Preview

Hong Kong Disneyland Case Study

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2059 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hong Kong Disneyland Case Study
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY This paper will analyze Hong Kong Disneyland that was built y Disney in conjunction with the Hong Kong government. The local culture of the people of Hong Kong and how it is related to the operation of business especially the tourism industry, which Disneyland will fall under, will be closely examined. The author chose Hong Kong Disneyland, a theme park built and operated by a new-joint venture, between the Government of Hong Kong and the Walt Disney Company. In this report the author uses Disney as the subject of the paper as it is a new business venture in the tourism industry in Hong Kong. Disney started its business in Hong Kong since September 12th 2005 therefore evaluations and analysis are still in their early stages. This report will give a brief background of Disney and will then go on to analyze the various methods for strategic analysis to examine the culture. The paper will use some cultural theories in order to provide a comprehensive background as to the cross cultural awareness of the company with the culture of a state. INTRODUCTION Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD) is among five such theme parks located on a reclaimed area in Penny’s Bay, Lantau Island. According to Miller (2007), it was opened on September 12, 2005, considered a good date by Chinese calendar for opening a new business. Hong Kong Disneyland was built and operated by a new-joint venture company, the Hong Kong International Theme Parks Ltd (HKITP), as formed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government which owned 57% and the Walt Disney Company owning 43% according to Miller (2007). According to Hills and Welford (2006), although Disney invested $316 million and the Hong Kong government invested $2.9 billion, Disney has no ownership of the land. Disney tried to avoid the culture clash that was experienced when Disneyland Resort Paris was opened in France by incorporating local cultural elements in HKD. It was projected that the theme
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analyse the marketing decisions within a travel and tourism organisation in relation to the marketing mix influencing factors.
    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analyse the marketing decisions within a travel and tourism organisation in relation to the marketing mix influencing factors.

    In order for Disneyland Paris to keep running successfully, it has to look at the main factors that can affect its business. The main factors should be analysed by the developing company to be more aware of how to manage their target market. Disneyland Paris has many target markets which the main one is “Disney family” so they need to think through what kind of products that they have to offer to this type of customers and how they’re going to market it. This type of customers “Disney family” is a really important because it’s such a large target market and so therefore the market team needs to be more aware of how they’re going to take advantage of this large market.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Was The Walt Disney's Cultural Problem
    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page

    What Was The Walt Disney's Cultural Problem

    The Walt Disney Company were faced with cultural problems in opening theme parks outside the U.S. They wanted Mickey Mouse to grow international bounds in their foreign theme parks. The other countries did not want the American icon Mickey Mouse as a representation of their culture. They had to develop new attractions, lower admission prices and a massive marketing campaign to increase attendance. Disney had to learn and understand culture in the countries so it can appear universal, events, trends, and cuisine was their expressing their message. They had to understand the culture such as the fourth floor was passed over at all hotels because of a culture belief that the number four was bad luck in Hong Kong. One of the Disneyland ballroom…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Tokyo Disneyland: Some Basic Facts
    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tokyo Disneyland: Some Basic Facts

    1.1 Tokyo Disneyland opened on 15 April 1983 at a cost of US$1.4 billion. It is located on a reclaimed site about 10 km from downtown Tokyo. Tokyo Disneyland is privately owned by Oriental Land, a land-reclamation company in partnership with Mitsui Real Estate and the Keisei Railway Company. 1.2 Talks between Disney and Oriental Land started in the early 1970’s. Basically, Oriental Land is the owner and licensee; Disney is the designer and licensor. The final contract which was signed in 1979 gave Disney 5 per cent of the gross revenue on all food and merchandise, 10 percent of the gross on admissions, and 10% of any corporate sponsorship agreement, in exchange for a token US$2.5 million investment in the park. In 1980, the construction cost was estimated to be around US$250 million. Disney earned a fee for developing the park, retained complete design control, and retained significant control over park operations through a series of highly detailed operating manuals. 1.3 The partnership plans to build next to the present site a second theme park called Tokyo DisneySea due to open in 2001. Total cost will amount to US$3 billion.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Euso Disney Stakeholders
    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Euso Disney Stakeholders

    Euro Disney S.C.A is a French public company that owns the well-known Euro Disneyland Paris. I have chosen to study this company because it was the subject of many controversies .The French society considers that by encouraging the American brand ``Walt Disney`` will unfortunately lead to `cultural imperialism`. French media and labor unions mounted protests against ``Walt Disney`` because the American managers tried to enforce specific rules without taking into consideration cultural differences. A journalist in the French newspaper ``Le Figaro`` wrote, “I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to Euro Disneyland."[i] It is not easy at all to import a brand especially when USA and France have different cultural and economical backgrounds, codes, regulations and laws. I find it challenging to understand how Euro Disney S.C.A succeeded to pursue its goal and what assurances they gave to its stakeholders as the environment becomes more and more volatile.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Disney Asia
    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Disney Asia

    With its large population, and low number of theme parks, Asia is an attractive location for Disney. Already, the company has been successful in Tokyo. While its park in Hong Kong has been less profitable, the company believes that further expansion into the region is worthwhile. However, the company faces a number of cultural challenges that must be overcome. Certainly language poses a problem for the company. At Hong Kong Disneyland, the company has chosen to be trilingual for example. In addition to dealing with language differences, Disney must also tailor other components to meet the local needs. The Hong Kong location includes more covered space to allow people to enjoy the park without dealing with the region’s rainy weather, special gardens for picture taking that appeal to the preferences of tourists visiting the park have been created, and the menu has been adapted to local preferences. Plans for the Shanghai location will incorporate Chinese cultural features as well as more traditional Disney themes.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Disney: Losing Magic in the Middle Kingdom - Executive Summary
    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Disney: Losing Magic in the Middle Kingdom - Executive Summary

    With a revenue of $10.6 billion, Disney was one the global players in the theme park entertainment industry. The first Disneyland theme park was opened successfully in California in 1955, following Disneyland theme parks in Florida, Tokyo and a less successful one in France. In order to raise awareness of the brand “Disney” in China, another Disneyland was to be set up in Hong Kong in cooperation with its government. Hong Kong was thought to be well suited as a location for a new park, the population was receptive to foreign and new things and, due to Disney’s presence in television and cinema, children were familiar with the Disney characters. On the other hand, there were many characteristics of the Hong Kong population, which contradicted Disney’s factors of success. First of all, the number of children in Hong Kong, Disney’s target audience, was quite low and expected to drop in the future. Second, parents focused on their children’s education and not their entertainment. Inhabitants were known to be very busy and impatient, making them unsuited for rides with long waiting time. As experienced in Tokyo, the biggest group of adult visitors was married women having the time to take their children to the park. Because women in Hong Kong usually kept on working after marrying, another target group was unreachable in Hong Kong. For Hong Kong’s inhabitants their entertainment had to be convenient, comfortable, fast and inexpensive, characteristics that Disneyland didn’t fulfil. Last but not least, tourists visiting Hong Kong were either mainlanders, who weren’t familiar with Disney, or overseas, who travelled there to experience the authentic Hong Kong feel. Nevertheless Disneyland Hong Kong was being built.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    To what extent is the ability to adapt to local cultures and tastes the key factor in determining the success of businesses trading with or operating in China?
    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages

    To what extent is the ability to adapt to local cultures and tastes the key factor in determining the success of businesses trading with or operating in China?

    One way that the ability to adapt to local cultures and tastes is the key factor in determining the success of a business in china is because it makes sure that the business has a product that the market wants to buy. Disneyland is one company who did not manage to initially adapt their product to the chinese market. Disney did not research the chinese market enough before entering the chinese market assuming that they would like the typical American image that they had. This proved wrong as consumers were unfamiliar with the product and did not connect with the typical Disney characters. This meant that Disney had entered the market with a product that the chinese did not feel comfortable with because it was not the type of product that they were used to. Therefore the Hong Kong based park did not attract many customers resulting in low sales for Disneyland costing them money. In the long run this meant that they had to spend more money on adapting the park to the consumers needs in order to attract the chinese customers. They did this in ways such as reducing the price to meet chinese low income levels and having to adapt the labour practices, décor and settings and to the local visitors customs. Because of these mistakes made by Disney that cost them more than was expected they could have potentially failed as a business in china if it was not for them…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    History of Disneyland
    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    History of Disneyland

    In 1995 Disneyland was opened to everyone to visit the wonderland. In that year a 100 acre parking lot and also a hotel branded as the Disneyland Hotel that was been controlled by Disney's corporate partner Jack Wrather was built. After gaining success from the multi-park and multi-hotel business model at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disney unhesitatingly made up his mind to spread his business in Anaheim as well. So to do so he had to request for big parcels of land area for Disneyland, Disney’s idea was also to buy the…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Euro Disney- Case Study
    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Euro Disney- Case Study

    Anaheim Disneyland was successful. In the 1970s, Florida was another miracle. In 1983, Disneyland in Tokyo proved that the Japanese really liked their Mickey Mouse. Disney cross-cultural successful marketing made Japanese people happy. Disney then turned their attention to Paris, which is called as an European high culture, high style and high-taste of city. Many people ask: "why they selected Paris?" When the Disney company wanted to build a theme park in Europe, more than 200 regional administrative officials around the world pleaded with cash to lure Disney company to build the park in their hometown like creating medicine miracle. Finally Disney company picked Paris, which was considered in terms of demographic and financial subsidies. Approximately 17 million Europeans living in less than two-hour car journey from Paris. There are 310 million people with less than two hours flying to Paris. In addition, the French government was eager to attract the Disney company to Paris…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Disney Environmental Impacts (Hong Kong)
    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Disney Environmental Impacts (Hong Kong)

    The Hong Kong Disneyland is the fifth Disneyland styled theme park in the world that was opened in 2005 September and is one of the most popular attractions in Hong Kong. The park includes 4 themed lands , Fantasyland, Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland and Tomorrowland. Although it is the smallest Disney Park, 5.6 million visitors were expected during the first year. Many other rides will be constructed and finished in the ongoing years to come. Hong Kong officials anticipate that Disneyland would be a good boost for tourism and a great place to establish a foothold in China. It is located in Penny Bay, Lantau Island that is famous for being the green part of Hong Kong. Before construction, Penny Bay was an untouched vegetation area, treasured for the old relics from its days as a port for trading ships but now after Disneyland has been built it has affected a lot of areas around Lantau island and these are the environmental impacts that will be discussed next.…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Samsung Park Theme
    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Samsung Park Theme

    1. Global Context: Is this theme park industry a profitable one to be in? 2. Country Context: Will this idea work in Korea? 3. Corporate Context: Should Samsung invest in this? 4. Key Success Factors How do we do this? 5. Implications for Disneyland in Hong Kong…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Disney in Tokyo and Paris
    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Disney in Tokyo and Paris

    Disney failed to realize that while its strategy in Japan worked for Japan, its Japan strategy was not going to work in Paris. Disney decided to photo copy their operation and learned that was not acceptable. In 1992, several unforeseen issues arose that Disney was not prepared to handle. There were transatlantic airfare wars and currency movements that lead people to avoid traveling to Paris. Also, Disney was expecting a flocking of French people to visit the park; yet again basing their assumptions on the performance of the Japanese park (Cateora & Graham, 2007).…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marketing Case Study - Disneyland Hong Kong
    • 1118 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Marketing Case Study - Disneyland Hong Kong

    The venture into Hong Kong by Walt Disney was a simple example of a large successful western company not doing its homework. The case presents a clear picture of the importance of understanding a foreign market thoroughly before doing business there. Several factors led to an unsuccessful first year of operations and a majority of these factors could have been avoided with a better cultural understanding in the planning stages. One of the culture differences that was obvious to Disney was the fact that the children are not familiar with the Disney characters. Disney has established its brand and is a marketing poster child in the United States, however this advantage goes out the window in a country such as china that has sheltered itself from the outside world until recently. Disney thought that making a meager attempt at introducing the characters before the launch of the park would help, however familiarity isn’t synonymous with brand attachment. As listed in Global Marketing Management by Kotable & Helson, “Cultural Distance” is one of the six external criteria for choosing a mode of entry into a foreign territory, which was not accounted for by Disney. Cultural distance also recognizes the fact that different cultures have different expectations. This was also the case with China. As stated in the case, “for the tourists of Mainland China, going to Hong Kong means a shopping experience, and so they choose the cheaper alternative to Hong Kong Disneyland…” The case goes on to allude to the fact that the culture in China is one about dollars and cents – when a Chinese person spends his/her money, they are more interested in what they are physically getting. This is very…

    • 1118 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tourism in Hong Kong
    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tourism in Hong Kong

    In the light of the lack of attractions, Hong Kong government introduces Disneyland to the city. To a certain extend, the Disneyland proposal is a high sounding one. ¡§Disneyland is unable to understand the Asian mind-set in terms of their customer and staff¡¨ (¡§Disneyland finds¡¨,2006). The failure of Disneyland to understand the culture of China makes it receive a bunch of compliant letters. Disneyland then appears to be struggle very hard to build up its goodwill in the region.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Swot of Hong Kong Disneyland
    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Swot of Hong Kong Disneyland

    Hong Kong Disneyland's advantages: 1. Hong Kong has advantages such as geography, population, adjacent to the largest market in the world. Within 5 hours flying time, covering half of the world's population. 2. well-known brand--Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World cultural genius lies in its culture around the world to be "United States-processing". Classical inheritance of the culture has a strong sense of self-ability, Disney have cultural capture world of classical culture that last forever tree body, to fight the United States fashion the essence of "production" rather than "writing" mode to bulk sales of 3. Advanced technology and management philosophy of "SCSE" charm at Disney University, is the most typical dialogue exercises training new employees: Instructor: "we all know that McDonald's hamburgers. What did Walt Disney production? " New employee: "Disney to bring joy to people!" "Happy" Disney whether or not it is located in what part of the world, is pursuing a "SCSE" business philosophy, safe (safe), polite (civility), performance (show), efficiency (efficiency). Disney connotation to it: to ensure our guests comfort and safety; our staff polite; ensure that our performances are full of magic; guarantees our business with high efficiency. 4. the Romans do, positive Park localization. Disneyland after transplanted to Hong Kong attach great importance to the Feng Shui layout. Regardless of is paradise entry, also is small to a spent a grass, and a tree a wood, are after Feng Shui Division carefully planning; Disney Company more in Park within Hotel ad hoc a to "five" for theme of "Feng Shui in the restaurant", not only in restaurant layout joined "gold, and wood, and water, and fire, and soil" elements, even meal single also to "five" for theme. Disadvantage: cultural differences; Preparation for 6 years of opening of Hong Kong Disneyland on September 12. Back in 1999, in the face of financial crisis, economic downturn, high unemployment rate in…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics