IT STARTED ON Monday with a headline in a Beijing newspaper. 'Disney: 2008 in Beijing. Disneyland is great,' declared the item on the front page of the Beijing Evening News. With a delegation of Disney executives in the capital for the launching of a Chinese-language Web site, the newspaper claimed a company source revealed Disney was considering building a theme park to tie in with the 2008 Olympics.
Wishful thinking it might have seemed, but it opened up the possibility that another Disneyland could emerge, on the mainland and in competition with the theme park being built in Hong Kong.
Disney's spin doctors were quick to deny the report. A 'Mickey Mouse' story, it seemed. However, they were unable to rule out another Disneyland development in China as Hong Kong waits for its $27.7 billion project.
So, when Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner led a press conference in the Island Shangri-La hotel ballroom on Thursday, he sought to play down the threat to the SAR's Disneyland from another park built by the company on the mainland.
Although he dismissed the Beijing report as 'erroneous', it became clear that Disney believes the market is big enough to sustain at least two parks in China and is eyeing another location.
It is likely to be in Shanghai or Beijing, to fulfil Mr Eisner's criteria of being 'distant' enough from the SAR not to impinge on Hong Kong Disneyland's market.
