Hong Kong News Releases

Hong Kong to launch stamps to mark Disneyland opening
Associated Press Newswires - September 09, 2005
HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong's postal authority will launch a series of stamps featuring Disney characters on Monday, the day the territory's Disneyland theme park opens.


AP: Disney Exec Says Hong Kong Park Ready
Associated Press Newswires - September 09, 2005
By WILLIAM FOREMAN
HONG KONG (AP) - Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger said Friday that Hong Kong Disneyland is "definitely ready" to open next week and called it a giant step for the company's plans to break into China's huge market.


A Trial Run Finds Hong Kong Disneyland Much Too Popular for Its Modest Size
The New York Times (Late Edition - Final) - September 08, 2005 - Front Page,
By KEITH BRADSHER
HONG KONG, Sept. 7 -- When the Walt Disney Company opened a European theme park on the outskirts of Paris in 1992, the park struggled to attract enough visitors, and the ones who came spent less than expected.

The new Hong Kong Disneyland, scheduled to open to the public on Monday, faces a quite different problem: too many guests, too many of whom clog restaurants while ordering long, expensive meals.

A charity day on Sunday that was supposed to test the park's ability to run at near-capacity of 30,000 people turned into a fiasco of hourlong lines for rides, food shortages, inadequate parking and even the temporary closing of an area of the park because of overcrowding. The English and Chinese-language media here have been full of unfavorable coverage of the park's modest size, and the financial secretary of Hong Kong, Henry Tang, has suggested that Disney reconsider how many people the park can really hold.


HONG KONG PARK: Classic Disney with an Asian accent
Associated Press Newswires - September 08, 2005
HONG KONG (AP) - Mickey Mouse, Sleeping Beauty's castle and the Lion King are all here at Disney's new theme park in Hong Kong, along with classic rides familiar to fans of other Disney theme parks -- Space Mountain, the Mad Hatter Tea Cups and Dumbo.

But in creating the Disney experience for a mostly Chinese audience, this thoroughly American -- and notoriously detail-obsessed -- company has incorporated many elements of local culture.



Hong Kong Disneyland won't cut its maximum capacity despite overcrowding fears
Associated Press Newswires - September 08, 2005
By HELEN LUK
HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong Disneyland said Thursday it won't cut its daily maximum capacity of 30,000 people despite complaints of large crowds and long queues from visitors during rehearsal days.

About 16,000 people -- one-third of them from mainland China -- were expected to attend the park's opening on Monday, said Eva Cheng, Hong Kong's tourism commissioner.

Many of the 29,000 visitors who visited Hong Kong Disneyland for a charity day last weekend complained of excessively long queues to enter the park as well as to get on rides, and critics have urged Disney to reduce its maximum daily capacity, local newspapers reported.


Disney Hong Kong to open longer to ease crowd surge: report
Agence France Presse - September 07, 2005
HONG KONG, Sept 7 (AFP) -
Disney's Hong Kong theme park will stay open for longer at weekends to avoid chaotic scenes witnessed when 29,000 descended on it during a pre-opening rehearsal day, local media reported Wednesday.