Disney chair and CEO Bob Iger has said that the operator’s new Shanghai venture has “ample expansion possibilities” following a strong opening three months.
Disneyland Shanghai,
which opened on 17 June this year, has enjoyed a strong start to life as a visitor attraction, with the company reporting 95 per cent occupancy rates and visitors staying two hours longer on average than expected.
“We've had a fantastic opening for Shanghai starting from opening day,” said Iger, speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia Conference.
“We are not updating specific numbers in regards to visitor numbers, but I can say that had it not been for some typhoon-like weather there last week, the first 100 days of Shanghai would have delivered more in attendance than any park that we've ever opened. In fact Disneyland Shanghai delivered more in its first 100 days than most of the parks we've ever opened.”
With business booming in Shanghai, Iger said that there was great potential to expand, with a yet-to-be-revealed expansion already having broken ground.
“We have ample expansion possibilities,” said Iger. “We’re already building an expanded land which we broke ground on before we opened this park, but we’ve not been specific about what it is or when it will open. Once that work is completed, we have tons of land there to build even more. Currently we’re in the design phase on a lot of it and we’re in discussions with our partners about these plans.”
Disneyland Shanghai represents Disney’s first venture into mainland China, which Chinese president Xi Jinping heralded as a sign of China’s “commitment to cross-cultural cooperation and our innovation mentality in the new era.”
The US$5.5bn (€4.9bn, £4.2bn) theme park and resort – the largest foreign investment ever made by Disney – features its biggest castle, two hotels and six themed lands: Adventure Isle, Gardens of Imagination, Mickey Avenue, Tomorrowland, Treasure Cove and Fantasyland.
