Shanghai Disneyland, which is set to open next month, will be a hot topic this summer and an additional heat source for the country's theme park boom.

But making profits from the theme park business in China has proved difficult so far, and those considering investing in the sector may need to think twice. Local governments seeking ways to alleviate sluggish economic growth should be particularly cautious about it. 

There has been skepticism about the prospects for Disney's first mainland theme park, and Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin has said he intends to crush the $5.5 billion Disney resort with a rival park opened by his Dalian Wanda Group. So it's clear that activity is increasing in the theme park sector, hoping to profit from people's growing taste for amusement spending in China.

There have certainly been long queues at the Disney resort in Shanghai since the beginning of a trial run at the theme park early this month, even though many early visitors complained about the exorbitant prices of food sold in the park. It may also be a reason why Wang has such huge ambitions for his conglomerate's theme park business, despite increasingly intense competition from new entrants and existing players in the market.

In addition to Shanghai Disneyland, an $8 billion Hollywood theme park is reportedly set to open in Beijing in 2019, a joint effort between Universal Parks & Resorts and State-owned consortium Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Co. US-based amusement park behemoth Six Flags is also reportedly planning to open a new park in 2019 as part of a $4.6 billion development in Haiyan, roughly 45 miles south of downtown Shanghai. And Wanda is not the only domestic company planning to join the sector.

A recent report by the Los Angeles Times claimed that nearly 60 theme parks are set to be built by 2020 in China.

But the problem of making serious money in the country's crowded theme park market does not yet appear to have been solved. Most of the theme parks operating in China are reportedly mired in losses, partly because of the difficulty of recouping the huge amounts of money spent on the parks' fixed assets.

Investors, therefore, should keep a sober head when considering the theme park business, especially in those regions that already have theme parks. The central government should also play its part in preventing investment from flooding into the sector. This would require a genuinely forward-looking vision for the amount of land that should be approved for theme park building. But the country should be careful to avoid too much of a park bonanza.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn