Ocean Park Assignment Opm

8/8/2019 Ocean Park Assignment Opm

1/7

OCEAN PARK:IN THE FACE OF

COMPETITION FROM HONG KONG

DISNEYLAND

Ocean Park,located at ABERDEEN on the south of hong kong island, was

opened in 1977 . it was hong kongs only home-geown theme park. It was

also the largest marine-based theme park in ASIA and the only asian park

to be accredited by american zoo and aquarium association. It was

constructed by the hong kong jocky club and was built on land provided by

the government at a nominal premium.

Ocean Park had enjoyed a surplus in income since it opened untill 1997,

when the asian financial crisis hit hong kong. The Ocean Park bear loss for

consecutive 4 years. Through ceative special events, aggressive marketing

and heavy advertisement on the mainland, the park returned to profitability

with a HK$15.3 million profit in 2001-2002 and a 23% increase in

attendance, reaching 3.4 million.

In 2002 the new chairman of Ocean Park has hired named ALLAN

ZEMAN. Zeman hired THOMAS MEHRMANN to replace randolph Guthrie

as the parks CEO.

Now Ocean Park has faced a problem because of its new rival

DISNEYLAND. International expansion was one of disneys strategic

platform, and it had already opened two other international theme park, one

in YOKYO in 1983 and other one is in paris in 1992. And now it opened a

theme park in hong kong. Disneyland is a joint venture between

government and disney. The park is located at pennys bay on Lantau

Island, was 126 hectares in size. The total project development cost was

HK$ 27.7 billion. In rearly stages the disney park face great problems

because of change in culture (from america to china) but it overcome on

that difficulties very well.


2/7

Competitive strategies adopted by

ocean park

The management of Ocean Park thinks that When disneyland play into

action it reduces the visitors of Ocean Park up to 25% approximately.

There are 2 effects of disneyland on ocean park . One is up side or positive

and other is down side or negative . Positive sign is that it will bring more

visitors to hong kong and turn the territory into a family destination. The

negative sign is that the local park had to compete against the leader in the

global theme park industry.

Positive sign bring a future customers and than more income for

Ocean Park but there is a risk of reducing the future customers also as the

competitor of Ocean Park are now arrived .

The Disney was a fantasy operation based on its movie products and

intellectual properties, while the Ocean Park with its focus on animals and

nature, was about reality. So this difference the park decided to use the

theme of connecting people with nature through the ocean and animalsencounter to differentiate itself from Disney.

The disney offers movies , cartoons, and a teste of american culture and

the Ocean Park decided to showcased animals, natural surroundings and a

cable car ride with a fantastic view of hong kong. The Ocean Park also

focus on the education and conservation in addition to providing

entertainment.

Disneyland is an american brand and the Ocean Park is a home-grown

park so on this point the Ocean Park also position itself in the market.

They develop the chanese culture and they better understand the

behaviour of the people. They introdues itself as a home park and it reflect

a good impression on the people. They compete itself with the Disneyland

on brand basis . Ocean Park has an edge because of a home brand but


3/7

they also focus on foreign visitors with introducing new animals and a

better natural environment.

Marketing strategies adopted by

ocean park

Ocean Park, as similar to Disney, targeted the family market. But the

Ocean Park targeted every person from children to grandparents in order to

attract repeat visits from local families . It ran special exhibition that

cartered to everyone from children to grandparents, such like the jellyfish

aquarium.

Ocean Park introduces acadmy catered to school children , and special

yearly events, such as the HALLOWEEN BASH were geared towards

teenagers. The first halloween bash was held on 2001.

Timing are also decided for every type of visitor so that the visitors will

manage in a better way . The 3 groups of visitors showed different patterns

in park usage.and the marketing strategies are developed according to

that.

Financial management adopted by

ocean park

Ocean parks vision of itself as a world-class marine park was translated

into HK$ 55.5 billion master plan to revamp the park. Under this plan , the

size of the park would increase from 30 hectres to 43.8 hectres ofattractions would double to more than 70, the number of shows would triple

to 12, and more than 30 new animal species would be introduced by 2010.

The number of restaurants would increase from 7 to 27 and the retail area

more than double to 19000 square feet.


4/7

The revamping of the Park was planned to be carried out in eight phases

over a six-year period. And the park will remain open during the

construction.

The development cost will be HK$ 5.5 billion and the currently park did nothave enough money to fund the project itself. As of june 2004 the ocean

park trust fund had a balance of HK$ 288 million and the park had an

operating cash of HK$ 325 million. The operating cost of park for 2003-

2004 was HK$ 338 million.

In 2005 the government committed to revamping the park with a

subordinated loan of HK$ 1387.55 million at a fixed interest rate of 5% pa

and a loan term of 25 year . Still remaning the 75% financing , which is

covered through commercial banking sector. The government give thegurantees on borrowing from commercial banks and the

governmentsupport for the ocean parks redevelopment entailed a total risk

exposure of up to HK$ 3475 million. The risk exposure of the loan is shared

between the government and commercial banks.

So all in all the government support fully the ocean park for redevelopment

and to compete its rivals.

Service operation adopted by oceanpark

Service was an integral part of the theme park experience and disney,

which defined service excellence as exceeding customersexpectations,

had made service excellence a cornerstone of all its theme parks. Such like

Disney the ocean park also give importance to the service operation, and it

enhance the service to compete with the Disney . It focus on theemployees traning and also motivate them in different ways like giving

cash bonuses , give free tickets for their families or giving honour on the job

etc etc.


5/7


6/7

Overall impect on the ocean

park

In the start the ocean park was at a profit but in 1997 it has suffer a loss for4 consuctive years. But than in 2001 it became profitable and earn a

handsome profit. But the disneyland come and the ocean parks

management thinks that it will effect the ocean parks visitors. So the

management of ocean park make strategies so that they can compete with

the disneyland . all the marketing, financing, and service operation

strategies are formulated so that the an cometetive edge can be obtained

upon its rivals.


7/7

Documents

Ocean Park Assignment Opm