Ocean Park needs to ride wave of change

With the business environment deteriorating abruptly over the past six months, many companies are struggling to survive, let alone make money. While some are actively seeking a way out, others may just hope that the turmoil sparked by the extradition bill crisis and the US-China trade war will end eventually. But the problems facing Hong Kong’s Ocean Park go beyond that. Hit with a ballooning deficit four years in a row, it is under growing pressure to reinvent itself in an increasingly competitive entertainment market.

To be fair, the park’s revenue grew by 2.9 per cent to HK$1.7 billion in the past financial year, despite a slight drop in visitor numbers – from 5.8 million to 5.7 million. But that was offset by a 14 per cent jump in operating costs to HK$1.5 billion, including repair and maintenance expenses incurred after the onslaught of Typhoon Mangkhut last year. The HK$557.3 million deficit this year is more than double those experienced in the past three years.

The impact of the ongoing social unrest on the park has yet to be fully reflected because its financial year ended on June 30, soon after the extradition bill protests erupted. With tourist arrivals falling by more than 40 per cent in recent months, prospects are even gloomier with the number of tour groups to the park plunging by 56 per cent in the first half of the current financial year.

The prolonged sluggish performance has raised questions as to whether the 42-year-old attraction is losing its appeal. The opening of the cross-border high-speed railway and the mega bridge to Macau and Zhuhai in the final quarter of last year was supposed to bring more visitors to the park, but usage of the two transport links has fallen short of original forecasts.