Ocean Park passed a new milestone yesterday, surpassing the record annual attendance set on June 30 last year in less than 11 months, and declared that Disneyland, which it had feared would eat into its patronage, had actually increased attendance at the homegrown theme park.
Ocean Park chairman Allan Zeman said yesterday the new record dispelled any fears about competition posed by the newcomer.
Mr Zeman, who had thought Ocean Park business could drop by as much as 25 per cent when Mickey and Minnie marched into the city last September, said he was thrilled to see the 29-year-old park was gaining in popularity instead.
'A year ago, I would have been happy if we went down only 20 per cent,' he said. 'We were budgeting for 25 per cent, because everywhere you go, all the other cities, I don't know any other parks that beat Disney, so that's very surprising.'
A spokeswoman from Disneyland declined to comment on Ocean Park's performance, saying the two parks had their own identities and could complement each other to boost tourism in Hong Kong.
Ocean Park recorded its 4,030,001st visitor yesterday, less than 11 months after it set a record of 4,030,000 visitors in the year to June 30 last year.