Hong Kong Ocean Park re-development plan

[Asa]

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...ment-help-hk10

Ocean Park to seek Hong Kong government help for HK$10 billion bid to revive ailing resort

Ocean Park in Hong Kong will seek government support for a HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) rescue plan to reinvent the beleaguered attraction in the face of financial turmoil and strong competition from across the region, the Post has learned.

A source with knowledge of the package said the 43-year-old resort in Southern district needed an immediate cash injection to stay afloat after falling visitor numbers in the four consecutive years to 2019 brought its finances to the brink.

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http://www.inparkmagazine.com/ocean-...g-2020-vision/

Hong Kong’s Ocean Park announces new strategic vision

Ocean Park Hong Kong has unveiled a comprehensive blueprint for the future that leverages the Park’s unique ability to integrate nature, conservation and edutainment. The plan, which calls for redevelopment of the Park into seven experiential zones with adventure as the overarching theme, will introduce an array of new attractions and hi-tech thrill rides, including amazing a number of self-paced, interactive rides. The new design will also showcase the beauty of Ocean Park’s natural setting on the southern coastline in an entirely different light, encourage immersive interplay between the visitor and the environment, as well as inspire a deeper love for nature.

Ocean Park will look to the Hong Kong Government to play a role in financing the strategic repositioning plan which is expected to cost HK$10.64 billion, with new attractions to be launched in phases from 2023 to 2027.

























The concept arts look good, but we have learnt not to trust HKOP's concept arts.

[hakjie11]

Ocean Park should be saved for sure, it's a true local HK theme park.
But I disagree with how they envision the new expansions. They are mostly coasters with no theming. Sort of like they dump a coaster on every inch available in the park.
I understand it is the cheapest trill with the highest return and easy to build, but this is low effort imagination.

[Asa]

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...er-goes-attack

Hong Kong Ocean Park management were in the legislative council yesterday to request for more funding. They disclosed that the park only has HK$400 million left in the bank... just enough to last them till the end of 2020.

The under-construction water park is more than HK$1 billion over budget and the park owes banks billions.

Legco member Regina Ip tears into bosses and says, ‘if you were an actual business you would have gone bankrupt’.

[Sukie Norman]

Ocean Park, Hong Kong is a unique home-grown theme park with a heritage of delivering family fun and fond memories.

[Asa]

Looking at what is being built across the Pearl River at Chimelong Hengqin Resort, what Ocean Park is planning to do really pale into insignificance.

HKOP needs to seek advice from real theme park experts. Throwing in one cheesy rollercoaster after another will not turn the park around.

[Asa]

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...d-bailout-plan

A revised bailout plan will be proposed by the Hong Kong government very soon to save Ocean Park from running out of cash as early as in June, the Post has learned.

Two sources said that a HK$10.6 billion (US$1.35 billion) proposal tabled in January would not go ahead with officials unveiling an alternative on Monday at the earliest, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the theme park on Southern district to shut down temporarily.

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It makes sense not to agree to the $10.6 billion proposal the park came up with. It did not really appeal, just more of the same stuff. But the park should be saved first.

I really would like to see them look at acquiring some interesting IPs and developing them into attractions. The IPs could be local, like Old Master Q, McDull or Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword, that kind of thing. Or they can do something themed to the Kowloon Walled City which is very popular with Japanese visitors.

[hakjie11]

Ocean Park should really fix their park merchandises to avoid relying to heavily on park entrance tickets alone for profit. Those dolls, key chains gifts, candy are just awful. I still remember I really wanted to buy some souvenirs in one of their park shops a few years ago, but I just couldn't spend my money on anything without thinking I was wasting money on garbage.

[Asa]

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...ngs-ocean-park

HK govt will ask LegCo for $5 billion to keep Ocean Park alive.

Hong Kong’s beleaguered Ocean Park needs an urgent HK$5.4 billion bailout to avoid running out of cash and going out of business next month, the government has warned.

The money will also allow the Southern district site to pay off a HK$3 billion commercial debt, Yau added.

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Ocean Park not only needs the money, it also needs a better chairman and CEO, who knows the business and can come up with a better rescue plan.

[hakjie11]

If you put an accountant as CEO you will end up with someone telling you what is happening but not someone who tells you what needs to happen.

[Asa]

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/11/218926/$5.4b---or-Ocean-Park-will-fold



$5.4b - or Ocean Park will fold

Top News | Sophie Hui 12 May 2020

Ocean Park is in urgent need of HK$5.4 billion if it is to escape being shut.

For right now it has only enough money to last until next month, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah revealed yesterday in bidding to deliver help.

Funding will next be discussed at the Legislative Council's Finance Committee on Friday after officials scrapped a plan to inject HK$10.6 billion into the park for its long-term repositioning. Now the focus is on saving it from the immediate crisis.

Of the HK$5.4 billion needed, HK$3 billion would be used to help the park repay commercial loans.

The rest could keep the park, which has had no income since its closure on January 26 as the Covid-19 pandemic bit, afloat for 12 months.

Failing that some 2,000 jobs would be lost, Yau warned. He also noted this was the first time the park had asked for government funding since it opened in 1977.

But the park wants another HK$13.2 million of funding to carry out a study on reshaping itself in the longer term.

Operated by the Ocean Park Corp, the not-for-profit organization occupies 91.5 hectares on Hong Kong Island's south side. It is a mix of marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park.

But in 2019 its mainstay mainland visitors fell and led to a reduced attendance of 5.7 million for the year.

Speaking at the Central Government Office in Tamar, Yau said the park now faces "unprecedented" challenges.

"Without the funding it will face only one outcome, which is closing down," he warned.

The funding, he went on, would "save Ocean Park from going bust, from being liquidated, and save the park so we can continue to serve the Hong Kong community."

A plan submitted to the legislature in January was no longer practicable, Yau said.

"One thing that has changed the whole scenario is the epidemic," Yau said, adding that global tourism outlooks would undergo major changes after the pandemic.

Yau said that the "contingency money" could keep the park running "while we are sorting out the future.

"So there will be at a later stage another plan to take the park forward."

Asked if the park has to change its management, Yau said the government will participate more in its management in the future and will consider if it has to alter the legal limitations.

On the immediate crisis, park chairman Leo Kung Lin-cheng said it would run out of cash by next month.

Even with it temporarily closed, he added, it still needs money for its operations including taking care of animals and maintenance, which costs HK$140 million a month.

Deputy chairman Lau Ming-wai said he is confident the new Water World feature, to be completed this year, would change the outlook.

Even so it will be "a very difficult year," Lau said. The park will need to cut back on expenditure but does not want any lay-offs.

The park has been in the red for four consecutive years, recording a four-year-high deficit of HK$557.3 million in the 2018-19 financial year - double the deficit from the previous year.

And people are unhappy with the park seeking government funding and were going online yesterday to question its long-term prospects.

Some said they would like the park to close and for the Wong Chuk Hang site used for public housing. Others want a management reorganization.

Legislator Claudia Mo Man-ching of HK First criticized the "blackmailing" tactic of seeking funding immediately or seeing the park going broke.

She said the park's deficit has been increasing for a few years, and that was obviously a management problem. But no one has had to stand down.

Tourism sector legislator Yiu Si-wing said he would support funding as Ocean Park can contribute much to the SAR economy, and he believed the situation will improve after the new Water World opens.

But the park still has to increase revenue and cut expenditure, Yiu said.

The park management said last week it was "carefully evaluating its operation resumption schedule" in view of the pandemic situation, and even with a reopening it would face virus-linked challenges including its capacity likely reduced by more than half.

[Asa]

People keep saying how Allan Zeman was the man who took Ocean Park to great heights and his firing was the catalyst for the park's current decline and trouble. But I would like to mention that former Ocean Park CEO Tom Mehrmann was also a big factor in the park's fortunes. This was a man who worked in theme parks all his life, joined HK Ocean Park in 2004 and stayed until 2016. Underlining the industry's belief in his ability, he was recently appointed General Manager of the soon to open Universal Studios Beijing.

Allan Zeman was called the Mouse Killer. But in fact it was Tom Mehrmann. He actually wrote the book: Taming the Mouse: How a Small Hong Kong Theme Park came to dominate Disney.

[Asa]

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/secti...-up-in-the-air

Ocean Park animals' fate up in the air

Animal groups have called for a retirement plan for some 7,500 animals in Ocean Park as its future hangs in the air, with lawmakers set to discuss a HK$5.4 billion funding approval today.

The park only has enough money to last until next month if the emergency funding request is not approved.

But the park has not yet announced any retirement contingency plan for its animals, the groups said yesterday.

Regardless of whether the request goes through, Mark Mak Chi-ho, executive chairman of the non-profit Veterinary Services Society, called on the park to devise such a plan.

Mak said the head of park should fulfill an ethical responsibility by ending the dolphin and sea lion shows, as promised in January when the park asked for a now-scrapped HK$10.64 billion cash injection.

Viena Mak Hei-man, spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, urged the park not to release the animals back into the wild and not to use them for entertainment or display purposes.

Mak also suggested that the park improve animal welfare and study the feasibility of building a natural sanctuary for retiring dolphins.

"Some dolphins in Ocean Park were born under captivity, and others have been kept for more than 20 to 30 years," Mak said.

"They have lost the survival skills needed in the wild."

She added: "Setting up a half-open natural sanctuary at the coast can allow dolphins to feel the ocean breeze and provide them a broad area to live. Even if they cannot be fully released back to the wild, at least this will improve their living conditions."

Meanwhile, HK First lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching condemned the park for "being dishonest" and blaming its financial losses on the pandemic when it has been losing money for the past four years.

She said her online survey, after receiving around a thousand responses within 20 minutes, showed that almost 99 percent of respondents opposed the cash injection.

"The result shows Hongkongers have lost interest in Ocean Park," Mo said. "Moreover, they feel agitated the only concern they have is what the future holds for the animals."

Pro-establishment lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun also opposed injecting HK$5.4 billion, of which HK$3 billion is said to be for the park to repay commercial loans.

Tien suggested the government should instead inject HK$1.1 billion to let it operate for half a year, under the condition that the money would be used for the park to redirect its position.

"It can either transform into an exciting amusement park that appeals to the global taste so the government can put it up for lease through international bidding, or transform the space for education and conservation usage," he said.

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Half-open natural sanctuary in Hong Kong... that will be the quickest way for the mainland Chinese people to kill all the dolphins and other animals that they see.

I want Ocean Park saved but change to have other attractions that employ local IPs. They can have a Bruce Lee museum and maybe include in it a Martial arts stunt show. A dark ride with McDull/McMug or Old Master Q...etc. A rebuilt Lee Theatre with all kinds of Cantonese performances, including Cantonese opera, Canto-pop... etc. Maybe even a museum for some of the great old TVB TV shows or Shaw movies. They could bring back some old buses, minivans or trams and operate them in the park, there are people who own them and want to share them with the public if the right conditions are available.

[hakjie11]

Ocean Park doesn't have a plan and they probably won't have a feasible one soon.
I can only see it living off Government support for the coming years until mainland tourism picks up again.
Although the park does have sentimental value for HKers, any cash injection will lead to demand for more cash injection.
Still, it would be a shame for not giving it at least a chance of survival. Pretty sure people would regret not saving it, when everything returns back to normal.

[mclubber]

I heard it was only way Ocean Park gets the cash if they change management. When Allan Zeman was there Ocean Park did not need to change management this was politics that setup Ocean Parrk destruction. When CY Leung was CE he did not like Allan Zeman that why he got the boot running Ocean Park to some guy who had no experience tto do this. Its a shame that politics gets involved in managing the park. Better move it private you get better management.

[Asa]

https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/202...55afb0db577eff

A rumour circulated in Hong Kong that Nintendo approached HK Ocean Park about making the park into a Pokemon GO park.

I believe it is complete fabrication. Nintendo has an agreement with Universal Studios to develop their IPs into attractions. Universal also announced plans for Nintendo to feature in Universal Studios Japan as well as Singapore, so why would Nintendo bother to go to Ocean Park all by itself, to potentially jeopardize its agreement with Universal/Comcast?

[Asa]

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/secti...-survival-vote

There is another LegCo meeting today to discuss the financial injection today. Yesterday the govt said they will consider breaking up the park, which means the animal exhibits and the roller coasters will be separated. Each ride in the roller coaster section will be ticketed individually.

I still think the govt and those in charge have no idea what is wrong and what is needed... once they do the above there is no going back and is a great shame.

[Asa]

After hours of debate yesterday in the LegCo financial council, there was still no vote on the re-development plan. Basically the councilors were concerned this would be a financial abyss that the govt will have to bear every year, since the park has no clear plans for the future.

Some key points:
1. The new water park will complete work this winter but it won't open in order to save operation costs...
2. Bank of China (HK) is the lender. Ocean Park owes them HK$3 billion. One of the Ocean Park Board member is actually the vice president of BOC HK. Councilors questions the money is being used to save BOC rather than save Ocean Park. The govt actually does not need to pay BOC HK back since the loan is uncollateralized.

The next financial meeting will be held next Friday and is the final deadline for Ocean Park. It will likely pass but you never know.

[hakjie11]

I won't be surprised if it didn't get approved.
I followed every Legco debate for the approval of 50% funding for HKDL's current expansion. It took several tough meetings before it got the funding and that was with WDC putting in 50% of the money. Now Ocean Park just want free money without any funding/realistic planning from their side.
With so many businesses struggling to survive and people out of job, people will find it hard to understand why gov needs to help this particular failed theme park instead of using the funds for HK people in general like giving out more money or building another hospital.
It's a shame if Ocean Park needs to go bankrupt without fresh money, but that in fact is still a risk with running a business in general.
On the other hand if Ocean Park does go bankrupt, HKDL's prospects will be much better. One successful park is still better then 2 parks with problems during these tough times.

[Asa]

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/148233/Lawmakers-approve-HK$5.4b-bailout-for-Ocean-Park

Lawmakers approve HK$5.4b bailout for Ocean Park

The Legislative Council Finance Committee today approved the HK$5.4 billion of funding that cash-strapped Ocean Park is seeking to keep it afloat for another year.

Thirty-two lawmakers voted in favor, 20 voted against, and two abstained. Some lawmakers had questioned whether the government is pouring money into a bottomless pit.

The theme park in Wong Chuk Hang has been closed since January 26 due to the coronavirus epidemic. It had previously sought HK$10.6 billion in funding.

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The park is saved and will survive for at least another year. In the meantime the park management will have to find a way to create a sustainable future for the park.

I hope they do listen to my ideas of creating local IP based attractions.

Latest idea, Stephen Chow movies (like Kung Fu and Shaolin Soccer) based attractions.

[hakjie11]

Ocean Park should theme up with AIA for their annual Carnival around December-January.
I think both AIA and Ocean Park could find a way to make profit.

Most local IP's might lack the international drawing power. Local IP's might not even have a proper marketing team/franchising department to work out potential projects or collaboration in a professional and efficient way. (banners/attraction design submission experience/custom props/merchandises/ads...these involves a lot of people). I don't blame local IP's since they generally don't deal with many collaboration requests...so it could be winner if it works out properly.
A seasonal collaboration with some Japanese Anime/Manga will probably bring in more visitors both local and international on the long term.
Demon Slayer for example would draw huge crowds, it surpassed One Piece in popularity and it is collaborating with tons of companies now and I remember One Piece collaborated with Ocean Park for their water festival once.