It is a cause for concern as Hong Kong Disneyland reports an increase in financial loss for 2016 because of the decrease of the number of people visiting the said theme park. This happened just two weeks after Walt Disney Co. reported to be struggling with Euro Disney.
This was not the first decrease in financial losses that hit Hong Kong Disneyland. According to LA Times, the theme park already suffered issues with finances a year prior to that. Now, however, the losses have increased because of the lack of customers.
In the reports, there was a huge gap of these financial losses of Hong Kong Disneyland. To give you a picture, there was around $19 million lost in 2015 and around $22-million lost in 2016. That is roughly around $2 million increase of losses. The number of visitors also decreased a great deal, 11% to be exact.
Hong Kong Disneyland is one of the most visited sites for tourists. There are no issues with the number of international tourists visiting the theme park and the reports even said that there is an increase of the visits from tourists abroad. However, what caused the decline was the decreasing number of local tourists.
According to The Standard, executive director of Hong Kong Disneyland Samuel Lau said that the reason for their financial losses is the softness in the economic market. One of the thought of causes was the opening of another theme park in China, the Shanghai Disney Resort. These allegations were immediately dismissed as Lau said that China is a big market that can accommodate these two parks thus there will not be any reason for rivalry.
Lau added that they remain optimistic despite the recent challenges and financial losses of Hong Kong Disneyland. They even added new features such as rides connected to the "Star Wars" and Marvel franchises. Christine McCarthy, Walt Disney Co. Financial Officer reported that early this year, results are brighter for the theme park as they saw improvement in finances. They are hopeful that this good news would keep going until the end of their fiscal year in 2017.
