HK Disneyland plans $1.4-B upgrade
LOS ANGELES (New York Times) – The Walt Disney Co.’s smallest theme park resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, which lost money amid declining attendance last year, will get $1.4 billion in enhancements as part of a colossal six-year growth plan.
The upgrades, announced yesterday afternoon in Hong Kong, will include an entire section themed around the animated movie “Frozen,” a first for any Disney park. Plans also call for a hugely amped-up castle, multiple rides based on Marvel superheroes, a new nighttime show with fireworks and fountains, and a performance venue based on “Moana,” an animated musical that arrives in American theaters on Wednesday.
Construction will begin in 2018 and conclude in 2023, with new offerings coming online almost every year during that period. The plans are subject to final approval by the Hong Kong Legislative Council and the Disney board.
The expansion highlights Disney’s belief in Hong Kong Disneyland as a potential profit machine – not just as a theme park but as a creator of demand in China and Southeast Asia for the company’s movies, toys, clothes, video games, books, cruise vacations and TV programs.
“We are more excited than ever about the future of Hong Kong Disneyland,” Bob Chapek, Disney’s theme park chairman, said in a news release.
But the scope of the enhancements also reflects the difficult spot in which Hong Kong Disneyland finds itself. Despite more than $600 million in added attractions in recent years, including three new themed areas and a nighttime parade, the park lost about $20 million last year, according to financial filings.
Attendance has recently perked up – a consequence, perhaps, of media attention surrounding the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort in June – but the 11-year-old park had a terrible 2015. Attendance dropped 9.3 percent, to 6.8 million, compared with a year earlier, according to the Themed Entertainment Association. Occupancy at Disney’s two Hong Kong hotels declined to 80 percent from 93 percent.
Hong Kong Disneyland’s general manager, Andrew Kam, was forced out in March.
Like its entrenched local rival, Ocean Park, whose attendance dropped about five percent last year to 7.4 million, Hong Kong Disneyland was hurt by a sharp decline in tourism from mainland China after pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2014. A slowing economy added to difficulties.