Dueling disneylands?
- Source: Global Times
- [07:45 November 19 2009]
- Comments
China has given the green light to Disney to build a theme park in Shanghai. Shanghai municipal government will announce the development and construction plans soon. Illustration: CFP
By Dai Ping
Chow Di Wai is a 45-year-old guide for a small Hong Kong travel agency who specializes in showing mainland tourists around the city. Besides shopping and sightseeing, a prime attraction for many of them is Hong Kong Disneyland.
In his 20 years as a guide, Chow's lowest point was during the 2003 SARS outbreak that crippled Hong Kong tourist industry and left him temporarily out of work to live on HK$4,000 ($516) a month, one-fifth of his previous HK$20,000 ($2,580) salary.
Two years later, Chow was working fulltime again and saw the tourist business recover and boom partially due to the debut of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005.
But the Mouse giveth and the Mouse taketh away and Chow said he now fears that he'll be looking at a new employment challenge by 2014 when Shanghai Disneyland opens Mickey Mouse's Magic Kingdom on the mainland.
In addition to being two times larger than its Hong Kong counterpart and the largest in Asia it will reportedly have the lowest admission fees of all Disneyland parks worldwide.
Chow is not the only one worried. James Tien, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said in a recent radio interview about Shanghai's new good fortune that "the future of Hong Kong tourism is critical."
Tien said Hong Kong Disneyland attracts about four million tourists annually, one-third of whom come from the mainland and about half of those are non-Guangdong Province (southern China) tourists.
Based on that, Tien believed that the number of non- Guangdong tourists to Hong Kong will drop after Shanghai Disneyland opens.
Hong Kong Disneyland is reacting to the challenge with an expansion plan to be completed in 2014.
Currently 22.4 hectares large, it will be expanded to 27.4 hectares when three new themed areas are completed and CEO of Hong Kong Disneyland, Kam Min-ho said that they will speed up the de-sign process and complete the project ahead of the schedule.
Kam said that their Shanghai sister will not dent its business because Disney plans to differentiate the businesses.
"Both Hong Kong and Shanghai's Disneyland theme parks are operated by the Disney company," CCTV reported Kam as saying.
"I think whoever operates two venues in the same market will consider how to differentiate the products. Disney has certainly thought it through."
