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The purpose of this paper is to review the contribution made by this theme issue to the question: how far do theme parks and attractions contribute to social and economic sustainability of destinations?

The paper reviews some of the key contributions emerging from this theme issue.

Theme parks and attractions will continue growing globally. There seem to be many internal and external reasons that may lead to success and failure of theme parks and attractions. It is evident that theme parks and attractions contribute greatly to sustainability of destinations in many areas including investments in infrastructure, job creation, tax revenues, tourism revenues, donations, and community support. However, it is also evident that failure of a theme park may result in a major decline or failure of a destination.

It also emerges that more research is needed into development and management of theme parks and attractions globally.

There are many stakeholders in developing theme parks and attractions in destinations. It is essential to ensure active participation, coordination, and support from all stakeholders to ensure that theme parks and attractions deliver intended outcomes. Careful and long‐term planning and coordination are necessary to ensure that theme parks and attractions created and managed well so that they contribute to sustainability of destinations.

This current theme issue is perhaps one of the first journal issues that specifically focus on theme parks and attractions and their impact on destinations. This final paper highlights emerging conclusions from this theme and offers practical and theoretical implications to the theme park industry.

Urban parks play a key role in recreational activities, public health, and ecosystem services in urban areas. Using GIS and Fragstats, this study investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban parks in Xi'an, China from 1949 to 2015 and the corresponding driving forces. The results show that the number and area of parks in Xi'an increased constantly during this period, especially from 2000 to 2015. Up to 2015, small green spaces, usually adjacent to streets, occupied the largest proportion among all types of parks. Archaeological parks were the largest in total area, but wetland parks were leading in average size of a single park. The density of parks was negatively correlated with their distance to the Clock Tower at the center of Xi'an. The dynamics of urban parks in highly urbanized areas were significantly different from that of their counterparts in suburban areas. Driving forces such as urban planning, urbanization and green space policies, and milestone events in the city's development jointly had a great effect on the distribution of parks in Xi'an. The research outcomes will support the upcoming Green Space Planning of Xi'an and benefit the pursuit of sustainability and human wellbeing.

A policy of zero prices for entry to publicly provided parks and reserves treats people equally, but does not result in equitable outcomes. Entry to New Zealand parks and reserves is free, but usage of these areas is only weakly influenced by zero entry price. Travel costs and incomes are major determinants of usage of natural areas. All citizens of a country may receive benefits from the existence of parks and reserves, and the option to visit those areas. But visitors receive disproportionately more benefits than do non‐visitors, and can legitimately be asked to meet a greater share of the costs of these areas. Equity arguments do not provide a convincing basis for continuing with zero prices to users. Recent legislation recognises this argument and will push regional governments to identify beneficiaries of Regional Parks, and levy charges which ensure users meet a greater share of the costs of Regional Parks. Given the weakness of the equity case, alternative explanation must be sought for continued zero entry prices.

The density and pattern of urban parks, traffic conditions are the main factors affecting urban park accessibility. To clarify the influence of traffic mode and urban road network on urban park accessibility, we examine downtown area of Nanjing, China, and based on GIS network analysis, analyze urban park accessibility under different traffic modes in the current year (2017) and the Nanjing master planning target year (2030). The results shows: Using automobiles takes the shortest time to get to urban parks in 2017 and 2030 (if the problem of parking is ignored). Comparing the results of 2030 and 2017, by when the ground transportation network in the study area will be further improved, urban park accessibility was improved by a small margin under walking and automobile traffic modes, however, the density of rail traits increased fastest, urban park accessibility is improved most under this mode of transportation, rail transit route development becomes the dominant factor in improving park accessibility in downtown area of Nanjing. To a certain extent, this study reveals the leading factors of improving the accessibility of urban parks on the premise that the system of urban parks tends to be stable, and provides a reference for improving urban park accessibility.

The planning and construction of innovative university science and technology parks are facilitated on the basis of urban planning reconstruction, and the sustainable development of our country is the main basis for the implementation of the innovation plan and future design of university science and technology parks. However, some aspects of the transformation of a city have impeded the planning and development of university science parks. In order to solve this problem, in this study, the overall planning and successful establishment of science and technology parks in well-known universities were analyzed; and “Cambridge Future” was selected as the practical example and basis for the construction of innovative university science and technology parks; and then CATIC Science City in Nanjing was used as the object of empirical analysis. In addition, the construction of these parks in universities was evaluated through the case analysis and the excellent design strategies and results, and the planning model and construction concept of these parks were proposed after the contradiction between the transition stage of cities and the design of university science parks was resolved.

The purpose of the chapter is to study peculiarities of formation of “green economy” in Russia and to substantiate the perspectives of its development by technological parks. The “green economy” is just appearing in Russia, as its volume is 4% of GDP as of now, with a downward trend for the recent 10 years. Favorable conditions for the formation of “green economy” are created in technological parks due to the attraction of the necessary volume of investments and increased state regulation. Technological park ‘Sinarsky’, West-Siberian innovational center (Tyumen technological park), and technological park of high-tech of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug show “green” initiatives. However, their share in the total structure of technological parks of Russia is only 2%. The volume of “green” investments in technological parks of Russia constitutes RUB 0.58 billion, and the volume of “green” production – RUB 9.153 billion, with 3,980 “green” jobs. The developed authors’ concept and the offered practical recommendations allow for the deeper study of the potential of technological parks in the context of the “green economy” in Russia. According to the forecast, their implementation will allow ensuring achievement of the share of “green” technological parks in their structure at the level of 30%, thus increasing the volume of “green” investments in Russia’s technological parks to RUB 7.888 billion: the volume of “green” production to RUB 124.48 billion, and the number of “green” jobs to 54,128. “Green” development of technological parks will allow increasing the volume of “green” economy in Russia by 3.2% until 2025.

Late spring, early summer 2020, theme parks across the World started to publish their plans for reopening. In this regard, this chapter ventures into critical questions like what did theme parks learn from the first ‘reopening’? What worked and what has changed? Have or will visitors return? Drafted as an exploratory paper this chapter brings forth the strategies adopted by the theme parks in the quest to return to the normal.

Purpose – This chapter will examine the role of Central Park in setting in motion certain practices related to park development as well as revolutionizing park financing in the mid-nineteenth century and again in modern times. It will examine the shift from public financing of parks to the development of public–private partnerships to design, build, fund, and administer urban parks.

Design/methodology/approach – The author takes an historical approach to put contemporary park debates vis-à-vis funding and administration in context. Archival materials are used to examine park financing models all over the country.

Findings – Central Park still continues to revolutionize urban park financing. Cities are cutting back on funding for public parks; as a result, there is a greater reliance on private financing options. Not all parks are in a position to rely heavily on private financing, and this raises questions about access to open space in cities.

Originality/value – The chapter raises questions about equity in the shift toward the private financing of urban parks. It extends the environmental justice discourse to examine open space issues. It examines long-term historical trends in helping the reader understand the contemporary state of urban park financing.

This study aimed to explore the spatial accessibility dynamics of urban parks and their driving forces from 1901 to 2010 in terms of the dynamic relationships between spatial morphology and road networks, taking Nanjing City as an example.

This study mapped and examined the spatiotemporal distribution of urban parks and road networks in four time points at Nanjing: the 1910s, 1930s, 1960s and 2010s, using the analysis methodology of spatial design network analysis, kernel density estimation and buffer analysis. Two approaches of spatial overlaying and data analysis were adopted to investigate the accessibility dynamics. The spatial overlaying compared the parks' layout and the road networks' core, subcore and noncore accessible areas; the data analysis clarified the average data on the city-wide and local scales of the road networks within the park buffer zone.

The analysis of the changing relationships between urban parks and the spatial morphology of road networks showed that the accessibility of urban parks has generally improved. This was influenced by six main factors: planning implementation, political policies, natural resources, historical heritage and cultural and economic levels.

The results provide a reference for achieving spatial equity, improving urban park accessibility and supporting sustainable urban park planning.

An increasing number of studies have explored the spatial accessibility of urban parks through the relationships between their spatial distribution and road networks. However, few studies have investigated the dynamic changes in accessibility over time. Discussing parks' accessibility over relatively long-time scales has practical, innovative and theoretical values; because it can reveal correlational laws and internal influences not apparent in short term and provide reference and implications for parks' spatial equity.