Hong Kong Disneyland strikes back with Star Wars attractions
HONG KONG - As Shanghai Disneyland celebrated its lavish opening in June - with visitors queuing up five hours ahead of the official opening hour to experience the magic power - its counterpart in Hong Kong launched new offerings based on the blockbuster
The Star Wars project includes a completely upgraded look for the Space Mountain rollercoaster in Tomorrowland, and Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple, where visitors become Jedi apprentices and use “The Force” to battle with light sabers against “the Dark Side”.
On a hot Friday, Joe, a 44-year-old father, brought his two sons to Hong Kong Disneyland. “I spend 30 minutes on average to have a ride,and I am OK with the capacity,” he said. “It’s my first time to the park, so I can’t tell if there are fewer visitors than before, but I found that only one-third of the space is occupied in the parking lot, and there’s no tour bus parking there.”
Disappointingly, Joe hadn’t experienced the Star Wars attraction. “The waiting time is 150 minutes for that game,” he said. “Maybe I will go there again later.”
Joe bought annual passes for his family. “We will definitely go there more than twice within a year. But frankly speaking, I prefer Ocean Park, because we like to see real animals.”
There are signs the magic may have worn off, as Hong Kong Disneyland reported a net loss of HK$148 million for the year ended September 2015, according to a report released in February by the park. The report attributed the poor performance to“external factors” such as the decreasing number of mainland visitors and “overall market condition and sentiment”.
Visitors to the park fell by 9.3 per cent to 6.8 million, of which mainland visitors accounted for 41 per cent – down from 48 per cent in the previous fiscal year.
It is a year full of troubles. Hong Kong Disneyland Managing Director Andrew Kam Man-ho, who had been managing the park since 2008, suddenly resigned “for personal reasons” in March. Then, a month later, the park announced its first large-scale layoff scheme since it opened in 2005, with approximately 100 employees being fired.
Despite all these hardships, the park decided to press onward. A ride system is undergoing testing at Marvel’s Iron Man Experience now, which should be launched at the end of 2016. It is the first Marvel ride-through attraction at a Disney Park. And a new 750-room hotel, Explorers Lodge Hotel, is currently under construction, slated to open in 2017.
“I have reserved my opinion on the effectiveness of these new projects,” said Sarah Leung Fong-yuen, director of the Federation of Hong Kong Trade Unions in Tourism.
She pointed out to China Daily that the two additional projects – Star Wars and Iron Man – would not help much to increase the park’s attendees, as Shanghai Disneyland is more attractive. “The new projects may be attractive to local visitors, but visitors from the mainland and Southeast Asia, who account for a large proportion of Disney attendees, prefer to go to the Shanghai park, which is three times as big as the Hong Kong park.”
Leung suggested the Hong Kong park highlight local unique features, for example, selling traditional Hong Kong snacks to visitors.
In comparison, Shanghai Disneyland is finding life much easier. Before its official opening on June 16, the theme park attracted more than one million visitors during its trial operation from May 7 to June 12. Analysts expect Shanghai Disneyland to become the world’s most-visited theme park, attracting at least 15 million and as many as 50 million visitors a year. By contrast, Walt Disney World in Florida, US, drew 19.3 million people in 2014, local media reported.
The launch of Disneyland in the mainland kicked off a battle between local theme parks and foreign brands. Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, said Disney’s brand would be no match for the scale of his theme park Wanda City.
"Disney shouldn't have entered the mainland,” Wang said on China Central Television on May 22. “We will make Disney's China venture unprofitable in the next 10 to 20 years," he said, as he unveiled ambitions to surpass Disney as the world's largest tourism enterprise by 2020. Wanda Group launched the first of 15 planned Wanda City parks on May 31 in the southeastern city of Nanchang, two week before the official opening of Shanghai Disneyland.
But Shanghai Disneyland remains confident and seemingly untroubled by Wang’s words. A spokeswoman for Disney declined to comment, saying only that Wang's remarks were "not worthy of a response".
According to a survey conducted by marketing consultancy Prophet, 48 percent of tourists say they are less likely to visit Wanda City in light of the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort, reflecting Disney’s strong brand recognition. Wanda, on the other hand, lacks a clear brand strategy as well as a compelling reason for consumers to visit its theme park.
The poll, carried out during the period June 9-13, surveyed 300 Chinese consumers aged 18 to 55, with the aim of better understanding consumer behaviour with regard to theme parks in mainland China.
