Growing pains in Hong Kong
Park attendance averaging 10,000 per day
By PATRICK FRATER
The Hong Kong Disneyland theme park that opened in September has welcomed significantly fewer visitors than are needed to meet local expectations. But Disney drew comfort from the many "milestones" the operation has passed.
A Disney statement issued from Burbank, Calif., on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday said the park, the group's first in China, had welcomed "over a million visitors" in a hundred days.
That suggests an average of 10,000 visitors per day and compares with the 15,340 a day needed to meet the 5.6 million first year total expected by the Hong Kong government.
Disney parks and resorts chairman Jay Rasulo said in the statement: "Attendance is ramping up well, which continues to give us confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term attendance goals."
Rasulo said the park is doing well in terms of visitor-satisfaction metrics and merchandise sales, which have run to 3.3 million items.
"Hotels have soft openings all the time. We are in a soft opening phase," said Alana Goss, the park's Asia-Pacific head of communications. "Our prospects are very good."
Rasulo points to a varied mix of visitors as proof of the park's broad appeal in the region. Hong Kong residents make up 49% of visitors, mainland China guests 26% and visitors from other countries 25%.
Disney has recently come under growing pressure in Hong Kong to provide performance data for the park. With majority ownership in the hands of the Hong Kong government, questions have been asked in the Hong Kong legislature, and local newspapers conducted their own surveys that produced unflattering results. But until this statement, all investigations met with the response that admissions figures were "commercially sensitive."
The figures will be welcomed by Hong Kong's freedom of information campaigners, but other critics of the park note that the million spectator figure includes the "pre-opening phase" before the Sept. 12 launch, when tickets were heavily discounted or given away for free.
In recent weeks, the park operators have introduced discounts for Hong Kong residents in order to attract more locals.
Rasulo slammed the Hong Kong media's attempts to survey visitor numbers.
"Average daily attendance calculations by the media, especially over a short period of time, have resulted in misleading and faulty conclusions and paint an oversimplified picture that doesn't reflect either performance or guest enjoyment of the Disney entertainment experience. One must always remember in the tourism industry to take seasonality and fluctuation during peak and nonpeak times into account, which makes simple daily averages meaningless."
Hong Kong Disneyland says it is already expanding and enhancing the park experience beyond the top attractions, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Space Mountain and the Jungle River Cruise. Next summer it will add Autopia, featuring battery-powered vehicles traveling a whimsical highway
Park attendance averaging 10,000 per day
By PATRICK FRATER
The Hong Kong Disneyland theme park that opened in September has welcomed significantly fewer visitors than are needed to meet local expectations. But Disney drew comfort from the many "milestones" the operation has passed.
A Disney statement issued from Burbank, Calif., on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday said the park, the group's first in China, had welcomed "over a million visitors" in a hundred days.
That suggests an average of 10,000 visitors per day and compares with the 15,340 a day needed to meet the 5.6 million first year total expected by the Hong Kong government.
Disney parks and resorts chairman Jay Rasulo said in the statement: "Attendance is ramping up well, which continues to give us confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term attendance goals."
Rasulo said the park is doing well in terms of visitor-satisfaction metrics and merchandise sales, which have run to 3.3 million items.
"Hotels have soft openings all the time. We are in a soft opening phase," said Alana Goss, the park's Asia-Pacific head of communications. "Our prospects are very good."
Rasulo points to a varied mix of visitors as proof of the park's broad appeal in the region. Hong Kong residents make up 49% of visitors, mainland China guests 26% and visitors from other countries 25%.
Disney has recently come under growing pressure in Hong Kong to provide performance data for the park. With majority ownership in the hands of the Hong Kong government, questions have been asked in the Hong Kong legislature, and local newspapers conducted their own surveys that produced unflattering results. But until this statement, all investigations met with the response that admissions figures were "commercially sensitive."
The figures will be welcomed by Hong Kong's freedom of information campaigners, but other critics of the park note that the million spectator figure includes the "pre-opening phase" before the Sept. 12 launch, when tickets were heavily discounted or given away for free.
In recent weeks, the park operators have introduced discounts for Hong Kong residents in order to attract more locals.
Rasulo slammed the Hong Kong media's attempts to survey visitor numbers.
"Average daily attendance calculations by the media, especially over a short period of time, have resulted in misleading and faulty conclusions and paint an oversimplified picture that doesn't reflect either performance or guest enjoyment of the Disney entertainment experience. One must always remember in the tourism industry to take seasonality and fluctuation during peak and nonpeak times into account, which makes simple daily averages meaningless."
Hong Kong Disneyland says it is already expanding and enhancing the park experience beyond the top attractions, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Space Mountain and the Jungle River Cruise. Next summer it will add Autopia, featuring battery-powered vehicles traveling a whimsical highway
