LettersIf Singapore can reinvent Sentosa, Hong Kong can reinvent Ocean Park

Name: Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade
Uploaded: 2021-01-29T22:30:11.000Z
Duration: 1 min 28 s
Description: Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade

Ocean Park must engage the local market. Local travel is likely to be in great demand because of Covid-19 travel restrictions, and in Hong Kong people long for affordable but high-quality leisure destinations.

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An aerial view of Ocean Park in Aberdeen, currently closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Winson Wong

Letters

Published: 6:30am, 30 Jan 2021Updated: 6:30am, 30 Jan 2021

I refer to the proposed reinvention of Ocean Park as a resort and leisure destination. Reform has long been inevitable for the Hong Kong theme park, considering the decline in earnings and tourism over the past six years. The proposal for the “rebirth of Ocean Park” made me think of Sentosa.

For a long time in Singapore, locals joked that Sentosa stood for “So Expensive and Nothing To See Also”. But seeing how Sentosa has transformed itself with world-class attractions and an integrated resort, reinventing Ocean Park definitely makes sense.

Ocean Park these days is stuck in a rut, the way Sentosa once was. Admittedly, from 2003 to 2014, an influx of mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong boosted Ocean Park, but these numbers have plunged in recent years, not least because of the social movement in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic since last year.

Furthermore, the existence of the two Chimelong theme park resorts in Zhuhai and Guangzhou – both are near Hong Kong, and similar to but cheaper than Ocean Park – surely counts as an external threat to Hong Kong’s home-grown theme park.

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Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade

Now that Ocean Park is determined to remake itself, it should do it right. For sure, there are numerous resources that can be taken advantage of.