Shanghai Disneyland Scores 4 Million Visitors in Four Months
Shanghai Disneyland has welcomed over 4 million visitors since its opening in mid-June. The numbers challenge recent estimates circulated by a local academic, who said that the theme park was struggling to attract tourists.
The numbers were revealed by Disney CEO Bob Iger in a conference call with financial analysts following the publication of Disney’s third quarter results. While the group figures came in lower than market expectations, Iger was very positive about Shanghai Disneyland.
“We welcomed four million guests in our first four months of operation, which included the peak summer season, said Iger on the call.
“The financial results for the park’s first full quarter of operations were ahead of our expectations. As we look to fiscal 2017, we expect Shanghai Disney Resort to be very close to breakeven for the year,” Iger said.
But he warned against seasonal variations. “Some of you may infer from this early performance that we could achieve 10 million in attendance in the park’s first year, a number we would be thrilled with but we’re not providing any annual guidance at this point.”
Recent media reports by Fortune and CNN had respectively cited a Shanghai University of Finance and Economics professor and a Nomura securities analyst as estimating attendance at a lowly 20,000 per day.
Earlier this week, Shanghai Disney Resort joint owners Disney and Shanghai Shendi announced that construction had begun on Toy Story Land, the seventh themed area at the Shanghai site.
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