Oriental Land Aims to Attract Chinese Disney Fans

An interesting article on how the Oriental Land Holding Company, the operator of Tokyo Disneyland Resort, is trying to attract more Chinese visitors to the theme parks. This is in response to the aging Japanese population, and the economic recession that Japan is in the middle of.

With Japan's aging population and its economy in recession, Oriental Land is increasing overseas marketing and working with travel operators arranging package tours to its resorts. Visitors from abroad currently account for 4.2 percent of customers.

The number of Chinese tourists to Japan is ``expected to increase explosively'' and many of them will be visiting ``leisure locations such as Tokyo Disneyland,'' Masayuki Ohtani, a strategist at Securities Japan Inc. in Tokyo, said in a phone interview today.

Of course, there's the obvious issue on whether they are then competing with Hong Kong Disneyland for the same pool of people. Oriential Land dispute this, but the response appears to me to be a rather backhanded smack to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Increased marketing in China and other Asian countries doesn't mean competition is intensifying with the operator of Hong Kong Disneyland, the region's only other Disney theme park, Nagaoka said.

``Hong Kong Disneyland isn't our rival,'' he said. ``The Chinese tourists coming to our resort tend to be much wealthier than those that visit Hong Kong. We're targeting different demographics.''

What, only trailer park trash goes to Hong Kong Disneyland? :)

Zz.