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Several sources report that Hong Kong Disneyland's second year figures are even more disappointing than the shortfall last year.

This morning, the South China Morning Post reported that "Hong Kong Disneyland is expected to struggle to achieve an attendance of 4 million in its second year of business, well below its first-year performance of 5.2 million".

Although it is not yet September, the official second anniversary date for the theme park, current attendance figures do not look like they are going to break targets. "With a daily average of less than 11,000 people, or about 33 per cent of the park's 34,000 visitor capacity, it is far from meeting its second year target of at least 5.4 million visitors... One of the main reasons for falling attendance is that Disney has been unable to attract a sufficient number of visitors from mainland China. Disney expert Dennis Speigel, president of the United States based consultant International Theme Park Services, said the number of visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland should be around 6 million by now. 'I don't think they have their finger on the pulse of the mainland market,' Speigel said" (Source: Monsters & Critics)

Charting the drop. Image from SCMP.com

While all sources, including Variety Asia, agree that it isn't unusual for theme parks to drop attendance during their second year, this can't spell good news for Disney. With their debut year already below initial estimates, a drop from that figure is nothing positive. Despite the increased number of clever promotions this year - including the Chinese New Year; Pirates Takeover and Mickey's Summer Blast - it seems as though Disney is having trouble cracking that elusive Mainland China market. With it's a small world due to open in the first half of next year, it is going to have to be one impressive ride to turn those figures around. We all know that the answer lies in building far more smaller "C and D Ticket attractions" (in the old-school lexicon) - such as Peter Pan's Flight and smaller dark rides found in the other parks - not to mention a couple of E-Tickets of the mountain and piratey variety. Hopefully these figures will spur Disney towards really building the park up, rather than simply giving up and not wanting to sink any more money into a failing investment.

While Disney are often tight-lipped about their guest numbers, we can probably expect more accurate figures closer to the September anniversary and in the next financial report at the end of the fiscal quarter.

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