Hong Kong a roller coaster for Disney

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Reported at Asia Times:

Hong Kong a roller coaster for Disney
By Kent Ewing

HONG KONG - There was good end-of-year news for the Walt Disney Co in this newly crowned Disney city: finally, three months after its much-heralded opening, Hong Kong Disneyland sold out twice in December. The bad news, however, may be that the World Trade Organization had to come to town for its sixth ministerial conference, which culminated in street rioting and 1,000 arrests, to fill the park the first time. And nothing less than the birth of Christ was required for the second full house.

The holiday season has been kind to Disney. Overall, however, the company's first four months in Hong Kong have been like one of its more exhilarating roller-coaster rides - full of dips and rises and marked by sharp, exciting and sometimes even frightening turns. For the record, Disney executives express beaming satisfaction with their Hong Kong takeoff. But they also have no doubt written up a list of new year's resolutions for the Hong Kong park, chief of which must be to boost the so-far-disappointing attendance.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, which owns 57% of the US$3.2 billion resort, is counting on 5.6 million visitors in its first year, or an average of 15,342 a day. A head count over a two-day period by four reporters for a local newspaper, however, tallied 12,972 on one day and 11,399 on the other. Disney's vice president of marketing and sales in Hong Kong, Roy Tan Hardy, dismissed the count as inaccurate and misleading, adding: "We're actually very happy with the attendance ... so we are not concerned."

But Tan Hardy also refused to reveal the company's own attendance figures, which goes to the heart of Disney's public relations problems in Hong Kong. Surveys show that as many as 80% of Hong Kong residents support Disneyland's presence here. But most also chafe at the company's lack of transparency - especially since Hong Kong taxpayers footed 90% of the cost of constructing the resort in a sweetheart deal that gave Disney a 43% share of the profits for a 10% investment. The lopsided arrangement shows just how badly the Hong Kong government wanted to bring the Magic Kingdom to the city. Just as badly, the government now wants the deal to pay off.

So far, reviews are mixed. Although Disney plans to expand the park, its present size of 130 hectares makes it by far the smallest Disneyland in the world. Consequently, many Western visitors find Hong Kong Disneyland cramped and, on those infrequent occasions when large crowds do turn out, claustrophobic. Westernized Hong Kong Chinese also complain.

But for visitors from mainland China, Disney's biggest target audience in Hong Kong, the experience is very different. For the most part, they appear to be having a great time, but there is a twist: they do not spend as much money as Disney would like, because they take so much time snapping photos and lingering over meals. Some of them make the short trip on the special Disney train line that runs from the city to Lantau Island, where Disneyland is located, and spend all their time taking photos in the beautifully landscaped public area, which features a lake and a large arboretum, without ever actually entering the park.

Other strange tales emerging from these opening months include reports of mainland visitors taking photos of themselves on the monitor image of the Space Mountain roller-coaster ride, instead of purchasing the photo from Disney; jumping out of the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups as the ride begins (to snap pictures, of course), thus halting the ride for everyone; photographing their children standing beside the balloon seller, but not buying any balloons; and occupying restaurant tables for as long as an entire day.

Disney may not have anticipated every cultural challenge from the mainland, but the company has nevertheless gone to great lengths to make the Hong Kong park attractive and culturally sensitive to Chinese visitors. After all, it is not Hong Kong's population of nearly 7 million that has Disney executives so excited; rather, the potential audience of 1.3 billion on the mainland is the company's biggest target. Disney, for example, consulted feng shui masters - that is, experts in the Chinese art of harmonizing people and their environment - about the design of the resort, which faces the South China Sea with mountainous Lantau serving as a striking backdrop. The only eyesore in the area, the three stacks of Lamma Island's power station, are hidden behind hectares of parking lots.

In addition, signs throughout the park are written in both Chinese and English, and there are bilingual how-to explanations for each of the park's 13 rides. While Westerners complain that other Disney parks offer more rides and bigger thrills, Disney's research showed that mainland visitors desire a tamer experience. You will still find Disney standards such as Space Mountain, the problematic Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, the Jungle Cruise and the Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters. But it seems such creations as Fantasy Gardens - where visitors can mingle and pose for photographs with Mickey, Minnie and other Disney characters - are more appealing to mainland visitors.

Disney has also clearly been attentive to local tastes in its choice of food. There is a wide variety of international cuisine on offer at the Hong Kong park, but Chinese staples abound. Disney even took (yet another) public relations hit, this time from conservationists, when it put shark's fin soup, a traditional Chinese delicacy served to mark big occasions, on the wedding-banquet menu at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. (Because of fears of overfishing and revulsion against the brutal way in which the fins are harvested, the dish is illegal in a number of countries, but not in Hong Kong or on the mainland.)

With all this effort to attract mainland visitors, why, then, are the results so far modest at best? There could be a number of reasons.

First of all, the 17 test days on which Disney opened the park gates for selected visitors before the official September 12 opening were generally considered a disappointment, receiving unfavorable reviews in both the Chinese- and English-language media in Hong Kong. One particular test day - a charity day that filled the park to its supposed capacity of 30,000 people - was a notable fiasco, with visitors suffering waits of more than two hours for rides and restaurant tables. Government officials were alarmed enough by what happened to question whether Disney had overestimated the number of people the park could hold.

And then, once the park opened, it did not help the company's image when a former security guard, sacked by Disney for allegedly using foul language on the job, climbed to the top of the building housing Space Mountain and threatened a suicide jump in protest against his release. In November, Disney employees, complaining of unfair treatment, launched a union, taking some more of the "magic" out of Hong Kong's Disney experience.

In fairness to Disney, however, Euro Disney (now Paris Disneyland) faced more controversy and teething problems than Hong Kong Disneyland when it opened in 1992. You can be certain that Euro Disney did not have 80% support from the French when it opened, one reason being that the park initially did not serve wine - in France! Disney has a track record of learning from its mistakes, and demonstrated this during the past month when the company proved that the Hong Kong park could hold 30,000 and run smoothly. Now Disney executives must figure out a way to make that happen on a more regular basis.

Some observers have wondered whether the hotel and ticket prices at the resort are too high to lure the mainland hordes across the border. The resort's two hotels, with the cheapest room going for $128, are expensive by any standard. To Hong Kong residents, however, admission prices to the park are quite reasonable: on week days, it is $38 for an adult ticket and $27 for children; on weekends, the respective prices go up to $45 and $32. That makes Hong Kong Disneyland the cheapest of any of Disney's five parks around the world, but it is still a costly proposition for many on the mainland - where, despite roaring economic growth, the gross domestic product per capita is only $5,600, as compared with $30,000 in Hong Kong and $40,000 in the United States.

Coming off an attendance bump over the holidays, Hong Kong Disneyland starts the new year with fresh resolve and optimism. "The biggest challenge of bringing a Disney park to this part of the world," said Disney marketing strategist Tan Hardy, "is that not all audiences grew up with Disney stories and characters, so there are varying levels of familiarity and understanding. Our priority has been to introduce audiences all over the region to the classic Disney experience ... through TV, road shows and interactive media events."

Although the results to date are somewhat underwhelming, Disney executives are betting the bank on linking the success of Hong Kong Disneyland to continued economic growth on the mainland. And, despite a few public relations glitches, it remains a very good bet - especially after Hong Kong taxpayers put down 90% of the $3.2 billion ante.
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