Hong Kong - Hong Kong's troubled Disneyland theme park is to be expanded by a quarter with 30 new attractions to be added over the next five years, the city's leader said Tuesday. The Walt Disney Co is to pay about 450 million US dollars for the expansion in return for the government of the former British colony reducing its stake in the 4-year-old park from 57 to 52 per cent.
The expansion plans followed two years of sometimes bad-tempered talks between the government and Disney over how to increase attendance at the park, the smallest Disney theme park in the world.
Visitors complained it had too few attractions to occupy a day despite high ticket prices, and the prospect of a new, bigger Disney park opening soon in Shanghai added to concerns over the park's future.
Announcing the deal, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said the expansion would increase the number of themed areas in the park from four to seven and give the city a tourism and jobs boost.
"Disneyland is a major tourism infrastructure of Hong Kong," he said. "Its expansion will bring significant benefits to our tourism industry and to the overall economy.
"During construction, the project will create more than 3,000 jobs, and in full operation, it will then provide 600 more permanent employment opportunities," he said.
The initial cost of setting up the theme park on Hong Kong's Lantau Island, the first Disney park on Chinese soil, was around 3.5 billion US dollars with taxpayers controversially footing the lion's share of the bill.
The park fell around 500,000 visitors short of its 5.7 million first-year target after opening in September 2005 and has refused to reveal attendance figures since amid speculation that attendance had fallen further since.
Disney has since pressed ahead with talks to open a bigger park in Shanghai to the considerable annoyance of Hong Kong officials, who said they believe it would draw Chinese visitors away from the Hong Kong park.
