that ultimately lead to nothing with projects from other companies such as disney paramount mgm and hello kitty all seeing these big grandiose announcements before reaching agreements with the companies who owned the brands k water announced in 2016 that they planned to sign an agreement with universal later in the year with the entire resort area now including condominiums across a 4.2 square kilometer plot the consortium of companies who combined to work on the project struggled to attract investors though and with the park not being sufficiently funded it was once again officially cancelled in early 2017 with k water and uskor failing to sign contracts on the finalized construction plans theme park analysis pointed out how difficult the government was in regards to this theme park development noting around the world how many governments gave full support to global theme parks which would then go on to form a major part of those countries and cities tourism infrastructure the land planned for universal studios korea wouldn't stay untalked about though and in 2018 new plans were once again announced for the project however this third version of plans for the land would instead feature a brand new original theme park focused on k-pop music as well as local features such as the shiwa lake and dinosaur fossil site but with everything happening in the world over the last year it looks like these new universal less plans will go the same way as the universal field plans leaving korea with the same two theme parks universal wanted to take the crown from over 14 years ago universal in the late 2000s and early 2010s was all about international expansion but almost all of those plans ultimately fell through with universal studios beijing being the only one that has seen itself built set to open later this year in the last few years universal has been spending countless dollars on expanding their existing resorts i feel it's just a matter of time until more international expansion plans are announced for the brand but what do you think if you could build a universal park somewhere in the world where would it be let us know in the description below from the home of all things theme parks i'm luke for review time a huge thanks goes to surfshark for sponsoring this week's video be sure to check out our special offer down below we hope you enjoyed this week's episode if so be sure to like and subscribe and also tune in to our podcast review times theme park cast available on your podcasting platform of choice [Music] you

Channel: ReviewTyme

Views: 44,886

Keywords: reviewtyme, review, tyme, time, reviewtime, universal studios, universal, studios, universal studios korea, korean theme parks, cancelled theme parks, everland

Id: uxyWgt5vGhk

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021