An educational institution in Shanghai has responded to high numbers of under-development theme parks in China by creating the country’s first university course based on the theme park industry.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University has taken notice of the surge in theme park development across China, with the prestigious educational institute which first opened in 1896 introducing the curriculum specialising specifically in theme park management.

"China is the most exciting spot on the planet — a place where more than 60 theme parks are in the planning and construction stages all over the country,” said Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services (ITPS), who was keynote speaker at the inauguration of the new theme park institute. “Not since the 1980s have we seen such proliferation of theme parks in one country.”

Speigel added that the Shanghai Jiao Tong University should be commended for its forward thinking in establishing the country’s first theme park institute and curriculum, and said he believed such programmes will have a “profound and positive effect on China’s exploding theme park industry”.