Shanghai Disneyland
The paper is now going to shift its focus to the Walt Disney Company’s newest international theme park, Shanghai Disneyland. First, some background of the Shanghai park will be given before (1) analyzing how each cultural misstep applies to the Shanghai park, (2) discovering if the Walt Disney Company has learned from past international park mistakes, and (3) predicting how Shanghai will do based on its cultural sensitivity to host country culture and current attendance and revenue figures.
The Walt Disney Company’s newest international theme park is the Shanghai Disneyland Resort in Pudong, Shanghai, China. Plans for the park, a joint-venture which is 43% owned by TWDC and 57% owned by the Chinese government, were announced in 2009, three days after Hong Kong Disneyland opened (The Walt Disney Company, 2016; Tai & Lau, 2009, p.3). Many critics did not understand why Disney would put two theme parks so close to each other claiming that the smaller Hong Kong Disneyland Resort would not be able to compete with the larger Shanghai Disneyland Resort. Higgins and Hugue (2014) give a possible explanation of Disney’s reasoning behind two theme parks, “but perhaps the most valuable knowledge Disney has gained from HKDL will be applied outside of the joint venture as its works to ensure Shanghai Disneyland Resort becomes a success in the Mainland market” (p. 18). Since it is difficult for international companies to enter the Chinese market with strict regulations