Disney plans two hotels and $1b in local contracts

Disney executives unveiled plans yesterday for two hotels to be built next to the Disneyland theme park, and said more than $1 billion worth of construction contracts would be signed with local companies in the next 18 months.

Construction of the theme park was due to begin on January 12 - after consultation with a fung shui expert - and the company would recruit at least 50 people in the next six months. Most jobs would be in sales and marketing, information technology and human resources, the executives said.

New curriculums and internship programmes for future recruits in the hospitality industry would also be developed with local universities and training institutes.

The Disney project would recruit another 500 people by the end of 2004 and staff numbers would quickly swell to 5,000 after 2004, 15 per cent of whom would be at managerial level, they said.

Hong Kong Disneyland group managing director Don Robinson said focus groups and advisory committees comprising experts in the SAR's hospitality industry had been set up.

'We wanted head chefs, for example, to advise us on staffing, menus, restaurant set-up, etc,' he said. 'We've also been looking into what kind of entertainment would be appropriate in the cultural context of Hong Kong.'

Mr Robinson said Disney had unearthed tremendous talent in Hong Kong in its current round of hiring. The executives, including Walt Disney Imagineering managing director John Verity and executive vice-president Wing Chao, unveiled artists' impressions of the two hotels to be built on the site: the five-star Victorian-style Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and a three-star Art Deco-inspired Hollywood Hotel.