Disney scales new heights in Shanghai
A
simulated image of the Shanghai Disney Resort, which will be the first
such on the Chinese mainland when it opens in 2015. – China Daily
Shanghai resort will be Disney’s most technologically advanced yet.
AT first glance, it has the look of a cutting-edge, high-tech
exhibition. There’s a digital showroom that positions viewers into a 3D
experience, an electronic wristband that can be used as your admission
pass, and a talking robot that looks like a fortune-teller.
These exhibits were just a part of the Walt Disney Imagineering open house at the Disney D23 Expo held from Aug 9-11.
The weekend event took consumers behind the scenes to experience the
company’s many franchises through a mix of traditional storytelling and
new technologies.
The exhibit for D23, the official Disney fan club, was the third
bi-annual event held at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Southern
California.
Fans arrived from 48 states and 21 countries and formed long queues or waited anxiously in their tents to get a ticket.
But the fans who will have to wait even longer to interact with
Disney’s new technological gadgets and exhibits might be from China.
Many of the company’s new technologies on display at the D23 Expo
might make their way to the Disney resort in Shanghai when it opens in
2015.
During his frequent trips to China, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of
the Walt Disney Co, reiterated that he will give Chinese customers a
resort that is “authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese”.
The Shanghai park will be distinctive because “every single thing we
put in the Shanghai park will have been rethought, re-imagined, or even
re-engineered, to respond and make sure that we tailor everything for
our Chinese audience,” he said.
“It is going to be the best of Disney but designed specifically for the people of China,” he added.
The Shanghai resort will be Disney’s most technologically advanced, said Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
“Because we built it from scratch, it will be the most
technologically advanced park,” said Staggs. “We invented a number of
new ride systems for the park. Some of them will be very obvious. Some
of them will be part of the magic.”
Staggs said the resort will largely be based on the tendencies of
its customers. For example, at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida,
people come and stay for at least a week. In Tokyo, people tend to stay
for one or two days, he said.
He said the company will initially consider how visitors will use
the resort and its technology and then implement updates later as the
resort responds to that customer usage.
“We want to make sure we leverage technology to the greatest extent
possible to make it as easy and fun and convenient and, at the same
time, as personalised for each of our guests as possible,” Staggs said.
But the process of creating the Shanghai Disney Resort, the first
Disney resort in a developing market, created foreseeable challenges for
the resort’s designers and operators.
One of them is a lack of familiarity in China with Disney
franchises. While most Western consumers grew up with Disney’s movies,
stories, music or television shows, the majority of Chinese people can
only name a couple of Disney characters, such as Donald Duck or Mickey
Mouse.
That is slowly changing, said Zenia Mucha, executive vice-president and chief communications officer of the Walt Disney Co.
An increasing number of mainland Chinese have visited the company’s
theme parks around the world, which is building familiarity with the
company’s unique theme park experiences and storytelling.
Mike Crawford, general manager of Shanghai Disney Resort, said
guests at the resort will be able to experience even more of Disney,
whether as hotel guests touring nature-based experiences around the
resort’s lake, or while visiting the theme park.
“It is how we keep the guests’ memories alive,” Crawford said.
Disney also recognises the importance of great food to Chinese
consumers. Crawford said the resort is conducting food tastings and
research to understand the Chinese palate.
Speaking of the types of cuisines to be offered at the resort, he
said: “It is not so much about Western versus Chinese cuisine. Rather,
because of the different cuisines available in China, we are going to
have varieties of flavours representing the different cuisines of
China.”
He also said there will be international cuisines for Chinese consumers to experiment with new flavours.
Yang Yansong, associate professor of the Chinese Tourism Academy,
said Disney serves as a great venue for Chinese families who have found
it inconvenient to travel to Tokyo or Hong Kong.
Staggs has high hopes financially for the resort in Shanghai.
“We invest a tremendous amount to make our parks ready. It will take
some time for it to reach profitability. But we expect the park to be
there for decades, and therefore, a certain amount of patience in terms
of early return is both warranted and should be expected,” he said.
The chairman added that Disney’s park and resort businesses tend to
be sensitive to economic fluctuations, as was the case during the global
downturn between 2008 and 2010.
“The businesses dropped a bit more,” Staggs said. “But we have had
significant growth since then, and we have since achieved record level
profit. The growth has been good.”
Revenue for its parks and resorts last quarter increased
year-on-year by seven per cent to US$3.7bil (RM11.7bil) and operating
income increased nine per cent to US$689mil (RM2.2bil).
While some have worried that the geographical proximity between Hong
Kong Disneyland and the Shanghai Disney Resort may offset the number of
potential visitors, Staggs said the size of the potential audience is
large enough that business will be maximised at both sites.
“The best thing to do for Hong Kong is to make Shanghai successful
and vice versa,” he said. “The more Hong Kong is successful, the better
it is for Shanghai.”
The two Disney properties in Hong Kong and Shanghai will not affect
the volume of visitors to the Tokyo resort, Staggs said, because more
than 90% of visitors to the Japanese site are domestic travellers.
Staggs said they will continue to develop Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
The company has many new attractions that were recently launched or
are in the works, including New Fantasyland in Florida, which opened
last year; a new attraction in Paris that will open next summer and is
based on the Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille; three new theme lands to Hong Kong Disneyland; and the anticipated debut of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at Tokyo Disneyland, which is a 3-D attraction inspired by the Star Wars movies.
Staggs said the company’s biggest news will be the opening of the
Shanghai resort. He said Disney will continue to expand their properties
in Hong Kong and in Shanghai after its opening at the end of 2015.
In recent years, China has seen a cluster of theme parks and
resorts, with many brands developed into chains scattered across major
cities, such as the Happy Valley amusement parks developed by the
Overseas Chinese Town Enterprises Co.
The magic of Disneyland Parks and Resorts is not only about cartoon
characters or adventure facilities, but they also connect with Disney’s
various entertainment businesses, Staggs said. Over the years, The Walt
Disney Co has grown into a business empire with units ranging from
entertainment, parks and resorts to consumer products.
Among them, Disney’s films serve as the opportunity to explore new
themes in the parks while merging people deeper into the stories they
encounter, Staggs said.
During the tenure of Iger, Disney has reached a total shareholder
return of 193% and a market capitalisation that has risen to US$113.7bil
(RM360bil) from US$48.4bil (RM154bil) in 2005, when Iger became CEO,
said Orin C. Smith, independent lead director of the Disney board of
trustees.
With the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, major
investments in the company’s parks and resorts and an expansion into key
international markets, Disney has focused its next chapter of growth in
technology.
“Technology informs all of our creative businesses,” said Iger. “You
don’t succeed nor survive unless you are capable of adapting to new
technology and adopting technology in every aspect of how the company
runs.”
Iger said new technology is creating new venues by which Disney can
reach consumers and new ways that consumers consume intellectual
property.
In terms of future growth, it is also important to create new content, he said, citing YouTube as an example.
“We have to participate in these kinds of growth. We don’t have to
acquire any more to achieve that. We have to make sure we have infused
our creative talent with the mandate to tell our stories through these
new platforms.”
On the international market, borders have been broken down because of new technology, he said.
In talking about the company’s television division, Iger said it is
important to create locally and to embed talent locally so they
understand the people, culture, the government and the market.
“We believe in deepening our roots in places around the world such
as China, Russia and India,” he said. “In order for us to grow the
company internationally, we have to do so by organic investment and also
by acquisitions.”
Iger, who was excited about the park in Shanghai, said: “We are
building a future where children in China can grow up dreaming about a
trip to Disneyland in Shanghai.” – China Daily/Asia News Network
