Disney hotels see golden bookings amid lukewarm market

Wallis Wang

All three Hong Kong Disneyland Resort hotels are already 80 percent booked for the mainland's National Day golden week, which has the theme park optimistic about the upcoming holiday.

As the annual Halloween celebration is now underway, Disneyland said its visitor numbers are on the rise and is confident about good business over the next holiday.

Fannie Tsang Hin-sze, senior manager of Disneyland's hotel operations integration and projects, said its three hotels - Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Disney Explorers Lodge and Disney's Hollywood Hotel - have 80 percent of their rooms booked less than two weeks before National Day on October 1.

Currently, half of Disney hotel guests are from the mainland while the remainder are local and foreign guests, she said, expecting the proportion of mainland guests to rise amid the golden week holiday.

"During National Day golden week last year, more than 70 percent of our hotel guests were from the mainland. We hope the trend will continue and we are optimistic," she said.

Tsang said the mainland is Disneyland's major targeted market as mainlanders accounted for 45 percent of total visitors over the past three months, including many from the Greater Bay Area.

Tourists nowadays are more likely to travel with purpose and eager to enjoy comprehensive and innovative experiences, she said.

The Magic Kingdom will offer unique immersive experiences to guests, such as themed rooms and food as well as meeting and dining with Disney friends, she added.

Apart from mainland tourists, the resort has also received many tourists from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

But the local hotel sector is facing a lukewarm market during the ongoing three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in the mainland, with hotel prices dropping up to 20 percent compared to last year.

Alan Chan Chung-yee, chief operations officer of Miramar Group, said less customers are booking hotel stays this year and hotels have to reduce room rates to maintain a satisfactory occupancy rate.

He said the price of hotel rooms in Tsim Sha Tsui has dropped 12 percent and even as much as 20 percent in Causeway Bay.

Chan said many mainland tourists opted to go abroad this year as the SAR has become less attractive.

Local restaurants are also experiencing a 10 percent drop in business amid the festival due to the economic downturn, said Association for Hong Kong Catering Services Management chairman Leung Chun-wah.