Hong Kong trampoline park to serve as 'springboard to the Asian market'
Imagine jumping off a huge trampoline and slam-dunking a basketball into a sky-high hoop. That is the kind of fun that Hong Kong's first trampoline park will offer when it opens this summer.
Imagine jumping off a huge trampoline and slam-dunking a basketball into a sky-high hoop. That is the kind of fun that Hong Kong's first trampoline park will offer when it opens this summer.
Covering 18,000 sq ft on the third floor of a building in Java Road, North Point, the Ryze park will be made up of 50 interconnecting trampolines.
Visitors will be able to play dodgeball and basketball or simply thrown themselves into soft-foam pits while bouncing, all for about the price of a film ticket.
"Trampoline parks appeal to a broad age range. Young children and adults can have fun jumping, especially when jumping together," said Case Lawrence, an American businessman who is co-founding Ryze after similar ventures in the United States.
And the entrepreneurs behind the park say that besides being fun, trampolining can also help with weight loss.
"You burn 1,000 calories an hour jumping on trampolines, more than any other activity," Lawrence said.
Activities will also include fitness classes for adults.
Lawrence's business partner, Erik Haugen, lived in Hong Kong for several years before moving back to the US. He has three children aged 11, 15 and 19, all of whom love trampoline parks.
"Sometimes it's a challenge to pull them away from video games to exercise," he said.
And the company's founders hope that success in Hong Kong will - literally - act as a springboard to other Asian markets.
"We consider Hong Kong to be the best market in Asia and therefore, the best laboratory," Lawrence said.
"If the trampoline park concept is successful in Hong Kong then it will be successful in other Asian markets."
The company has yet to announce the opening date.
