HONG KONG—Hong Kong's Disney theme park is set to post its second profitable year since opening in 2005, people with direct knowledge of the data said Monday, with attendance hitting a record of over 7.5 million people thanks to strong demand from mainland Chinese visitors.
Hong Kong Disneyland, which is 52%-owned by the city's government, while Walt Disney Co. owns the rest, will announce financial results for the fiscal year ended September 2013 later Monday.
The park reported its first-ever annual profit in fiscal 2012, totaling US$14.06 million, while attendance rose 13% to 6.7 million visitors. Tourists from mainland China and Southeast Asia are helping drive the continued growth in visitor numbers, park executives said earlier.
Hong Kong Disneyland had previously been unprofitable, partly because early attendance was lower than expected. Critics have cited its size and a lack of attractions that appeal to Chinese visitors. Hong Kong Disneyland remains the smallest of all Disney theme parks world-wide.
To boost attendance, the park was expanded from 2009 to add major attractions, with the last of those additions having opened last year.
But competition from Shanghai Disneyland, scheduled to open by the end of 2015, could undermine attendance at Hong Kong's compact park. Hong Kong Disneyland has said that the park's investors are discussing plans to build new hotels at the resort in hopes of drawing more international tourists.
As the opening of Shanghai's park looms, Disney in October unveiled plans to build an Iron Man attraction, the first-ever for a Marvel-based character at a Disney park. The Iron Man attraction will open in 2016, one year after the launch of Shanghai Disneyland.
Unlike many of Disney's other stars, Iron Man has become a hit in China following the success of its movie franchise, and an attraction based on the character of Tony Stark has the potential to be a huge draw for Chinese tourists.
Source: Wall Street Journal by Chester Yung
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