Quote from: "HK Standard"Disney facing finance poser
Benjamin Scent
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Declining attendance numbers and guest spending at Hong Kong Disneyland are likely to leave Walt Disney Co unable to draw on a US$294 million (HK$2.29 billion) revolving credit facility, the company said.
"Hong Kong Disneyland may require alternative sources of financing to meet its operating and development needs," Burbank, California-based Disney said in a filing with the US securities regulator.
"Hong Kong Disneyland is engaged in discussions with the Walt Disney Company and Hong Kong Disneyland's other shareholder regarding financing options aimed at advancing its long-term financial and development needs," a spokesperson for Hong Kong Disneyland said.
The Hong Kong government owns 57 percent of Hongkong International Theme Parks, which operates Hong Kong Disneyland in a joint venture with the US giant, which holds the remaining 43 percent interest.
"Our discussion does not involve seeking additional funds from the government," the spokesperson said.
Disney expects to make an additional investment as part of the new financing arrangement. Alternative financing arrangements would need to be completed before September 30, when the performance stipulations of the revolving credit facility will be measured.
"Although there is no assurance that acceptable financial arrangements can be obtained prior to September 30, 2007, management currently expects that Hong Kong Disneyland will be successful in developing financial arrangements necessary to meet
its financial and development needs," Disney said.
Disney announced Wednesday that second-quarter profits jumped 27 percent on the success of road-trip movie Wild Hogs and growth at cable sports channel ESPN.
Second-quarter revenues from Disney's parks and resorts division climbed 9 percent to US$2.4 billion and segment operating income increased 19 percent to US$254 million.
Revenue increases from higher theme park attendance, guest spending, and hotel occupancy at Disneyland Resort Paris "were partially offset by lower guest spending and theme park attendance at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort," Disney said. Hong Kong Disneyland also saw a decline in operating income during the second quarter ended March 31.
"We're launching several marketing initiatives to boost attendance and address seasonality of the [Hong Kong] park," Disney senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Tom Staggs said in a conference call with analysts.
"We view Hong Kong Disneyland as a valuable asset in a rapidly growing market and we're confident in and committed to this project. We'll likely continue to invest in the park to help ensure its long-term success."
A spokesperson for Hong Kong Disneyland said the park recognizes that attendance and guest spending have fallen short of initial expectations, although "guest satisfaction continues to climb higher, reflecting continuous improvement in park operations and guest service."
Meanwhile, the Tourism Commission said the SAR government has no plans to use public funds to increase its investment in the Hong Kong Disneyland joint venture.
Source: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... con_type=3 (http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=1&art_id=44123&sid=13524039&con_type=3)
Obviously the smallest magic kingdom is not doing too well, nice to see Paris getting mentioned about doing well for once though :D.
Well a big :P to Hong Kong Disneyland then!
Amazing such a cheap park can still struggle. From what I can see, it just doesn't seem to have found its "place" in Hong Kong, it hasn't become a big feature the way DL, WDW, TDR and DLRP are for their areas and cities.
At least this completes Disney's early 90s trio of underwhelming parks nicely.
how on earth does this work because under a year ago there where too many ppl 4 the park - ahh i hope it does not go under and the decission of maybe having to close the park like in DLRP. But you never know what may happen
Well I'm going to take a wild guess at how its worked, hkdl became the new thing, popular, suddenly every local person found out it was so small and so byebye trade. No new attractions for a year is not a clever idea for a park this size. This is how many people watch the parade at town square the other week apparently :lol: .
(//http://www.patmagic.net/hkdlfailure.jpg)
Photo: TDLFAN
The park seems to be starting to think about seasonal ideas, it worked for dlrp, but then again dlrp does have a load more attractions. HKDL even had a gayday last month. Then with the pirate season this month, they seem to have gone straight into the idea.
I'm quite confident they need the Space Mountain Effect...
...and I'm also quite confident they're thinking "why on EARTH did we pick it's a small world to open next year??!" #-o :lol:
That photo is scary!! At least one thing DLRP has never been short of is visitors- they've always been quite consistent, if not quite as uber-high as TWDC hoped.
I still can't quite get my head around the fact it doesn't have Haunted Mansion, Pirates, BTM, Peter Pan, IASW, Indy Adventure, Star Tours, etc. I know we moaned about that in 2005, but it's just... not Disneyland. No wonder the Peking park is doing so well.
Blimey, guest flow must have been on overdrive that day
At least there won't be any queues for the existing rides! :lol:
That parade picture is quite scary, at DLRP you end up fighting for a good spot so that you can see!
Oh Dear :?
Quote(8/17/07) According to Variety, Hong Kong Disneyland is still suffering from low attendance problems and unable to lure in the tourists from Mainland China. They claim that the park is on track to report only 4 million guests in its second year (ending September). This is down from previous projections made just before and after the park first opened that called for something between 5.4 and 5.7 million in the park's second year. The reported attendance for the park's first year was 5.2 million, which was down from a projected 5.6 million.
It's not looking good for HKDL :(
:arrow: http://www.screamscape.com/html/hong_ko ... eyland.htm (http://www.screamscape.com/html/hong_kong_disneyland.htm)
I still cant get over this park doesnt have a Frontierland :o , instead it just has a giant Adventureland or should i say " Pirateland " :!:
I don't see nothing wrong with that picture, Stop living in the past. :P
heading there in 5 weeks so that will be 4 more bodies for the parade route !!
oh my god, I cant believe the lack of people there to watch the parade, surely thats a joke?? lol
Is that picture real? :shock: I'd sure be a bit embarrased if I was one of the people in the parade :lol:
Quote from: "Screamscape"(9/14/07) Hong Kong Disneyland has now officially been open for two years, but so far the park isn't talking about their attendance figures for the second year just yet. Industry rumors indicate that attendance in the second year could very well have dropped as low as 4.8 million, from the 5.2 million they pulled in the first year. Of course this is all down from the projected 5.6 million Disney had hoped to bring in the first year. However, it's actually quite a common trend for theme parks to experience a big drop in attendance during their sophomore year so this wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile it looks like Disney may have bigger problems with their Hong Kong Cast Members. According to Yahoo News, a survey of 470 employees revealed that 63% were unhappy with park management, accusing them of unfair firings and rude behavior. The park has countered those claims with it's own survey of 1000 Cast Members where 92% of them felt that they were being treated with respect at the park.
:? :x :cry:
:arrow: http://www.screamscape.com/html/hong_ko ... eyland.htm (http://www.screamscape.com/html/hong_kong_disneyland.htm)
Quote from: "maji"heading there in 5 weeks so that will be 4 more bodies for the parade route !!
Will you show us photos? Hopefully showing a few more people!
Problems for HKDL continue.
Quote from: "Mickey News"Hong Kong Disneyland is unlikely to receive more money from the local government to fund new attractions because of disappointing attendance at the theme park since it opened two years ago, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the park, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Co. and the Hong Kong government, said it is still discussing financing options with the government.
Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper reported Wednesday the local government, instead of providing fresh cash, is inclined to give the park more land, or sell down its stake in Hong Kong Disneyland for cash to reinvest in the park. All land in Hong Kong is technically owned by the government and leased to commercial developers on long-term contracts.
The government believes the Hong Kong public will not support fresh spending on the park because of its unsatisfactory results, the paper said.
Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau had no immediate comment on the report.
Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman Glendy Chu said Disney and the government are "engaged in discussions regarding financing options aimed at advancing the long-term financial and development of Hong Kong Disneyland."
She declined further comment.
Hong Kong Disneyland has been under scrutiny because it is a major government investment. The Hong Kong government owns a 57 percent stake in the park, shouldering most of the US$3.5 billion (euro2.5 billion) construction cost.
The park drew 5.2 million guests in its first year - 400,000 short of its target of 5.6 million. Park officials have been secretive about second-year numbers, but local media reports estimated up to 4.8 million visited the park its second year.
Disney's earnings results showed Hong Kong Disneyland's operating income dropped in both the first and second quarters this year, curtailing overall growth for its park and resorts division.
http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayP ... _1047Stall (http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayPressRelease.asp_Q_id_E_1047Stall)
Oh dear, that's not good :? Why would the attendance be so low for a Disney park? :shock: Obviously there aren't many Disney fans in Hong Kong :lol:
Seems like this park was never a good idea !
Hopefully this will help:
QuoteDisney to forgo royalties on failing Hong Kong park
Nov 9, 2007, 11:14 GMT
Hong Kong - The Walt Disney company is to forgo royalties from it underperforming Hong Kong theme park as part of a plan to help the park boost attendance figures, a Hong Kong news report said Friday.
The company also said it has come to an agreement with its creditors to remove debt conditions on its 293 million US dollar loan for one year to allow it to make further investments in the park.
Hong Kong radio station RTHK said Friday the agreement, which will remove targets set by the lenders, were announced by Walt Disney's chief financial officer Tom Staggs in Los Angeles.
Earlier this week the Hong Kong government, which owns 57 per cent of the park, also said it was considering injecting more funds to help the struggling park.
The theme park has been battling against falling attendances since it opened in September 2005. It attracted only 5.2 million visitors in its first year, around 400,000 below its target.
In its second year, it fared no better with media reports speculating attendances of 33 per cent below its total visitor capacity.
The Hong Kong government has come under pressure from lawmakers who say it has invested too much in the commercial project.
Visitors claim it is too small and lacks sufficient attractions to occupy visitors for a whole day.
Public feeling is that the Ocean Park theme facility on Hong Kong Island - which houses Hong Kong's new pandas - offers better value. In May, Ocean Park set a new attendance record of 4.5 million people two months before the end of its fiscal year.
Source: M&C (//http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/news/article_1372459.php/Disney_to_forgo_royalties_on_failing_Hong_Kong_park)
Quote from: "PATMAGIC"Well I'm going to take a wild guess at how its worked, hkdl became the new thing, popular, suddenly every local person found out it was so small and so byebye trade. No new attractions for a year is not a clever idea for a park this size. This is how many people watch the parade at town square the other week apparently :lol: .
(//http://www.patmagic.net/hkdlfailure.jpg)
Photo: TDLFAN
The park seems to be starting to think about seasonal ideas, it worked for dlrp, but then again dlrp does have a load more attractions. HKDL even had a gayday last month. Then with the pirate season this month, they seem to have gone straight into the idea.
That's so sad, i don't like this picture
To bad for them. Glad that DLRP is getting better and better
In fact, the photo taken at the end of the parade route. 99.9% people will not watch the parade here, as they need to wait 20 minutes for the float.
Just watch these two video, see the fact of HKDL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mji1DnjH ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mji1DnjHAJ0&feature=related)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DihB07pb ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DihB07pbgMI&feature=related)
HKDL needs improvement, but it is not bad!
Quote from: "dannyaikawa"In fact, the photo taken at the end of the parade route. 99.9% people will not watch the parade here, as they need to wait 20 minutes for the float.
Just watch these two video, see the fact of HKDL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mji1DnjH ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mji1DnjHAJ0&feature=related)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DihB07pb ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DihB07pbgMI&feature=related)
HKDL needs improvement, but it is not bad!
Maybe it is just my imagination, but people still wait a very very long time on town square in every other magic kingdom :wink: . Also Halloween is rather different, of course people are going to watch the parade and visit more, since it is an event, not just an ordinary day :? .
Hi,
I was in HKDL end of October 2007 and must say that the overall guest attendance was pretty low. I was there on a business trip and asked my Chinese colleagues what might be the reason for the problems. It's quite clear: You can already get a copy of Disneyland and parts of it in a lot of Chinese amusement parcs as they generally don't care about any of Disney's rights!!! Same problems for Disney as for other western companies. My colleague told me that he saw a report about the Chinese amusement parcs on TV (they have more than 2000!!!!!!! parcs) and has seen in one parc a copy of Mickey Mouse directly next to Hello Kitty. Quite strange and if this is the reason, I see no chance for Disney to overcome the problem.
Personally, I feel that the park is pretty small and has a lack of attractions. It took my roughly six hours to see nearly everything (not all shows, but all attractions!!!).
Good luck HKDL,
Christian
Quote from: "Christian3004"Hi,
I was in HKDL end of October 2007 and must say that the overall guest attendance was pretty low. I was there on a business trip and asked my Chinese colleagues what might be the reason for the problems. It's quite clear: You can already get a copy of Disneyland and parts of it in a lot of Chinese amusement parcs as they generally don't care about any of Disney's rights!!! Same problems for Disney as for other western companies. My colleague told me that he saw a report about the Chinese amusement parcs on TV (they have more than 2000!!!!!!! parcs) and has seen in one parc a copy of Mickey Mouse directly next to Hello Kitty. Quite strange and if this is the reason, I see no chance for Disney to overcome the problem.
Personally, I feel that the park is pretty small and has a lack of attractions. It took my roughly six hours to see nearly everything (not all shows, but all attractions!!!).
Good luck HKDL,
Christian
Thanks for the report,at last someone who has actually been there to report what is going on.
Quote from: "Christian3004"Hi,
I was in HKDL end of October 2007 and must say that the overall guest attendance was pretty low. I was there on a business trip and asked my Chinese colleagues what might be the reason for the problems. It's quite clear: You can already get a copy of Disneyland and parts of it in a lot of Chinese amusement parcs as they generally don't care about any of Disney's rights!!! Same problems for Disney as for other western companies. My colleague told me that he saw a report about the Chinese amusement parcs on TV (they have more than 2000!!!!!!! parcs) and has seen in one parc a copy of Mickey Mouse directly next to Hello Kitty. Quite strange and if this is the reason, I see no chance for Disney to overcome the problem.
Personally, I feel that the park is pretty small and has a lack of attractions. It took my roughly six hours to see nearly everything (not all shows, but all attractions!!!).
Good luck HKDL,
Christian
Disney could have easily overcome that fake competition by going "grande". The original project called for a massive resort (DLRP sized) with a Frontierland and a Toon Town on opening day. Attractions would have included Dinoland USA (in Adventureland), Tough to be a Bug, Haunted Mansion, a River Raft ride, Raging Spirits, Peter Pan's Flight and more!! These were all announced in '99 in a press release (//http://homepage.hkdlsource.com/park/announcement), but
someone chopped up those plans...
Now that is what you call a Disney Park, excellent link, and they say lighting does not strike twice, at least our problem has been/is being solved. I think this will become a long story and reading reports i can see a unhappy ending like never seen in disney history.
The soap opera continues:
Quote from: "Mickeynews.com"Hong Kong senior government official on Wednesday publicly criticized the territory's 2-year-old Disney theme park, saying its performance was 'not satisfactory.'
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Frederick Ma told legislators the government wanted to see urgent improvements at the 3.5-billion-US-dollar park, which was largely funded by public money.
Hong Kong Disneyland fell 500,000 visitors short of its first-year visitor target of 5.7 million and is believed to have had only around 4 million visitors in its second year, which ended September.
'The first two years of Hong Kong Disneyland's operations were not satisfactory, and the park is still trying to adapt to the local operational environment,' Ma said.
'The government will continue to urge the park management to formulate cost-effective business strategies to improve the park's operational efficiency and work more closely with the local travel trade with a view to realizing the true economic potential of the Disney park,' he said.
Ma's remarks are the most critical so far of senior officials in Hong Kong who have up to now been largely defensive of the theme park's management and operations.
Disneyland has refused to release attendance figures for the 120-hectare park, citing commercial secrecy, but has admitted to falling short of financing targets.
The Hong Kong park, the first Disney theme park in China, has been criticized for being too expensive and for being short on attractions compared to sister parks in Paris, Tokyo and the United States.
Source: http://www.mickeynews.com (http://www.mickeynews.com)
It's gonna take alot of work to fix the problems. Offtoppic, I love that halloween parade
I have read today that they are intorducing 4 new "small attractions" by spring next year?,now bear in mind they class the stitch attraction as an E ride and the timeframe for building 4 new attractions i am not dusting my passport to visit.
Quote from: "Haz"I have read today that they are intorducing 4 new "small attractions" by spring next year?,now bear in mind they class the stitch attraction as an E ride and the timeframe for building 4 new attractions i am not dusting my passport to visit.
I don't know what three of them are, but I know that one of them is an updated version of 'It's a Small World', hopefully that'll help them out a bit [-o<
Where did you read this, Haz? Could you share a source? :)
Quote from: "The Butlin Boy"Quote from: "Haz"I have read today that they are intorducing 4 new "small attractions" by spring next year?,now bear in mind they class the stitch attraction as an E ride and the timeframe for building 4 new attractions i am not dusting my passport to visit.
I don't know what three of them are, but I know that one of them is an updated version of 'It's a Small World', hopefully that'll help them out a bit [-o<
No, actually Its A Small World is the 5th attraction to debut this spring. Hong Kong Disneyland officialy announced today the arrival of 4 new additions to the park:
-Muppet Mobile Lab (from DCA/Epcot)
-High School Musical Celebration (from DCA/MGM/WDS)
-Nemo Submarine Turtle Talk (the promotion camper from the Subs at Anaheim or Turtle Talk from DCA/Epcot, not really clear at this point)
-Art of Animation (an exhibition with scale models, sketches etc from Disney and Pixar films)
These new additions will debut along with Its A Small World in spring 2008.
Source: //http://news.hkdlsource.com/story/257
I want Muppet Mobile Lab for Walt Disney Studios aswell! It looks very inventive and it would be cool to get some reference to the Muppets in Paris. :)
Quote from: "Baloo"Where did you read this, Haz? Could you share a source? :)
Baloo, i read it on screamscape and Miceage, screamscape named the attractions and they are as posted here.
Why does'nt Hong Kong Disneyland have annyone of the big actractions, like
the Big Thunder Mountain, or Space Mountain? Seems like a stupid decision to leave
those two actractions out.
They do have Space Mountain, but I agree, they don't even have Frontierland! :o
One would think they've learned from the mistakes they made with
Disneyland Resort Paris. They started with just 12 actractions at the time, and left
out some major ones too.
QuoteOne would think they've learned from the mistakes they made with
Disneyland Resort Paris.
One of the biggest complaints people had when Euro Disneyland opened, was not enough attractions. That's why The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast attractions were dropped in favour of the increased capacity programme, which included Casey Jr., The Old Mill, Storybookland, Fort Comstock, Le Passage Enchanté d'Aladdin and a few other minor attractions.
And what a mistake that was in my opinion!
But not at that time, they needed attractions fast and cheap.
no, your right. I think because none of the smaller attraction built had too much appeal for me, I guess I wish we had had an e ticket as planned
Quote from: "Screamscape"(12/11/08) According to this article (//http://www.topnews.in/struggling-hong-kong-disneyland-falls-short-visitor-target-297394) Hong Kong Disneyland only drew in 4.5 million guests this year, falling short of the 6.2 million they had hoped to get. This number is an improvement over last year's 4.17 million however. Of course these numbers are at odds with a previous article we quoted from over the summer that claimed that the resort was targeting only 5.6 million this year.
Well it's a shame they didn't reach their target, but it's an improvement :roll:
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