Cartoons

Finally profitable

Finally profitable

Most Disney films have a familiar structure: the protagonist must fight adversity before receiving the obligatory happy ending. That too seems to have been the plot line of Disney’s theme park in Hong Kong. After six years of financial losses, Disney’s management had to figure out how to turn the red ink black. That involved luring ever more mainland Chinese tourists, says CBN. And finally, the happy ending has arrived: Disney just announced that its Hong Kong park turned profitable for the first time last year. Not massively so, mind you: it made just HK$109 million ($14 million). However, the park’s turnover has risen 70% in the past five years to HK$4.27 billion and it has seen a big improvement in attendances. For example, in its worst year (the second) only 4 million passed through the gates; last year 6.73 million visited the ‘house of mouse’. Mainland Chinese make up around 50% of Disneyland’s visitors.


© ChinTell Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sponsored by HSBC.

The Week in China website and the weekly magazine publications are owned and maintained by ChinTell Limited, Hong Kong. Neither HSBC nor any member of the HSBC group of companies ("HSBC") endorses the contents and/or is involved in selecting, creating or editing the contents of the Week in China website or the Week in China magazine. The views expressed in these publications are solely the views of ChinTell Limited and do not necessarily reflect the views or investment ideas of HSBC. No responsibility will therefore be assumed by HSBC for the contents of these publications or for the errors or omissions therein.