A Disneyland could lure an extra two million visitors each year and allow the SAR to sell itself as a theme-park hub, a tourism industry expert said yesterday.
But critics warned it could cost taxpayers dearly with loaded profit-sharing arrangements ensuring that most of the benefits would fly back to the US.
Barry Mak Lui-ming, assistant professor of tourism at Polytechnic University, said about two million tourists a year would visit because of Disney.
'In the meantime, we will draw the world's attention - the media will have substantial reports on this and the impact of that kind of free publicity you cannot measure,' he said.
But legislator for Sport, Arts and Culture Timothy Fok Tsun-ting warned that the Government was unlikely to have factored in all infrastructure and land costs the Walt Disney Company was demanding.
Disney, rumoured to have already brokered a profit-sharing deal with the Government, had initially wanted to build its Asia-Pacific theme park in Queensland, Australia.