OCEAN PARK:IN THE FACE OF

COMPETITION FROM HONG KONG

DISNEYLAND

Ocean Park,located at ABERDEEN on the south of hong kong island, was

opened in 1977 . it was hong kong‘s only home-geown theme park. It was
also the largest marine-based theme park in ASIA and the only asian park
to be accredited by american zoo and aquarium association. It was
constructed by the hong kong jocky club and was built on land provided by
the government at a nominal premium.

Ocean Park had enjoyed a surplus in income since it opened untill 1997,
when the asian financial crisis hit hong kong. The Ocean Park bear loss for
consecutive 4 years. Through ceative special events, aggressive marketing
and heavy advertisement on the mainland, the park returned to profitability
with a HK$15.3 million profit in 2001-2002 and a 23% increase in
attendance, reaching 3.4 million.

In 2002 the new chairman of Ocean Park has hired named ALLAN
ZEMAN. Zeman hired THOMAS MEHRMANN to replace randolph Guthrie
as the park’s CEO.

Now Ocean Park has faced a problem because of its new rival
DISNEYLAND. International expansion was one of disney’s strategic
platform, and it had already opened two other international theme park, one
in YOKYO in 1983 and other one is in paris in 1992. And now it opened a
theme park in hong kong. Disneyland is a joint venture between
government and disney. The park is located at penny’s bay on Lantau
Island, was 126 hectares in size. The total project development cost was
HK$ 27.7 billion. In rearly stages the disney park face great problems
because of change in culture (from america to china) but it overcome on
that difficulties very well.
Competitive strategies adopted by
ocean park

The management of Ocean Park thinks that When disneyland play into
action it reduces the visitors of Ocean Park up to 25% approximately.
There are 2 effects of disneyland on ocean park . One is up side or positive
and other is down side or negative . Positive sign is that it will bring more
visitors to hong kong and turn the territory into a family destination. The
negative sign is that the local park had to compete against the leader in the
global theme park industry.

Positive sign bring a future customers and than more income for
Ocean Park but there is a risk of reducing the future customers also as the
competitor of Ocean Park are now arrived .

The Disney was a fantasy operation based on its movie products and
intellectual properties, while the Ocean Park with its focus on animals and
nature, was about reality. So this difference the park decided to use the
theme of connecting people with nature through the ocean and animals
encounter to differentiate itself from Disney.

The disney offers movies , cartoons, and a teste of american culture and
the Ocean Park decided to showcased animals, natural surroundings and a
cable car ride with a fantastic view of hong kong. The Ocean Park also
focus on the education and conservation in addition to providing
entertainment.

Disneyland is an american brand and the Ocean Park is a home-grown

park so on this point the Ocean Park also position itself in the market.
They develop the chanese culture and they better understand the
behaviour of the people. They introdues itself as a home park and it reflect
a good impression on the people. They compete itself with the Disneyland
on brand basis . Ocean Park has an edge because of a home brand but
they also focus on foreign visitors with introducing new animals and a
better natural environment.

Marketing strategies adopted by

ocean park

Ocean Park, as similar to Disney, targeted the family market. But the
Ocean Park targeted every person from children to grandparents in order to
attract repeat visits from local families . It ran special exhibition that
cartered to everyone from children to grandparents, such like the jellyfish
aquarium.

Ocean Park introduces acadmy catered to school children , and special

yearly events, such as the HALLOWEEN BASH were geared towards
teenagers. The first halloween bash was held on 2001.

Timing are also decided for every type of visitor so that the visitors will
manage in a better way . The 3 groups of visitors showed different patterns
in park usage.and the marketing strategies are developed according to
that.

Financial management adopted by

ocean park

Ocean park’s vision of itself as a world-class marine park was translated

into HK$ 55.5 billion master plan to revamp the park. Under this plan , the
size of the park would increase from 30 hectres to 43.8 hectres of
attractions would double to more than 70, the number of shows would triple
to 12, and more than 30 new animal species would be introduced by 2010.
The number of restaurants would increase from 7 to 27 and the retail area
more than double to 19000 square feet.
 The revamping of the Park was planned to be carried out in eight phases
over a six-year period. And the park will remain open during the
construction.

The development cost will be HK$ 5.5 billion and the currently park did not
have enough money to fund the project itself. As of june 2004 the ocean
park trust fund had a balance of HK$ 288 million and the park had an
operating cash of HK$ 325 million. The operating cost of park for 2003-
2004 was HK$ 338 million.

In 2005 the government committed to revamping the park with a

subordinated loan of HK$ 1387.55 million at a fixed interest rate of 5% pa
and a loan term of 25 year . Still remaning the 75% financing , which is
covered through commercial banking sector. The government give the
gurantees on borrowing from commercial banks and the
governmentsupport for the ocean park’s redevelopment entailed a total risk
exposure of up to HK$ 3475 million. The risk exposure of the loan is shared
between the government and commercial banks.

So all in all the government support fully the ocean park for redevelopment
and to compete its rivals.

Service operation adopted by ocean

park

Service was an integral part of the theme park experience and disney,
which defined service excellence as exceeding customers’expectations,
had made service excellence a cornerstone of all its theme parks. Such like
Disney the ocean park also give importance to the service operation, and it
enhance the service to compete with the Disney . It focus on the
employees traning and also motivate them in different ways like giving
cash bonuses , give free tickets for their families or giving honour on the job
etc etc.
 Ocean park used no formal metrics for measuring sevice excellence and
the drive towards sevice excellence was achieved mainly through changing
the management style. They organized meetings to cummunicate with their
employees .The CEO of ocean park adopted a different philosophy,
walking the park regularly, picking up rubbish along the way, and taking the
time to get to know the employees personally .

The old management focus on that what the staff did wrong, the park’s new
management focused on what they did right. They simply appreciate their
work and if the employees did wrong they give them a traning for that and
give him a chance to improve and motivate the employees.

Feasibility study of ocean park

AECOM was retained by The Ocean Park Corporation to conduct an

economic feasibility study for repositioning Ocean Park. It worked in close
cooperation with Ocean Park management, planning group members, and
the design team to develop a preferred redevelopment strategy for the
park. It produced an overview of facilities and economic performance;
analyzed redevelopment strategies, available markets, hotel demand; and
provided long term attendance forecasts, planning parameters, financial
analyses, and economic impact assessments.

Ocean Park is Hong Kong's oldest amusement/theme park and is located

on the southern side of Hong Kong Island. The US$712 million
redevelopment plan is currently underway between 2006-2012. It is a
comprehensive eight-phased masterplan.

Overall, the park is to be enlarged by 12-15 acres and the number of

attractions and rides is to double from 35 to 70. This includes adding 3 new
hotels (one 3-star hotel with 660-rooms at entrance; 4-star 460-rooms at
Fisherman's Wharf; and 5-star spa-resort hotel at the Summit). The HK
Government is also expanding the MTR subway line to the front-gate by
2013-14 with greatly improved accessibility.
Overall impect on the ocean
park
In the start the ocean park was at a profit but in 1997 it has suffer a loss for
4 consuctive years. But than in 2001 it became profitable and earn a
handsome profit. But the disneyland come and the ocean park’s
management thinks that it will effect the ocean park’s visitors. So the
management of ocean park make strategies so that they can compete with
the disneyland . all the marketing, financing, and service operation
strategies are formulated so that the an cometetive edge can be obtained
upon its rivals.