Latest news from Shanghaî Disneyland! We knew that the park will be bigger than Hong Kong Disneyland but how bigger exactly will it be? Well, now we know: according to a SDL executive interview in a Bloomberg article: "Shanghai's Disneyland will be almost 85 acres, about 50 percent larger than the Hong Kong park at its opening, says one executive." "We learned a lot from Hong Kong," says Bob Iger, "In Shanghai, we're within a three hour's drive of 300 million people. That's a huge opportunity, and we have to be careful about how many will come and their visitation patterns."
We also knew that there will be traditional Disney rides and others based on Chinese culture as Bob Iger revealed but it's interesting to know that the company is now adding Chinese nationals to the SDL "imagineering" team to help develop the park.
Always from the article, "Disney isn't likely to repeat the cultural faux pas it made when it opened Disneyland Resort Paris in 1992, where food sales suffered because the park initially didn't serve wine with meals. In Hong Kong, Disney has cut the number of hot dogs in its restaurants in order to serve more dim sum and noodle dishes, says a Disney executive, and there is likely to be plenty of local fare in Shanghai. "Disney is paying a lot more attention now to cultural differences," say Evercore Partners (EVR) analyst Alan Gould".
"For Disney, which will own a 43 percent stake in the 963-acre resort (three state-owned companies own the rest), Shanghai is a $1.9 billion wager on a growing Chinese middle class who the company projects will spend $200 billion annually on leisure travel by 2015. It's also a bet that Disney's characters and 55-year history of running theme parks can be adapted to a culture it may not fully understand. Disney "has too much riding on China to let either Hong Kong or Shanghai fail."
Finally, we also know which company won the Shanghai Disneyland Insurance Policy and it's the China Pacific Insurance Group which will be "in charge of all risk and third-party obligation insurance for construction work on the first phase of Shanghai Disneyland". A total of 2.31 billion yuan will be insured by Pacific Insurance Group, which you will agree, is quite a lot of money.
I'll be back soon with a new great update about Shanghaî Disneyland, don't miss it!
