Vincy Sun, 18, Hang Seng School of Commerce The mainland is planning to build a second Disneyland in Shanghai - good news for the people there, but a threat to the business of Hong Kong Disneyland. As the Hong Kong government is one of the theme park's main stakeholders, how Disneyland performs matters to all of us, as we have invested a large amount in it. For this reason, the government must do everything it can to save the park. Expansion is the most feasible approach at the moment. Expanding the park would make it more competitive. The current flagging attendance is mainly due to the limited variety of the attractions at the Hong Kong park - the smallest Disneyland in the world. This makes it less attractive compared to other theme parks in Asia. Expanding the park and adding more attractions would draw more visitors. The original plan was to include Chinese-style attractions to attract foreigners. But this plan has not been fully implemented because of the park's limited space. As a government economist says, if there was no expansion, the attractiveness of the theme park would decline over time. If the park became less attractive, it could have an impact on Hong Kong's vital tourism industry. It is important we do everything we can to boost tourism because of the financial crisis. Offering a better Disneyland experience would be the perfect option. If we didn't make any improvements to the park, we would discourage people from visiting Hong Kong. Matthew Murchie, 15, St Joseph's College Hong Kong Disneyland definitely faces some tough competition with the more successful Ocean Park too close for comfort and a new Shanghai Disneyland looming. It seems obvious Disneyland has to take action to boost its reputation. But I do not see how expanding it would do that. I think the relatively small size of Hong Kong Disneyland is actually an advantage and makes it more attractive. Many theme parks are simply so big and it is impossible to explore the whole park on one visit. It can even be difficult to get around the various attractions when theme parks are too big. At a smaller place like Hong Kong Disneyland, visitors have time to explore the whole park. Besides, size is not the main reason why people are unhappy with the park. The real reasons are poor customer service, ridiculously expensive tickets and lack of long-term planning. These are the issues responsible for the mounting criticism the park has been facing. The money needed to expand Disneyland would be far better spent on training staff and improving customer relations than on increasing the size merely to conform to people's conventional expectations of how big a Disneyland should be. Wasting time and money on expanding Disneyland and neglecting other more relevant problems could make things even worse for the park. In fact, a bigger park might give people more to complain about.
