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Welcome to the wonderful world of
China
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Undaunted by the huge sums already
squandered by domestic investors on building large
amusement parks, most of which are empty, China is
cashing in on multinational entertainment giants' dream
to conquer the world's largest and still untapped
market.
The most populous nation is flirting
with the idea of lodging three world-class theme parks
by the end of 2010. All of them are hedging their bets
on the country's strong economic performance and the
market demands of a nascent middle class.
"China
can support a number of Disneylands due to the potential
of its huge market," read the headline last week in the
People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
Long regarded as petty bourgeois entertainment
for capitalist exploiters, theme parks these days are
held in greater esteem as a source of foreign capital
and as a most welcome tourist attraction.
The
party newspaper quoted a representative of the Walt
Disney Co who predicted that by 2010, China would have
at least two Disneyland parks. Disney is already
building the Hong Kong Disneyland fun-park, which breaks
ground next month and is slated to open in 2005 or 2006.
This month Universal Studios, the theme-park
unit of Vivendi Universal SA, unveiled plans for an
US$870 million theme park in Shanghai - despite the fact
many of the hundred or so amusement parks that sprang up
in mainland China during the investment craze of the
1990s went bust.
The Hong Kong government has
awarded hefty incentives to attract Disney and is
investing $2.8 billion itself. Hong Kong had been
assured that when its megaproject opens in 2005, it
would be the only major amusement park in China so it
would be certain to have a draw that would prop up its
ailing tourist industry.
But instead, Universal
Studios will open in Shanghai the following year. Even
though in Japan, a far richer place than China, Disney
initially struggled to make its park attract enough
visitors, it is giving way to pressure to open another
entertainment park - probably in Beijing in 2010.
"China - with a population of 1.3 billion, if
there were to be several theme parks, of course, we
would be very confident about that, as we see China as a
huge market," Irene Chan, regional director of the Walt
Disney Co in Asia-Pacific told a news conference in Hong
Kong. "Two parks are definitely not a problem."
These projections, however, could also turn out
to be a gross overestimation. If China's other
entertainment industries are some indication, then
investors' dreams could easily become slush. China's
bowling industry went from zero to a million bowling
alleys by 2000 but the vast majority has had to close
down, wildly overestimating the spending power of
China's middle class.
Likewise, China now has
500 golf ranges, 30 alone around Beijing, in which
investors have poured $500 million although 10 years
ago, this was a sport no one here knew how to play.
Investors' optimism is one factor behind this
trend, but envy is another. Irrespective of the market,
if one of China's big cities gets the go on a
mega-project, then all the others want to get on board,
even if there is not room enough for everyone to play.
"Tianjin and Shenyang also want to work with
foreign partners to set up theme parks," Tang Long,
Beijing municipal government official told the
English-language Business Weekly.
Both Disney
and Universal are exploring further expansion in China,
particularly in the northern coastal areas where cities
such as Tianjin and Shenyang are located.
Still,
Beijing - the proud winner of the 2008 Olympic Games -
is the one that Chinese tourist officials believe would
host China's second Disney Park and the first one on the
Chinese mainland. "In terms of both tourism and
resources, Beijing has an edge," says Duan Qiang,
official with the Capital Tourism Group.
Alarmed
that mainland theme parks would compete with Hong Kong
Disneyland for tourists, the Hong Kong government
pleaded with Disney officials to delay opening new
projects in China. The former British colony has been
fighting deflation, rising unemployment and
bankruptcies, and hoping that the giant fun-park would
prove a financial boost to counter its economic slump.
During his recent trip to Asia, Disney president
Robert Iger reportedly promised Hong Kong Chief
Executive Tung Chee-hwa that a second park would not
open in China until 2010.
The Hong Kong
government based its investment on a projected economic
benefit of $19 billion from the project's first phase.
Disney's Chan says that in the first year of the park's
opening, a third of visitors will be local Hong Kong
residents, another third Chinese mainland tourists and
the rest from overseas.
But with the latest news
that Universal Studios is going for a mega-park in the
boomtown of Shanghai, the economic outlook for Hong Kong
Disneyland is getting dimmer and dimmer.
Days
after winning a heated battle to host the 2010 World
Expo, Shanghai announced it would unveil a Universal
Studios high-technology film-and-television theme park
in 2006. Shanghai municipal officials have declined to
reveal more details about the park, suggesting that the
project is still awaiting approval from the central
government.
Business Weekly quoted an
unidentified Shanghai official as saying that the
central government did not want to see Hong Kong and
Shanghai in competition.
Yet there is little
doubt that having pulled out all the stops to capture
the hosting of the World Expo - the first developing
country ever to do so, China would spare little effort
and money to make its prime financial hub, Shanghai,
look ever more lustrous.
(Inter Press
Service)
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