China has given the green light for Shanghai Disney Resort, Oriental News & Sun News

[HongKongDisneyland]

According to News reports from Hong Kong Oriental News and The Sun News of Hong Kong, the state council of China (Central Government of China) has given the green light for the Disney Project at Shanghai.

The State Council of China approve in principle to the City of Shanghai the application of a resort with Walt Disney Company since Hong Kong International Theme Parks Ltd (Hong Kong Government and Walt Disney Company) has been running Hong Kong Disneyland for almost 3 years and Hong Kong Disney Resort should be well developed by the time another sister park opens in Shanghai. Shanghai Disney Resort is about 5 times bigger than the current size of HKDL. Construction will start in 2010 and be completed 5 years from now.

【本報訊】正當本港迪士尼樂園擴建談判停滯不前之際，國務院已開綠燈原則上通過上海興建迪士尼計劃。消息指 出，面積比香港迪士尼大五倍的上海迪士尼最快於 二○一○年興建，五年後投入營運。立法會經濟發展事務委員會成員李華明擔心上海迪士尼正迎頭趕上，日後勢搶 去華東客源，削弱香港旅遊業競爭力。他希望雙方 加快談判步伐，並向立法會及公眾交代。上海市政府為迪士尼在浦東川沙鎮預留了二十平方公里土地，其中建主題 公園直接用地六平方公里。川沙鎮距浦東機 場僅十多分鐘車程，為吸引外國遊客前往，上海計劃實施過境外國人四十八小時免簽待遇。據估計，上海迪士尼每 年可接待三千萬人次旅客。有消息稱，國務院通過 計劃，是因為中央認為香港迪士尼運營接近三年，已有初步發展，上海迪士尼五年後落成，也不會對香港迪士尼構 成惡性競爭。


議員恐被迎頭趕上

對於有議員擔心上海迪士尼將迎頭趕上，商務及經濟局發言人說，政府正跟華特迪士尼商討擴建計劃及有關財務安 排，政府正審慎考慮不同方案，雙方至今未達成任何協議。
另外，美國華特迪士尼集團發表季度業績報告，透露香港迪士尼虧蝕減少。香港迪士尼只稱，在○八年財政年度第 一及第二季入場人次錄得雙位數字的增長。

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With earlier news that Bill Ernest got promoted to a newly created post to oversee Asia Parks, it is really likely that Shanghai is getting a new Disney Resort

[malice]

how about giving some TLC to the relatively new yet meager HK park first

[ShanghaiDisney]

Here I come

I guess ....Shanghai Disney Resort to open in 2013.

[stitchon]

That's such a stupid idea. Why is Disney spending money on new parks when already built parks are in dire need of attention? HKDL won't become a big moneymaker until they give it some TLC.

[pussnboots]

They couldn't shanghai me there. Not for all the tea in China. (Horrible, I know.)

Honestly, this is terrible. Am I the only one who once thought four Disney resorts was a lot?

[Witches of Morva]

ORDDU: From what my sisters and I have read about all this thus far, it wouldn't be an actual theme park venture for Shanghai. Instead it might be one of the Disney style hotels will only a few attractions added in as a draw.

[mclubber]

If the HK park gets developed into a full day park and opens another gate by the time Shanghai opens I don't see the new park cannabalize the HK one.

[tasman]

Originally Posted by mclubber

If the HK park gets developed into a full day park and opens another gate by the time Shanghai...

That's a pretty big if...2015 is just 7 years away...at current pace HKDL will be lucky to have three new rides by then. Time will tell I guess.

Originally Posted by pussnboots

Am I the only one who once thought four Disney resorts was a lot?

I don't think that the number of resorts is the real problem, more a lack of commitment to the old Disney ideal....for example if we came back down to just two resorts, I don't think the quality of WDW would suddenly return to the way it was. But I'm with you in that I don't want any new resorts when the existing ones need so much attention. On the other hand, in the hypothetical situation where the existing five were all in the condition that TDR is, I would not have a problem with a dozen resorts.

[pussnboots]

Originally Posted by tasman

I don't think that the number of resorts is the real problem, more a lack of commitment to the old Disney ideal....for example if we came back down to just two resorts, I don't think the quality of WDW would suddenly return to the way it was. But I'm with you in that I don't want any new resorts when the existing ones need so much attention. On the other hand, in the hypothetical situation where the existing five were all in the condition that TDR is, I would not have a problem with a dozen resorts.

I understand what you are saying, but I disagree. I do think the number of resorts is an issue.

We've all seen what happens when successful, quality concepts become ubiquitous; the Disney Store is long dead, Starbucks is two shakes away from jumping the shark with its Dollar Menu coffee and drive-thru locations, once-respected fashion houses have become white trash icons. It is a short term profit-driven, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory type of brand suicide.
We've all seen it: a housewife in Alabama opens up a pie shop, the pie shop proves a hit, the pie shop attracts people from all over the country, the pie shop gets an appearance on Oprah, then there's a franchise on each coast, then there's one in every city, then there's a drive-thru on every street and bang -- pie shop jumps shark, dies to global apathy.

The world does not need a dozen Disney resorts, it needs a few that are so good that people will want to pay the airfare.

[Asa]

I think Disney is not going to pay much for Shanghai park. They probably gets an even better deal than they got in HK, like no investment for 50% ownership kind of thing.

[Peterwhite171]

Originally Posted by pussnboots

I understand what you are saying, but I disagree. I do think the number of resorts is an issue.

We've all seen what happens when successful, quality concepts become ubiquitous; the Disney Store is long dead, Starbucks is two shakes away from jumping the shark with its Dollar Menu coffee and drive-thru locations, once-respected fashion houses have become white trash icons. It is a short term profit-driven, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory type of brand suicide.
We've all seen it: a housewife in Alabama opens up a pie shop, the pie shop proves a hit, the pie shop attracts people from all over the country, the pie shop gets an appearance on Oprah, then there's a franchise on each coast, then there's one in every city, then there's a drive-thru on every street and bang -- pie shop jumps shark, dies to global apathy.

The world does not need a dozen Disney resorts, it needs a few that are so good that people will want to pay the airfare.

You cannot compare a Disney store to a Disney resort. Stores are found in every major city, Disney resorts are not. Apart from Disney World and Paris each disney resort tends to cater and go after the local market, Tokyo and California do this very well. Id If you can have two resorts in the US, why cant you have two resorts in the biggest country on earth? I think I see HK being the California and the Shanghai project the WDW for China.

[tasman]

Originally Posted by pussnboots

I understand what you are saying, but I disagree. I do think the number of resorts is an issue.

We've all seen what happens when successful, quality concepts become ubiquitous; the Disney Store is long dead, Starbucks is two shakes away from jumping the shark with its Dollar Menu coffee and drive-thru locations, once-respected fashion houses have become white trash icons. It is a short term profit-driven, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory type of brand suicide.
We've all seen it: a housewife in Alabama opens up a pie shop, the pie shop proves a hit, the pie shop attracts people from all over the country, the pie shop gets an appearance on Oprah, then there's a franchise on each coast, then there's one in every city, then there's a drive-thru on every street and bang -- pie shop jumps shark, dies to global apathy.

The world does not need a dozen Disney resorts, it needs a few that are so good that people will want to pay the airfare.

I agree with your reasoning but think there is room enough (over the next one or two hundred years) for a dozen Disney resorts - about one for each major cultural area or population concentration. There is a big difference between that and thousands of Starbucks stores.

For the time being I think it is wrong to have two resorts in China. What they should have done for such a big country like China is a WDW style mega-resort to begin with, not the mini-park in HK, IMO. But that having not been the case, they should focus on HK before shifting attention elsewhere...although I would think a big resort on mainland is what they should have done to begin with.

[pussnboots]

Originally Posted by Peterwhite171

You cannot compare a Disney store to a Disney resort. Stores are found in every major city, Disney resorts are not. Apart from Disney World and Paris each disney resort tends to cater and go after the local market, Tokyo and California do this very well. Id If you can have two resorts in the US, why cant you have two resorts in the biggest country on earth? I think I see HK being the California and the Shanghai project the WDW for China.

Well, judging by HKDL's performance, it's not like the Chinese have embraced Disney all that much, but I'm sure I'm wrong about that since otherwise Disney would not have picked Shanghai for its next project.

And I think you can compare them. It's all relative. A Disney Store is obviously a much smaller venue than a Disney resort, so to every resort there can be dozens of Stores. It's the same principle. Certain brands thrive on being special, scarce, worth flying to and standing in line for. Disney "destinations" are amongst them. Haven't we learned that much from the World of Disney store in NY?

If we are to go by this local market argument, the world is ready for about fifteen more Disney resorts. People will get enough, the shark will be jumped.

Two Disney resorts in Asia is enough. Five Disney resorts in total is enough.

[PortieOwner]

This makes all the business sense in the world.

As another poster wrote, Disney may be getting this as a near freebie. They get 50 percent ownership and don't have to invest much of their own money at all. The way Chinese real estate prices are going up, being able to get a huge tract of land near Shanghai is a coup in itself--Shanghai real estate may be Tokyo-expensive in 10 years if it isn't already.

Hong Kong and Shanghai are really far apart (it is an overnight train trip to get from one city to the other). The distance between the two places approaches the distance between New York and Minneapolis. I doubt they will be cannibalizing much business from each other. Beijing is somewhat closer to Shanghai, and it is a much faster rail connection between the two cities (10 hours). Many other huge Chinese cities are closer.

There are something like 1.2 billion potential customers in China, plus 90 million more next door in Vietnam, not to mention Taiwan, South Korea, and various other lands a short trip away by air.

I'll have to add Shanghai to my future travel plans.

[CheriBibi]

I'm so delighted ! Another big resort, it's obvious it's gonna be something to be proud of, something really big with a unique Magic Kingdom Park. A

At last a new shiny and worth visiting (kidding, Hong Kong is not that bad) Magic Kingdom park ! Time to change the name fo my blog hehe... from 5 Kingdoms to 6 Kingdoms