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SCMP Reporter

Ocean Park will open new offices and start an advertising campaign in mainland cities in the next few months in the face of competition from Hong Kong Disneyland.

Park chairman Allan Zeman said the promotion campaign would include Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

'Disneyland is quite new to most of the people on the mainland, and both Ocean Park and Disneyland are international theme parks to them,' he said.

'We want to differentiate ourselves from Disneyland, especially on the mainland. If we are just the same, why do people have to visit Ocean Park?'

To position Ocean Park as a world-class sea-world attraction, its $5.5 billion revamp, announced in March, will mainly focus on bringing in more species of animals and marine life. Work will start next year for completion in 2010.

Mr Zeman said he wanted Ocean Park to complement rather than compete with Disneyland.

'Disneyland is a world-class theme park, while Ocean Park is the only sea-world park accredited [in Asia] by the American Zoology Association,' he said.

'Disneyland is all about fantasy, cartoons and fireworks and castles, while Ocean Park is all about nature. You may see a fake panda in Disneyland, but here you can see a real panda and feed it.'

He said Ocean Park offered many festive attractions, including events at Halloween and Christmas, while Disneyland offered no extra attractions during festivals.

He did not expect a drop in the number of visitors to Ocean Park this year following Disneyland's opening. Instead, visitors would increase from 4.3 million last year to 5 million by 2010.

An Ocean Park spokesman said that there had been no significant drop in ticket sales on Monday and yesterday, compared with same period last year, but declined to give any figures.

Mr Zeman said the park operated slightly below budget on Monday, but above budget yesterday.

'September is our low season because school term begins, leading to a drop in student visitors. It is unfair to just snap a few pictures of an empty park at 5pm on a September weekday, and claim that no one is visiting the park,' he said, referring to recent media reports. 'There are still a steady flow of local and mainland tourists coming.'

Charles Ng Kwong-wai, chairman of the Inbound Tours Operators Association, said Ocean Park would continue to be included in its schedule. 'We offer one day to Disneyland and one day to Ocean Park in our four-day package, and market response has been good. I don't see Disneyland replacing Ocean Park because Ocean Park has long been established as the landmark of Hong Kong.'

This is the edited version of an original article by May Chan published in the SCMP on September 14, 2005

This activity could be conducted as a project over several weeks.

Step 1. Go to the Ocean Park website at http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/eng/main/main.html

Step 2. Look at Ocean Park's new Master Plan. This gives an overview of plans Ocean Park has for its revamp.

Step 3. Make notes on how many sections the new park will have, which section you think will be the most attractive, which parts seem the least interesting and if there is anything you would like to see added.

Step 4. Form groups of four to six students. Each group has to decide on how two sections of the new park e.g. Aqua City and Polar Adventure could be designed in such a way as to maximise their attractiveness to visitors.

Step 5. You may add two more areas to the park, e.g. 'Mammalworld' or 'Beachworld', or even give your own visions for a completely redesigned Ocean Park.

Step 6. Develop maps, diagrams, powerpoint presentations etc and then present your concept plans to the class.



Ocean Park to spread its net as the competition hots up