Tokyo Disney operator to invest 250b yen to expand DisneySea

Tokyo

THE operator of Tokyo Disneyland is investing 250 billion yen (S$3 billion) in the biggest expansion to the Japanese resort in almost two decades as Walt Disney continues to upgrade its theme parks in Asia.

Oriental Land, which is licensed to operate the Tokyo resort, will expand the DisneySea park to include a hotel and new areas based on movies such as Frozen and Peter Pan, according to a statement on Thursday.

The investment is in addition to a previously announced about 100 billion yen upgrade to DisneySea and the Disneyland park.

The project will add attractions replicating the Kingdom of Arendelle from Frozen, a tower inhabited by Rapunzel in the movie Tangled, and a Neverland for Peter Pan and his friends, along with a new 475-room hotel.

Oriental Land also revealed that it has extended its licence with Disney for an additional 30 years, all the way until 2076.

The new areas are set to open by mid-2022 and will add around 50 billion yen in annual revenue, according to Kyoichiro Uenishi, the chief operating officer of Oriental Land.

He said the resort may consider raising ticket prices if there is an opportunity. He declined to give a specific target for visitor numbers with the new attraction areas.

Tokyo Disneyland opened more than 35 years ago in April 1983, becoming the first Disney park built outside the US, while the adjoining DisneySea opened 18 years later.

Disney is continuing to expand its parks in Asia. Earlijer this year, it opened the first expansion, Toy Story Land, to its two-year-old Shanghai resort, and is in the middle of a US$1.4 billion upgrade of its Hong Kong resort, which will include Frozen and Marvel-themed lands.

More than 30 million people visit the combined Disney Resort every year, with numbers expected to increase as Japan works to boost tourism with a goal of 40 million foreign visitors by 2020 when it hosts the next Summer Olympics. BLOOMBERG,AFP