Attendance increased three percent to 6.2 million guests in 2017, according to the park, which is owned by the Hong Kong government with Disney owning a 47 percent, minority stake. And the park did even better with visitors from outside China. International visitors accounted for 1.5 of Hong Kong Disneyland's visitors last year, which marked a five percent increase over the previous year.
Hong Kong Disneyland's visitors were spending, too, with revenue at the park up eight percent, to HK$5.1 billion (US$652 million). However, the park doubled its net losses for the year, which swelled from just under HK$22 million to just over HK$44 million.
The good news for fans is that the loss in the face of increased attendance and spending was due to Hong Kong Disneyland spending heavily on new attractions, including the new Iron Man Experience ride and Disney Explorers Lodge hotel. Hong Kong Disneyland will continue spending on new attractions in the years to come, opening a new Ant-Man themed overlay to its old Buzz Lightyear ride later this year, doubling the size of its castle, and adding other Marvel and Frozen-themed attractions after that.
Disney's top theme park in terms of attendance is Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, which attracted more than 20 million visitors in 2016, according to the latest TEA/AECOM industry attendance report. Today's report suggests that Hong Kong Disneyland ranks 11th of the 12 Disney theme parks around the world in attendance, beating only Paris' Walt Disney Studios theme park, which drew just under five million visitors in 2016. WDS's sister park Disneyland Paris drew more than eight million visitors, leaving the single-park Hong Kong resort as Disney's smallest by attendance. In that latest TEA/AECOM report, Hong Kong edged out Shanghai Disneyland, but that park was open for only half the year in 2016 and has exceeded 10 million visitors in 2017. Still, the 2017 attendance increase for the Hong Kong park shows that Shanghai isn't cannibalizing its attendance, as some has feared might happen.
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1.5 million? Or 1.5%? I'm pretty sure it's not 1.5 people. :P
I love HKDL, and if attendance remains low, or dips after the surge of guests that want to see all the new stuff, it'll be good for me! That's my favorite thing about the park - it's so easy to do everything without the crowds of Florida or California (or Tokyo, as I've read).
I can't wait to go back, but I'll definitely wait until much of the $1.4b expansion is complete. No hurry.
Does Disney really want to be known for this? Bending over backwards to assist the Chinese dictatorship and their North Korean nuclear puppet state, even while Disney rips off our American democracy. Big Business is out of control. The tail shouldn't wag the dog.
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