Hong Kong - Lawmakers in Hong Kong Friday approved a major expansion of the city's troubled Disneyland theme park which will see 30 new attractions added in an attempt to draw more visitors. 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.
At a debate Friday, 28 Hong Kong lawmakers approved the expansion although five voted against it and 10 abstained. Many lawmakers complain Hong Kong has had a poor deal out of the Disneyland project.
The expansion will take place over the next four years and will see the size of the park increase by around 25 per cent, with at least 30 new rides and attractions added.
It follows 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 have complained it has too few attractions 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.
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 believe it will draw Chinese visitors away from the Hong Kong park.
