Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Wednesday announced elevation of Bill Ernest to President and Managing Director, Asia. But it denied plans for imminent theme park expansion.

          Company said that the newly created position indicates that WDPR is putting new emphasis on Asia, including South East Asia. Ernest is currently head of the Hong Kong Disneyland park which was launched in September 2005.

          "This promotion is a testament to Bill’s leadership, his instrumental role in opening Hong Kong Disneyland, and also underscores the company’s commitment to international growth, especially in this region," Jay Rasulo, chairman of WDPR, said.

          WDPR played down any connection with statements made Tuesday about expansion into South East Asia by the boss of Tokyo Disneyland.

          Speaking at celebrations for the Tokyo park's 25th anniversary Toshio Kagami, chairman of Oriental Land, which operates the park as a franchise, said that the company wanted to operate a park outside Japan – and added that SE Asia was its top priority. Kagami did not specify that he wanted to open a Disney-themed park.

          "We're celebrating our 25th anniversary and Mr. Kagami was speaking about new challenges for our next 25 years," the spokesman explained Wednesday. "A park outside Japan is one possible challenge, though nothing has been decided yet."

"The (Ernest) appointment reflects more than theme parks and is really about Disney's growing presence in Asia. In the past months we have bought a major stake in Indian TV (33% of UTV, Variety, Feb 18) and a Chinese games company (GameStar, Variety, April 8)," company spokesman BC Lo, said.

"It is widely known that we are talking to the Shanghai government about a park there and that they are talking to central government. Though as yet there is no agreement and no deal," Lo said. 

Spokesman explained that Ernst's job involves more than just parks, and also includes Disney-themed hotels. WDPR does not currently operate any stand alone hotels in Asia, though it has begun construction of one in Hawaii.

Accolades for Ernest and determination to expand in Asia come despite lackluster results for Hong Kong Disneyland, which missed its first year targets and saw attendance fall 23% in the second full year of operation.

"Multi-million dollar investments of this kind do not make their money back straight away. We are only at the beginning," Lo said. He said that company began detailed discussions with the park's majority owner, the Hong Kong government, last year concerning "capital realignment" and plans to convert debt into equity.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, launched in 2001, recorded a total of 25,424,000 visitors in fiscal 2007-08, which ended on March 31, 2008. Visitor attendance has been stable in recent years, but as Japan's population ages, Oriental warned that those numbers may sag.

Oriental ,which has built other facilities around the Chiba Prefecture park into a Disney Resort, is now looking to attract more foreign visitors to the existing park and to expand its own operations abroad.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bookmark with..

Comments (0)

Write comment

This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.

There is a problem with the comment system, or you do not have javascript enabled.