Tokyo Disney taps ‘Frozen’ and ‘Peter Pan’ in 320 billion yen expansion
TOKYO Disney Resort is opening a new 320 billion yen (S$2.8 billion) section celebrating some of its most popular fantasy franchises, the biggest expansion yet in Japan as Walt Disney invests heavily in theme parks globally.
Located at Tokyo Disneyland’s companion park Tokyo DisneySea, Fantasy Springs spans upwards of 140,000 square metres (1.5 million square feet) and comprises three areas based on franchises Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan.
The resort’s operator Oriental Land forecasts that the expansion, which opens to the public on Jun 6, will help boost annual sales by 75 billion yen and attract 29 million visitors – about the same number seen in 2019, before Covid – to the parks for the upcoming fiscal year, with four million coming from abroad.
The two Japanese Disney parks saw total attendance of 27.5 million last year.
A weaker yen has been attracting more tourists than ever to Japan, and at the same time high airfares and tepid wage growth are inspiring Japanese travellers themselves to explore closer to home. A record 3.1 million tourists flocked to the Asian nation in March, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, up almost 70 per cent from a year earlier.
International theme parks have been a recent bright spot for Burbank, California-based Disney, with profit jumping more than fourfold in the fiscal first quarter, bolstered by a new Frozen attraction in Hong Kong and Shanghai’s Zootopia. The company will report its latest earnings on Tuesday (May 7).
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Japan’s amusement and theme park industry is returning to pre-Covid attendance levels, with annual visitor numbers climbing back up to 72 million last year from around 30 million in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the pandemic, according to the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The industry’s total sales rose 41 per cent last year from 2022, to 844 billion yen, ministry data show.
Tokyo Disney Resort’s two parks both ranked in the top five most-visited amusement and theme parks worldwide in 2022, according to a report by infrastructure consulting firm Aecom and the Themed Entertainment Association.
Fantasy Springs includes restaurants and a hotel with hundreds of guest rooms, while new rides will take guests around destinations including a “fairy valley” home to Peter Pan character Tinkerbell and Frozen’s fictional kingdom of Arendelle.
Oriental Land has further upgrades in store for Tokyo Disneyland, and recently announced plans to open the world’s first attraction based on animated franchise Wreck-It Ralph, which has generated over US$1 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Disneyland Paris, meanwhile, is planning its own land inspired by Frozen and a revamp of its second park. BLOOMBERG
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