Disney in Hong Kong
1. Disneyland Market Positioning and Expansion into the international Market
Disneyland has pride itself to be a fantasy world, a place where people (regardless of age) can escape from reality (Appendix 1 shows that fantasy world is heavily weighted in the proportion of Disney movies). With this positioning statement that applies to everyone regardless of geographic location (Chinese have dreams and can fantasize as much as Americans or Europeans), expansion into the international market may not seem to be a challenge for Walt Disney Company. However, in evaluating the past 4 years of attendance and operating figures of their newest park – Hong Kong Disneyland, it goes to show that the park performance is far from ideal. Why does the Disney magic not work in the hub of Asia – Hong Kong? This paper will answer that question, and after consolidating the lessons learnt from Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, we will recommend the items Disney should consider before investing in a theme park in mainland China. Following that, this paper will also address the communication strategy Disney should deploy in mainland China.
2. Operating Performance in Hong Kong Disneyland
Attendance and thus ticket sales is an important measures to a theme park operating performance. Hong Kong Disneyland set a target of 5.6 million visitors in the first year of operation and expects 6.49 million visitors in year 2009. As Disneyland has not been very open about releasing the targets, we will assume a linear increase in projected annual attendance. As seen in Appendix 2.1, the actual number of visitors has fallen well under the first year target, needless to say the annual target which is supposed to be on a linear growth. Ocean Park, the 23 years old theme park in Hong Kong, is the closest competitor to Hong Kong Disneyland. Through the 4 full years of operation, Hong Kong Disneyland attendance has been lower than that of Ocean Park, with the exception of fiscal year 2006 which is
Disneyland has pride itself to be a fantasy world, a place where people (regardless of age) can escape from reality (Appendix 1 shows that fantasy world is heavily weighted in the proportion of Disney movies). With this positioning statement that applies to everyone regardless of geographic location (Chinese have dreams and can fantasize as much as Americans or Europeans), expansion into the international market may not seem to be a challenge for Walt Disney Company. However, in evaluating the past 4 years of attendance and operating figures of their newest park – Hong Kong Disneyland, it goes to show that the park performance is far from ideal. Why does the Disney magic not work in the hub of Asia – Hong Kong? This paper will answer that question, and after consolidating the lessons learnt from Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, we will recommend the items Disney should consider before investing in a theme park in mainland China. Following that, this paper will also address the communication strategy Disney should deploy in mainland China.
2. Operating Performance in Hong Kong Disneyland
Attendance and thus ticket sales is an important measures to a theme park operating performance. Hong Kong Disneyland set a target of 5.6 million visitors in the first year of operation and expects 6.49 million visitors in year 2009. As Disneyland has not been very open about releasing the targets, we will assume a linear increase in projected annual attendance. As seen in Appendix 2.1, the actual number of visitors has fallen well under the first year target, needless to say the annual target which is supposed to be on a linear growth. Ocean Park, the 23 years old theme park in Hong Kong, is the closest competitor to Hong Kong Disneyland. Through the 4 full years of operation, Hong Kong Disneyland attendance has been lower than that of Ocean Park, with the exception of fiscal year 2006 which is