Hong Kong Disneyland Case Study
Introduction The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Walt Disney Company and their expansion into Hong Kong with the theme park Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD). The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923 by Walt Disney. It was a company founded upon as an entertainment experience for people of all ages starting out with short films and then moving into full length motion pictures. Since its inception the Disney Company has grown into a worldwide organization and is made up of four major areas. Those areas are studio entertainment, consumer products, media networks, and parks and resorts. As of 2005 only two of these four areas were profitable, those being media networks and parks and resorts. Up until the opening of HKD, Disney had only four other theme parks throughout the world. The original park, Disneyland Resort, opened in 1955 in Anaheim, CA. The second park opened nearly twenty years later in Lake Buena Vista, FL and was called Walt Disney World Resort. In 1983 Disney went international opening up a park in Tokyo called Tokyo Disney Resort. This park was very successful and brought about the opening of Disney’s second international park in Paris called Disneyland Resort Paris, which opened in 1992 (Phatak p. 149-150). Disney Resort Paris was the least successful of the four parks for many different reasons, which leads us into the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, which took place in 2005.
Disney’s Strengths and Weaknesses As with any other company Disney has a long list of strengths along with weaknesses. The strengths that Disney possessed in terms of the Hong Kong park is that it is the second the established park in Asia, the government is the largest stakeholder, potential for neighboring countries to fly in and visit park, has the lowest ticket price of all parks, the staff speaks English, Chinese, and Cantonese, and they took into account the Chinese beliefs and traditions (Phatak 152-156). The last strength listed, taking into account
Disney’s Strengths and Weaknesses As with any other company Disney has a long list of strengths along with weaknesses. The strengths that Disney possessed in terms of the Hong Kong park is that it is the second the established park in Asia, the government is the largest stakeholder, potential for neighboring countries to fly in and visit park, has the lowest ticket price of all parks, the staff speaks English, Chinese, and Cantonese, and they took into account the Chinese beliefs and traditions (Phatak 152-156). The last strength listed, taking into account
References: Phatak, A. V. , Bhagat, R. S. & Kashlak, R. J.. (2009). International management Managing in a diverse and dynamic global environment (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.