By Ronald Grover, Stephanie Wong and Wendy Leung
There are signs fail that the inauguration April 8 to the Shanghai Disney Resort from $ 4.4 billion was not aimed at the typical Orlando holidaymaker. Shanghai schoolchildren sang When You Wish Upon a Star - in Mandarin. Mickey Mouse was plated not in his misfiring signature, but in traditional costume of Chinese Red to symbolize good fortune. Everything which has been adapted to the tastes of the nation the most populated of the world.
Walt Disney (DIS) has good reason to sweat the details to his first on the continent theme park. Opening Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005, he underestimated will appear how many visitors and how long they would dwell. The result: too little rides, inadequate seating and food provides restaurants and angry crowds who were to be repressed. Although Park Disney belonging to Hong Kong by 47% is expanding, it loses yet 92.3 million for the year ended last October, while attendance has increased by 13%. "We learned a lot from Hong Kong," says Disney Director General Robert a. Iger. "In Shanghai, we are in route a three hour of 300 million people." This is a huge opportunity, and we must pay attention to how come and their attendance patterns. ?
For Disney studios, who will hold a 43 per cent in the station of 963-acre (three companies belonging to the State own the rest), Shanghai is a bet of $ 1.9 billion on a growing Chinese middle class who will pass the projects of the company 200 billion per year recreation of travel by 2015. It is also a bet that Disney characters and 55 year history of the race theme parks can be adapted to a culture may not fully understand. Disney "has too much riding on China to leave Hong Kong or Shanghai fail", explains John Gerner, Director General of recreation business advisors, which evaluated the possibility for theme parks in China for Village Roadshow, a theater operator and Australian Park. "Hong Kong was an experiment to see if a smaller Park would work, and he is not." Now they are fixing it. ?
Disneyland in Shanghai will almost 85 acres, approximately 50% larger than Hong Kong Park opening, said an Executive. There will be traditional Disney rides and others based on Chinese culture, said Iger. The company is adding Chinese nationals in his "imagineering" team to help develop the Park. A staple that will change: Main Street USA, the turn-of-the-century collection of shop Windows and streets cars pulled by horses that greet visitors to most of the Disney parks. Iger, explains: "we believe simply that Main Street USA is perhaps not that interesting to the people here."
Disney is not likely to repeat the cultural missteps, had its opening of Disneyland Resort Paris in 1992, where sales of food products suffered because the Park did not initially use wine with meals. In Hong Kong, Disney has reduced the number of dogs in its restaurants serving more dim sum and noodle dishes, says Executive of Disney, and it is likely to be full of terroir in Shanghai. "Disney attention much more now to cultural differences," said analyst Evercore Partners (EVR) Alan Gould. A single motivation: The Shanghai Park will generate $ 70 million in management fees for Disney in its first year and $ 200 million in a decade, estimates of Gould.
The bottom line: Disney, which already provides its television programs, to 260 million viewers in China each week betting on continental theme parks.
Grover covers industry media and entertainment for Bloomberg Businessweek in Los Angeles. Wong is a
reporter for Bloomberg News. Leung is a journalist for Bloomberg News.
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