Mickey and his mates are setting up home in Shanghai.For a Shanghai Disneyland has got the all-clear to open by 2014 - a turn of events for the Magic Kingdom greeted with mixed feelings in Hong Kong.
A Shanghai park is both welcomed and feared in the SAR because it could make or break what will be the much smaller and presently loss-making Hong Kong Disneyland.
But tourism officials were putting a positive spin on the news last night, claiming the Shanghai park will complement the Hong Kong operation.
The Shanghai park will be set on 1.5 square kilometers in the riverside Pudong district. Its first phase - which is expected to cost 22.4 billion yuan (HK$25.5 billion) - will be four times bigger than its Hong Kong counterpart.
The central government approved the project last month, though it was only announced yesterday from the Burbank, California, headquarters of the Walt Disney Company.
Disney president and chief executive Robert Iger said the decision "marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Company in mainland China" and so Disney and its Shanghai partners can "move toward a final agreement to build and operate the park and begin preliminary development work."
Disney added that upon completion of the final agreement, the project's initial phase will include a Magic Kingdom-style theme park with characteristics tailored to the Shanghai region.
Addressing the Hong Kong- Shanghai double, a Disney spokesman noted: "The United States, with a qu
arter of the population of China, supports two Disney theme resorts with six parks all together. The China travel market is also expected to continue to rapidly grow over the next 20 years. "The two China parks, like all of our theme parks, will draw from separate and distinct guest bases."
Among early responses in the SAR, Tourism Commissioner Margaret Fong Shun-man said Hong Kong Disneyland will continue to be competitive, particularly with a HK$3.6 billion expansion program to begin this year. Completion will coincide with the Shanghai opening in 2014 and add three new themed "lands" to the Lantau complex.
"The three new themed lands will either be exclusive worldwide or exclusive to Asia," Fong added. "Therefore, we believe that the appeal will continue to be there.
"We are also very confident because our Hong Kong Disneyland is attractive not only to our mainland visitors but also to international visitors, which generally will account for 25-26 percent of total visitors."
Andrew Kam Min-ho, managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, spoke of a focus on "getting our exciting project under way as soon as possible." The Grizzly Trail and Mystic Point will be exclusive to Hong Kong among Disney theme parks worldwide, he said, and Toy Story Land will be exclusive in Asia.
On who will be heading to Hong Kong Disneyland from the mainland whatever the competition, Tourism Commission chairman James Tien Pei- chun said Shanghai will have a minor impact on Hong Kong.
And Paul Tang, chief economist at Bank of East Asia, told Reuters: "Visitors from Guangdong and southern China will still find Hong Kong more convenient, while Shanghai will attract visitors from northern and eastern China."
One-third of visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland are from the mainland, one- third local, and one-third from overseas including Southeast Asia.
More than 17 million people have visited Hong Kong Disneyland since its opening in September 2005 up to the end of this May. The announcement of the Shanghai plan came two weeks ahead of a trip to China by US President Barack Obama.
