The international investment in theme parks: Spatial distribution and decision-making mechanism, an empirical study for China

Along with the globalization of foreign direct investment (FDI), tourism, as the earliest and largest international industry, draws a growing investor attention. Admittedly, the investment destination choice on the macro national level has been studied widely, while, micro place decision making has been mostly neglected. This paper aims to fill this gap by highlighting the micro location choice of international investment, based on the international investment in theme parks (IITP) in China. In order to understand foreign tourism investment behavior in China, the paper analyzed IITP by spatial pattern and decision-making mechanism since 1990s. The results not only reveal the background and status of IITP in China, which is the biggest tourism market, but, more fundamentally, also benefit investors and local stakeholders in understanding the decision-making mechanism for micro place choice of IITPs. In addition, the paper provides clear understanding of the roles played by economic factors, based on the Hierarchical Analysis on Decision-making Mechanism, which offers an innovative view to study IITP. Under identical national environments, provincial-level factors are more important to attract international tourism investment than city-level ones.