In anticipation of the June 16 opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort, China Eastern Airlines has unveiled a plane painted blue and featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse portraits.
China Eastern will decorate two airplanes with Disney elements including the Enchanted Storybook Castle as well as Mickey and Minnie. Other themed planes will be unveiled in the coming years.
China Eastern Airlines is one of its official sponsors of the resort and the sponsor of Dumbo the Flying Elephant attraction.
Tickets for the June 16 opening day of Walt Disney Co.’s new theme park in Shanghai were sold out on its official ticketing website hours after going on sale at midnight on Monday.
Tickets from June 17 to Sept. 30 are still available, ranging in price from 370 yuan ($57) for non-peak periods, to 499 yuan for peak periods, which include the park’s first two weeks, all weekends, and the summer months of July and August.
The 963-acre park, Disney’s sixth worldwide, is three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland, with non-peak tickets costing about 20 percent less. Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger has called the China resort Disney’s greatest opportunity since Walt Disney himself bought land in central Florida in the 1960s. The company plans to court 330 million Chinese who live within a three-hour train or car trip of Shanghai.
“Relying on the large desire for family-style entertainment and the rising purchasing power of Chinese consumers, Shanghai Disneyland is likely to set off massive consumer demand,” Chang Jiang Securities Co. analyst Li Jin wrote in a note released Monday.
The resort’s revenue is likely to range from 24 billion to 40 billion yuan a year, with up to to 50 million visitors expected annually, according to Li.
Shares of Disney-related companies gained in Shanghai trading today as ticket sales began. Shanghai Construction Group Co., which won a bid for Shanghai Disney park’s site formation project, advanced by as much as the 10 percent daily limit, as did Shanghai Jielong Industry Group Corp.
Hotel rooms at Shanghai Disney Resort were also quickly snapped up.
As of noon on Monday, rooms were fully-booked at the resort’s two on-site hotels, the Toy Story Hotel and the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, for the first two weeks of the resort’s opening, according to the booking website.
Rooms at the Toy Story Hotel start at 850 yuan while rooms at the Shanghai Disneyland Resort Hotel are priced at about 2000 yuan.
Shanghai Disney Resort’s ticketing website requires buyers to register their ID numbers upon purchase to prevent ticket scalping. Walt Disney representatives did not reply to e-mailed questions and phone calls seeking comment.
Tom Staggs faces the unique challenge of filling a role that the world’s biggest media company has done quite well without for a decade.
When he was named chief operating officer of Walt Disney Co. a year ago, he took on a job that was last held in 2005 by Robert Iger, before he was promoted to chief executive. Now Mr. Staggs is the leading internal candidate to succeed Mr. Iger, who has said he will retire in 2018.
A 26-year Disney veteran who before becoming COO most recently served as chairman of the company’s parks and resorts business, Mr. Staggs has remained quite involved with the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort, which opens June 16.
He is also significantly involved in planning for the future of television at Disney, a key question for the company since its stock began tumbling last August when Disney said that profit growth for its cable business, led by sports juggernaut ESPN, would be lower than expected.
The Wall Street Journal spoke with Mr. Staggs at his office, across a lobby from Mr. Iger’s, at Disney headquarters in Burbank, Calif. Edited excerpts follow.
WSJ: Are there specific tasks you have taken on as COO? How have you and Bob Iger divided responsibilities?
MR. STAGGS: It’s basically a dual-report system across all the businesses. Our approach has been somewhat fluid, making sure that separately or together we’re focusing on businesses and projects as need be and to be the most effective we can be.
WSJ: How will you measure success in Shanghai?
MR. STAGGS: We’ll really be looking forward to the initial reception, but at the same time we build these parks for generations. We won’t judge where we are a week out, a month out, or even a year or two out.
Clearly we are planting an important flag for the Disney brand in China. We want to make sure people recognize the quality of what we provide. And hopefully it will be an aspirational kind of experience for people in China the same way it has been aspirational for people here. And therefore it represents the brand in a way that is broader than just that individual park.
WSJ: To what extent are you concerned about the state of the economy in China?
MR. STAGGS: This is a very long-term proposition, so what’s going on in the economy at any given moment is not a big concern for us. We look at the trends over the long term and continue to be as bullish as we’ve ever been in terms of the number of income-qualified people, the prospect for continued growth of the middle class in China, etc.
WSJ: What has been taking a lot of your time outside of the parks business?
MR. STAGGS: I have spent a great deal of time on media networks recently, focusing on the future of television.
WSJ: Is TV moving toward a more direct relationship with consumers? Does that require a change of thinking?
MR. STAGGS: It’s not so much a change of thinking. For the past few years, our business has been leaning toward the brands and products consumers seek a relationship with. There is an increasing opportunity to take advantage of the strength of those brands and to reach consumers more directly.
We just mentioned on our last earnings call, however, that we think for the foreseeable future the bundle of programming is going to be the predominant way people get their television. Some people might view that as a contradiction. It’s not. That bundle can be strong even as we’re taking advantage of opportunities to have direct relationships with consumers.
WSJ: Clearly there are benefits across Disney from owning Marvel or “Star Wars” that few other companies can match. And that may be only more true in the digital world. Is the same true of ESPN, or is that more of a stand-alone business?
MR. STAGGS: One of the things this company does well is nurture and manage high-quality branded franchises. The nice thing is, quite a lot of them are highly interconnected in terms of cycling through many of our businesses.
But as a high-quality branded entertainment franchise, ESPN has real synergies with the rest of what we do and our expertise as a company.
WSJ: What are the most important synergies?
MR. STAGGS: Understanding how to manage a brand is not simple. There’s ESPN The Magazine, on television, radio and digital. Managing all of those touch points is not a simple construct, and it’s something we happen to do well.
By having that scale, we have been able to invest in a technology platform that allows us to publish across all those areas seamlessly. Also, I believe if you look forward as we increasingly establish those direct-to-consumer relationships, that expertise in consumer engagement will be a skill set that’s transferrable around our business, even if you’re not handing off an ESPN consumer to other Disney businesses.
WSJ: As you package Disney content in different ways online, do you see it all going together, or is the Marvel consumer different from the animation consumer and so on?
MR. STAGGS: We find it’s not sliced as finely as your question might imply. People tend to like Disney. They have their favorites, to be sure. Generally, if you’re a big fan of “Frozen,” that leads to a desire to engage the characters, the music and the franchise in other ways.
We want to make sure there are as few barriers to that deeper engagement as possible. That’s one of the tricks in designing the notion of what’s direct-to-consumer, what’s in movie theaters, what’s in [cable] bundles, etc.
From the Wall Street Journalhttp://www.wsj.com/articles/how-disney-coo-tom-staggs-sees-the-companys-presentand-future-1456110344
Tickets for Walt Disney Co.’s $5.5 billion Shanghai park will be priced at about 20 percent cheaper than for Hong Kong, as the company aims to draw families across income levels to its first theme park in mainland China.
Daily regular tickets go on sale from March 28 and will be priced at 370 yuan ($56), compared with HK$539 ($69) for a one-day adult ticket to Hong Kong Disneyland, while those for children and the elderly will cost 280 yuan. It’ll also charge higher prices during peak periods such as weekends and public holidays, Disney said in a statement.
“Shanghai Disneyland’s two-tiered pricing and date-specific tickets will allow the park to manage the extraordinary anticipated demand,” Disney said Wednesday. The park, scheduled to open June 16, will limit the maximum number of guests and adhere to local capacity regulations, it said, without specifying the allowed numbers.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger has called the China resort Disney’s greatest opportunity since Walt Disney himself bought land in Central Florida in the 1960s. The company is counting on a pool of 330 million Chinese who live within a three-hour train or car trip of Shanghai to buy tickets.
Tickets will be priced at 499 yuan during the park’s two-week grand opening from June 16 to June 30. Following that, the same price will apply to adult tickets during high-demand periods such as designated Chinese holidays and during summer holidays in July and August, said Disney. Hong Kong doesn’t charge peak period prices.
Similar to practices at its two other parks in Asia, Shanghai Disney’s discount for visitors aged 65 and older is a nod to ageing populations and extended family structures, which could see two sets of grandparents accompanying each child in the world’s most populous nation. Seniors, and children with height above 1 meter and up to 1.4 meter, will also get discounted peak period tickets.
The Shanghai park, Disney’s sixth worldwide, is estimated to attract 25 million visitors annually, less than about 31 million who visit Tokyo Disney Resort annually because of the lack of the “novelty premium” as the park is the third one in Asia, Deutsche Bank AG analysts Tallan Zhou and Karen Tang wrote in a Feb. 1 report.
At 963 acres, the Shanghai resort is three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland and the company has been allotted enough land in the Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone to expand up to 2.5 times in the future.
It will open at a time when the world’s second-biggest economy is slowing, but Disney’s Iger said he’s still confident about betting on the Chinese consumer.
“We’re very bullish on China,” Iger said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in December. “We actually believe that the Chinese consumer is still spending. And the Chinese consumer represents, as far as we’re concerned, a great market for our company.”
Just about five months from now on June 16, Shanghai Disney Resort will host a grand opening celebration and welcome its first official guests.
“When it opens in June, Shanghai Disney resort will be a one-of-a-kind, world-class destination that is authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese,” said Robert A. Iger, chairman and chief executive officer, The Walt Disney Company. “The resort reflects Disney’s legendary storytelling along with China’s rich culture, and showcases some of the most creative and innovative experiences we’ve ever created. We’re looking forward to showing it to the world and sharing it with the people of China for generations to come.”
You might remember that previously Disney announced an accelerated expansion plan, which will allow Shanghai Disney Resort to offer even more magic, more attractions and more entertainment. The resort will include two richly themed hotels; an expansive recreation area; a unique retail, dining and entertainment district; and an incredible new Disney theme park with six themed lands and never-before-seen attractions designed specifically for the people of China.
From Treasure Cove, the first pirate-themed land in a Disney park, to Tomorrowland, with its massive, color-shifting canopy at the TRON Lightcycle Power Run, not to mention the largest Disney castle ever, there’s so much to look forward to.
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