It would be hard for the Shanghai Disneyland to make a profit, with its 24 billion Yuan investment for the first phase of construction, excluding the land price and supporting facilities around, said Prof. Bao Jigang during the High Table Dinner held at UIC on 6 April.
As the guest speaker, Prof. Bao Jigang, Assistant President of Sun Yat-sen University, supervisor of doctoral students and Associate Director the Geographical Society of China, talked about the current situation of the earning performance of many theme parks in China, and provided a more in-depth analysis of the Hong Kong Disneyland and the Shanghai Disneyland, which just started construction on 8 April with a record high investment of 24 billion Yuan (approximately 3.7 billion US Dollar)，excluding land price.
Sharing the high table were Prof. Li Yiping, Dean of IBF in BNU Zhuhai Campus; Prof. Zee Szeyong, Vice President of UIC; Dr. Wendy Chan, Associate Vice President of UIC; Ms. Lillian Li, Chief of Development; Prof. Stephen CHUNG, Dean of DST; Prof. James Chen, Director of GEO; Dr. Tony Shi, Associate Director of the Whole Person Education Office; and Prof. Anthony IP from DBM .
Investing in a theme park is like gambling
Prof. Bao stated that the first theme park in Mainland China which was named "Splendid China" was a huge success. Located in Shenzhen, it quickly recovered its investment within a year, and made remarkable profits afterwards. Inspired by its success, such kind of theme parks mushroomed in the Pearl River Delta, with 17 theme parks built within a few years. How are they performing now? Prof. Bao said most of them had been shut down, and the very few sustaining ones are barely making ends meet.
There are also theme parks built in Shanghai, Suzhou and Wuxi. Prof. Bao analyzed a few common characteristics in: 1) High investment, 2) High ticket price and 3) the main tourist source are consumer groups within 3 hours' bus drive. That lack of sustainable development plans was a critical reason for the downturn of these theme parks. Prof. Bao said investing in a theme park was like gambling, for the investment was huge, and only a few could win, while most had to accept huge amounts of loss.
How about Disneyland?
As the world's most famous theme park, and with its impact on our childhood memories and excellent service, will Disneyland outshine others, or face the same destiny?
Prof. Bao analyzed the ticket price of Disneyland. He pointed out the ticket price of Disneyland in the U.S. was 1/75 of the income of the American middle class after tax, while the relative price in China was three times as high. "So when someone told me the price in the U.S. was about 300 Yuan and the one in China was only 100 Yuan, I said to them that 'It's easy for you to say for you guys never have to buy a ticket.' "
Disneyland entered Hong Kong with favorable terms offered by the Hong Kong Government in the hope of lifting the economy. It was estimated that it needed at least 80 million visitors in the first year and increase to 100 million visitors every year for the theme park to make a profit. But this figure had never been reached. It lost 1.9 billion HK dollars in 2008, 1.8 billion in 2009, and 800 million in 2010.
From this perspective, it would be hard for the Shanghai Disneyland to make a profit with such a huge investment, said Prof. Bao, who later enjoyed the high table dinner and exchange with our teachers and students.
Reporter: Fannie Liu, Deng Yawen
Photos taken by Fannie Liu
Editor: Richard Xu
MPRO
