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Disney Unveils Tomorrowland for Chinese in $5.5 Billion Park - Bloomberg Business
Walt Disney Co.’s new park in China will offer Jet Packs, a rafting adventure, rides on a Tron-themed Lightcycle and the largest parade in any of its resorts, all aimed at winning over Chinese customers.
The Shanghai park, scheduled to open next spring, includes six themed lands such as Mickey Avenue and Tomorrowland, and an area where visitors can interact with characters from the Star Wars and Marvel movies. They were unveiled Wednesday at a press conference in Shanghai.
Disney’s first resort in the Chinese mainland “celebrates and embraces China’s incredibly rich heritage,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said at the media event in Shanghai. It’s meant to “delight and entertain the people of China for generations to come,” he said.
The $5.5 billion Disney Shanghai Resort, which the company is building with local partners, is served by two hotels -- Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and Toy Story Hotel. The project is Disney’s largest foreign investment and a big bet on the growth of middle-class consumers in the world’s most-populous country.
Under a strategy Iger calls “authentically Disney, distinctly Chinese,” the world’s largest entertainment company is trying to include as much local content as possible to appeal to Chinese consumers and avoid complaints of cultural imperialism that greeted its resort in France.
The park, which Disney began building in April 2011, is located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China’s wealthiest metropolis. It’s the centerpiece of a 20-square-kilometer (7.7 square mile) tourism and resorts zone, adjacent to Pudong International Airport.
Hong Kong Disney
Disney is opening the resort in the face of an economic slowdown in China. The world’s largest theme-park operator also will have to deal with increased competition, including a Universal Studios theme park being built in Beijing, and a studio and entertainment center in Shanghai from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
The company also operates a Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, opened in 2005.
Disney will keep developing both the Hong Kong and Shanghai resorts as it wants them to stay relevant, said Bob Weis, Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, the unit responsible for content creation for the resorts.
It’s a “tremendous opportunity” as the Chinese are increasingly focused on travel and staying at resorts which is a trend that Disney wants to be a leader in, said Weis said at the Shanghai press event.
Burbank, California-based Disney previously released only a few details about the Shanghai project. Its Enchanted Storybook Castle will be the largest such structure at any of its parks.
The parks and resorts division is Disney’s second largest, after TV networks, accounting for 31 percent of the company’s $48.8 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year.
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Walt Disney Co.’s new park in China will offer Jet Packs, a rafting adventure, rides on a Tron-themed Lightcycle and the largest parade in any of its resorts, all aimed at winning over Chinese customers.
The Shanghai park, scheduled to open next spring, includes six themed lands such as Mickey Avenue and Tomorrowland, and an area where visitors can interact with characters from the Star Wars and Marvel movies. They were unveiled Wednesday at a press conference in Shanghai.
Disney’s first resort in the Chinese mainland “celebrates and embraces China’s incredibly rich heritage,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said at the media event in Shanghai. It’s meant to “delight and entertain the people of China for generations to come,” he said.
The $5.5 billion Disney Shanghai Resort, which the company is building with local partners, is served by two hotels -- Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and Toy Story Hotel. The project is Disney’s largest foreign investment and a big bet on the growth of middle-class consumers in the world’s most-populous country.
Under a strategy Iger calls “authentically Disney, distinctly Chinese,” the world’s largest entertainment company is trying to include as much local content as possible to appeal to Chinese consumers and avoid complaints of cultural imperialism that greeted its resort in France.
The park, which Disney began building in April 2011, is located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China’s wealthiest metropolis. It’s the centerpiece of a 20-square-kilometer (7.7 square mile) tourism and resorts zone, adjacent to Pudong International Airport.
Hong Kong Disney
Disney is opening the resort in the face of an economic slowdown in China. The world’s largest theme-park operator also will have to deal with increased competition, including a Universal Studios theme park being built in Beijing, and a studio and entertainment center in Shanghai from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
The company also operates a Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, opened in 2005.
Disney will keep developing both the Hong Kong and Shanghai resorts as it wants them to stay relevant, said Bob Weis, Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, the unit responsible for content creation for the resorts.
It’s a “tremendous opportunity” as the Chinese are increasingly focused on travel and staying at resorts which is a trend that Disney wants to be a leader in, said Weis said at the Shanghai press event.
Burbank, California-based Disney previously released only a few details about the Shanghai project. Its Enchanted Storybook Castle will be the largest such structure at any of its parks.
The parks and resorts division is Disney’s second largest, after TV networks, accounting for 31 percent of the company’s $48.8 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year.
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