Sheffield Business School BSc (Honours) Leisure Events Management Title The Analysis of Success and Unique Factors of

Ocean Park with the view of Kong People

Name Shum Chung Ho

Student No 91206641

Month Year April 2011

Supervisor: Professor Ray Pine

1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have been propitious in this study to have been studying in an environment where I have been able to call on the help of a number of colleagues. Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this study. I would like to thank people around me who have supported me in achieving my goals.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the support of IVE (Chai Wan) for supporting my research in terms of resources. In particular, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my tutor, Professor Ray Pine for his patience, fruitful guidance throughout my research. His insightful were thoughtful comments were helpful throughout the whole process.

Last but not least, many thanks go to my friends for their endless support. Without them, I would hardly have been able pursue higher education.

2 Table of Contents

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………. 2 TABLE OF CONTENT………………………………………………... 3-4 LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………. 5 LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………… 5

Section 1 Executive summary…………………………………………. 6

Section 2 Introduction 7-8 2.1 Background of Ocean Park 7 2.2 Aim 8 2.3 Objectives 8

Section 3 Literature Review 9-16 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. 9 3.2 Theme park……………………………………………………….. 9 3.3 Success of a Theme Park 9-10 3.3.1 To be unique in 10-11 3.3.2 Strong Desire for Changes after Dr. become the 11-14 chairman of Ocean Park 3.3.3 Their Planning 14 3.3.4 To Improve More…………………………………… 14-15 3.4 SWOT analysis………………… 15-16

Section 4 Methodology 17-19 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. 17 4.2 Primary Research 17-18 4.3 Secondary Research 18 4.4 Quantitative research…………………………….. 18 4.5 Questionnaires 18-19 4.6 Limitations of Study 19

3 Section 5 Findings and Analysis 20-28 5.1 People mostly from living in Hong Kong. 20

5.2 Tendency to visit again in the future 20

5.3 How often did the people visited Ocean Park in last 5 years 21

5.4 Demographic Background 23-24

5.5 Attractive level and satisfaction 25-27

5.5.1 Most Attractive and Satisfied 25-26

5.5.2 Attractive and Satisfied 26-27

5.5.3 Not Attractive and Satisfied enough. 27 5.6 Effects of Future Development 28

5.7 Change for enhancing image 28

Section 6 Conclusions 29-35 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. 29 6.2 SWOT analysis………………………………………………….. 29-33 6.3 Conclusion………..…………………….. 33-35 6.4 Recommendation……………………………... 35

Reference 36-38

Appendix 39-40 Survey Questionnaire (Chinese and English Version) Link in 39

4 LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 3.1 SWOT analysis………………... 5 Figure 5.7 Pie Chart of Desire for Changes continuously and New 28 Engineering of Park that lead to economic profits (boost tourism, raise the job opportunities directly and indirectly etc) can help to enhance their image or not LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 5.1 People who have been to Ocean Park and live in Hong 20

Kong ……………... Table 5.2 Go to Ocean Park in the future or not……. 20 Table 5.3 Frequency of visiting Ocean Park in last 5 years 21 …………………………………….. Table 5.4 Demographic background of the respondents 22-23 factors……………………………………………………… Table 5.5 Attractive level of each element of Ocean Park from the 24-25 view of Hong Kong People

Table 5.6 Effects of Future Development of Ocean Park to the Entry 28 Number of Hong Kong People………………...

‘

5 Section 1 Executive Summary

The park was built with donations from the Royal (now

Hong Kong Jockey Club) and opened on 10 January 1977. The park is operated by

Ocean Park Corporation, which is a statutory board. It offers affordable marine animal education and entertainment and is a private organization for commercial purposes.

In 2006, Forbes.com named Ocean Park one of the "10 Most Popular Amusement

Parks in the World". And also in 2007, Forbes Traveler ranked Ocean Park as one of the "50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the world" together with third of the “Top

12 amusement parks in in 2010”. From wikipedia’s information, it proved that in year 2007/2008, Ocean Park received 5.03 million visitors awarding it the position of the world's number 15 theme park by annual attendance, ahead of rival Hong Kong

Disneyland's 4.5 million visitors.

Ocean Park started to make a success after Dr Allan Zeman become the chairman of the Park and make many changes for make Ocean Park become a famous amusment

Park nowadays. In this study, there will be the discussion of the unique and successful factors of Ocean Park with the view of Hong Kong people to gather with other information to see how Ocean park become success and it can act as a learning target for the event organizers to notice and concern what sorts of things should be pay attention to hold a good event with building up a good repuation

Lastly, there will be SWOT analysis together with conclusion and recommendations to find out the strengthens and weaknesses of Ocean Park and how can they improve better to attract more local people to visit.

6 Section 2- Introduction

Ocean Park is a Hong Kong's premier educational theme park situated on the southern side of ,. The have the advantage of locating near the sea which covers more than 870,000 square metres of land and features a diverse selection of world-class marine attractions, thrill rides and shows. It includes elements of entertainment, education and conservation to the public and the number of entrance have already been over 0.1 billion of tourists in this year. It is the main tourist spot in

Hong Kong.

2.1 Background of Ocean Park

The park has consistently rejuvenated and reinvented itself to better serve its guests, establishing itself as a major tourist attraction both locally and abroad. In 2006,

Forbes.com named Ocean Park one of the "10 Most Popular Amusement Parks in the

World". And also in 2007, Forbes Traveler ranked Ocean Park as one of the "50 Most

Visited Tourist Attractions in the world" together with third of the “Top 12 amusement parks in Asia in 2010”. From wikipedia’s information, it proved that in year 2007/2008, Ocean Park received 5.03 million visitors awarding it the position of the world's number 15 theme park by annual attendance, ahead of rival Hong Kong

Disneyland's 4.5 million visitors. To go further, they would like to improve more by introducing more facilities and hotels together with the better transportation convenient to the tourists in the future.

It seems as a Ocean Park is undefeatable and stable with its position. However,

Ocean Park was suffered from the financial crisis in 1997and people become boring to Ocean Park as they felt there are no longer any freshness together with the death of

7 Hai Wei, the whale killer that had been performed for 18 years. The entry of the two pandas and in 1999 can still not increase entry number and the decision of opening of make many people feel Ocean Park would be the end in 2005. Unexpectedly, after Dr. Allen Zemen became the chairman of Ocean

Park in 2004, everything of Ocean Park was changed. Many new things with freshness and creativity have been started again and there was a break record in 04/05 which attracted 400 million tourists to come. It was worthy for studying the unique factors and attractive characteristics in the view of public make them have the interest to come is the key element for a park to operate continuously.

2.2 Aim

The Research is aiming to find out the successful factors of Ocean Park from the view of public that can attract them to visit for being a good learning target for knowing what aspects should be noticed to hold an successful activity or event.

2.3 Objectives

1. To identify the unique factors and changes after Allan Zeman become the

chairman of Ocean Park

2. To identify the satisfaction of the Hong Kong People for the facilities and

services

3. To analyze the SWOT Ocean Park in the future and conlusion

4. Recommendations for Ocean Park to improve more

8 Section 3- Literature Review

3.1 Introduction

This chapter covers a review of relevant literature and studies in definition of theme park and success of a theme park. It presents a key concept and details of specific research. Several information will be shown in this chapter.

3.2 Theme Park

According to Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.com Retrieved 2010-09-02, the definition of theme park is an in which landscaping, buildings, and attractions are based on one or more specific themes, as jungle wildlife, fairy tales, or the Old West.

Apart from the above definition, other means that theme parks offer opportunities for visitors to learn, to wonder, to experience and perceive new horizons (Tokidsen, 2005).

Theme parks represent an exciting type of tourist attraction focused on a distinct theme (Park et. al., 2009). Based on above explanation, theme park means leisurely fun, provides meaningful information in an enjoyable atmosphere, that is the mission of Ocean Park ‘provides all guests with memorable experiences that combine entertainment and education, while inspiring life long learning and conservation advocacy. Their aim is to maintain a healthy financial status, while striving to deliver the highest standards of safety, animal care, products and guest service.’

3.3 Success of a Theme Park

Referring to a journal of Bao Jigang (Center for Urban and Regional Studies,

Zhongshan University, Guangzhou,510275) , it stated that there are some major factors

9 that influence theme park development and success, including tourist market, traffic, regional economic development level, tourist image of the city, spatial agglomeration and competition of theme park, and behavior of decision makers. Tourist market, traffic and regional economic development level are essential conditions for the development and success of theme park. And also the most important is the unique theme of the park and people-oriented. Theme park will not be success if the essential conditions are not satisfied.

3.3.1 To be unique in Hong Kong

Journal from headline newapaper 27-8-2010(Translated from Chinese to English)

As the Marketing Director of Ocean Park, Miss Li Lingfeng (VivianLee) who co-ordinates publicity and promotion of new attractions and special events. She is responsible for setting the park's marketing strategy, advertising for the tourist market and promotion programs, online promotion, publications within the park and

"SmartFun" Annual Pass program. Over the past nine years, Vivian was excellent move "Ocean Park Bash" (Halloween) and creation of promotional activities with different themes and strategies. Halloween boom set off in October each year, Hong Kong's streets are full of strong festive atmosphere.

Ocean Park have the popular water park in the past year but only open for four months a year is not economical, so it have been ceased operating. In the principle of

"poor change, and change to solution", it was recommended to try to limited resources, to diversify running spin-off. Learning from the overseas theme park, it was found

"Halloween" is more than just a drink as it can make a festival atmosphere to continue.

But the process needs to educate the masses, for example, the origin of pumpkin and its stories.

10

Ocean Park began to try the lowest cost to maximize efficiency. At first, the warehouse converted into "ghost houses"with only thirty"Ghost" in number. It was launched nine nights in the first year on a trial basis only. The following year increased to eleven nights and until now, it has increased to one month per year.

Meanwhile, there will be four hundred forty-four "Ghost" this year and the “Ghost

House”will "built" to eight, as the largest "Halloween" activities in Asia.

Based on the success of the products, there is an excessive festival to celebrate.

From the past years, October is the low-season month but the “Halloween” made the entry number from 0.22 million increased to 0.6 million in a high rate. It was the peak and golden season within a year and just a few below than summer. With the help of

Tourism Board and the Ocean Park’s promotion, it attracts many local citizens as well as the tourists in the near board side.

3.3.2 Strong Desire for Changes after Dr. Allan Zeman become the chairman of

Ocean Park

‘We should show the unique difference of Ocean Park with its own nature, to provide a totally different way of Disneyland. The theme of Ocean Park is education, environmental conservation and animals which are related to the nature but not cartoom.”, said by Dr Allan Zeman in wenweipo, the Hong Kong newspaper

2005-06-16. After 6 years, he has done that and make a success in Ocean Park.

11 Ocean Park profit in spin despite record visitors

Thursday, November 25, 2010

“Ocean Park saw its surplus drop 17 percent despite increases in both attendance and revenue.

For the fiscal year ending June it was HK$82 million, HK$16.6 million less than a year earlier, according to its annual report submitted to the Legislative Council yesterday.

The smaller surplus is due to interest being paid on HK$5.55 billion of loans for redevelopment, pushing up its finance costs to HK$33.8 million from HK$8.3 million, a spokeswoman said.

The loans were borrowed from commercial banks and the government in 2005-06.

Depreciation and write-offs also went up 15.7 percent to HK$137.6 million mainly because of the opening of new attractions.” eman, who had never visited Ocean Park, was amazed by the sea views from its cable car ride.

A journal from forbes.com in 2007-2-13 titled Allan Zeman: Hong Kong's Mouse Killer http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/13/zeman-ocean-park-face-cx_vk_0213autofacescan 01.html

“Zeman realized that Ocean Park would be doomed to failure if he just redeveloped the park to mimic Disney. He decided to leverage its seaside setting by focusing on the ocean and live animals, pitting dolphins, sea lions and pandas against Winnie the

Pooh, Mulan and Buzz Lightyear.”

12 “Disney is all about castles, fantasy, cartoon,” he said. “Ocean Park is totally different.

We are about animals, ocean, environment, education and conservation.”

“Ocean Park is real and Disney is imagination.”

A team of 15 designers recruited mostly from the States helped him draw up a blueprint to transform it into a cutting-edge aquatic animal-centric theme park. Zeman also hired Randy Kalish, a former Disney executive who had helped to build Hong

Kong Disneyland, to direct the redevelopment program.

A $5.5 billion Hong Kong ($705 million) revamp, financed by bank loans was kicked off last year. By the time it is finished in 2012, the park will host 33 types of animals and the number of rides will be doubled to 70.

However, Zeman isn’t sinking all the money into rides and permanent attractions.

Ocean Park is concentrating on organizing special events every two months for holidays such as Christmas, and Halloween.

With about 50% of its visitors coming from mainland China, Ocean Park opened an office in the nearby city of Guangzhou to expand sales.

Zeman’s efforts have already born fruit.

A record 4.38 million visitors came to Ocean Park in fiscal 2006, giving it ticket sales of $539 million Hong Kong ($69 million), also a record. New restaurants and upgraded retail outlets also helped to boost profit by 31% to an all-time high of $157 million Hong Kong($20.1 million).

13 The most flamboyant tycoon in town said he has applied the lessons he learned in Lan

Kwai Fong — that Hong Kong consumers are hungry for the new — in running

Ocean Park. “We have to keep people coming back; we have to keep people having fun.”

3.3.3 Their Planning www.oceanpark.com.hk/html/en/footer/corporate-information/facts.html

“A new Master Redevelopment Plan (MRP) for Ocean Park was unveiled in 2005, which will see significant upgrades to the quality and availability of features at the

Park. The Lowland will be completely redeveloped into a new area called the

Waterfront, while the Headland will be transformed into a fantastic new section called the Summit….”

Ocean Park had many planning in order to attract more tourists to come. From its website it can show that their intention for making new changes so as to increase the number of tourists is no doubt. Its evidence has proved that in their website that all the things Ocean Park would like to do is improve more and better. The facilities and other sceneries can be chosen for questionnaires to ask whether the tourists would like it or not.

3.3.4 To Improve more

The Standard Article-- Ocean Park eyes overseas by Nickkita Lau

Monday, October 12, 2009

“The source told The Standard that Ocean Park's bid to expand is the result of invitations over the years from countries - including North Korea and India - to establish joint ventures with overseas attractions.

14 A mainland local authority has also made an offer of land on which the theme park could duplicate its successful playground in Aberdeen.

Ocean Park has formed partnerships with other attractions in the region such as

Shenzhen OCT Happy Valley, offering discounts when customers visit each other's parks.

But the source said such a partnership poses no problem, as it can be viewed purely as a tactic to attract more visitors.”

This article from standard can help to prove Ocean Park know fousing in China is very important and shows the characteristic of it. Yes, not only doing business in Hong

Kong but should be aware to cooperate with other areas is an opportunity. Looking for something new to face challenges is the main successful factor that make Ocean Park become famous. As the slogan said in the escalator in Ocean Park- Looking for changes continuously.

3.4 SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.

A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A

SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic

Planning has been the subject of much research. Strength and weakness are internal

15 audit while opportunity and threat are external audit. (Wood, 2007) (West, Ford and

Ibrahim, 2006) (Wright, 2004) had agreed that this model can help the organization to understand how to use their opportunity to stronger their strength and against their weakness and threat. (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2006) had stated that successful strategy arises from a firm’s strategic analysis of emerging opportunities and threat while taking into account the firm’s internal strengths and weakness.

Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry.

Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others.

Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment.

Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. The model is shown in Figure 3.2 shows a SWOT as below. Figure 3.1 The SWOT analysis Source: Wickham, P.A. (2000). Financial Times Corporate Strategy Casebook . Harlow: Pearson Education.

16 Section 4- Methodology

4.1 Introduction

This study was aimed to identify the unique and success factors of Ocean Park from the view of Hong Kong people by making primary research and secondary research.

Besides, it identified the limitation when conducting the research. This study was used to assess the characteristics of Ocean Park that can attract the Hong Kong citizens to come continuously. Primary data from the questionnaires and secondary data from different sources are needed to collect the relevant data.

4.2 Primary Research

Primary data should be observed or collected directly by first-hand information.

According to Veal (1997) pointed that primary data are new data specifically collected in the current research project.

There are several methods to collect the data such as questionnaires, interviews and observations etc. Since Hong Kong People are selected to be the target group for doing the questionnaires so as to make the results accurate, it was designed in Chinese.

Questionnaires can be distributed through e-mail, fax or by person and nowadays it is very convenient to send the questionnaires through facebook by asking the people to click to the link of the questionnaires. Johnson and Christensen (2006) mentioned that questionnaires are moderately high measurement validity if for well-constructed and validated questionnaires.

Those methods of collecting information can allow the interviewer to obtain wide range of different age groups together with different regions whatever the people live in local

17 region or overseas to do the questionnaires in a convenient way. In addition, the cost of those methods is relatively cheap and low risk to reduce the embarrassment and annoying when people face to face and also to enhance the efficiency that people can do the questionnaires at the same time with no time-wasting.

4.3 Secondary research

Secondary research was used in order to gather the information of ocean park and the evidence to prove their success and development. Sources like reference books, journal, newspapers some report from international organizations were needed. The results of the research formed a fundamental part of this study. Referring to Veal

(1997) pointed that secondary data are data which already exist an which were collected for some other or primary purpose but which can be used a second time in the current project.

4.4 Quantitative research According to Veal (1997) mentioned that the quantitative approach to research involves statistical analysis. It relies on numerical evidence to draw conclusions or to test hypotheses. In this study, there are no deep interviews with each interviewee and so the study belongs to quantitative research.

4.5 Questionnaires The questionnaires are provided for analyzing different aspects of Ocean Park that make people feel satisfied and make it be successful.

Section 1: Section 1 was developed to find out the respondents live in Hong Kong or not, their frequency to visit the Park within these 5 years (to ensure the accuracy is updated) Reasons which attract them for visiting and will they visit in the future (See

Appendix 1, Section 1)

18 Section 2:

Section 2 was developed to find out the attractive level in different aspects of Ocean

Park such as the promotion methods and kinds of games from the respondents’ points of views. This section is very significant to decide what kinds of things the visitors concerned the most and feel most attractive to go to Ocean Park. (See Appendix 1,

Section 2)

Section 3:

Section 3 was developed to find out the respondents’ opinions to the future development of Ocean Park which affect the entry number the most. That means which kinds of development will affect their tendency to visit in the future. (See

Appendix 1, Section 3)

Section 4

The last section was developed to collect respondents’ demographic information, including gender, age, education, occupation and monthly income. (See Appendix 1,

Section 4)

4.6 Limitations of study

Due to the limited time and resources the researcher had, only 80 questionnaires were received. Hence, the result may not be representative enough to the total local population visiting Ocean park.

19 Section 5- Findings and Analysis

This section presents the results and analysis of the primary research, which was discussed in section 4. There are some basic information of the people from, frequency of the people visit Ocean park, statistics of demographic background, the attractive level in each aspects of Ocean Park, future development which affect the entrance number and the reason that attract them the most to visit Ocean Park. All of the information found in the questionnaires will be shown and discussed below:

Table 5.1 People who have been to Ocean Park and live in Hong Kong

Live in HK 77 people 96.25% Not Live in HK but 3 people 3.75 % are HK residents

5.1 People mostly from living in Hong Kong

The data that are shown above identify, all target groups are living in Hong Kong and most of the people having the surveys are living in Hong Kong. For convenience, the surveys are made in Chinese version for them to understand and for making the results accurately.

Table 5.2 Go to Ocean Park in the future or not

Go 79 people Will not go 1 people

5.2 Tendency to visit again in the future

From the data above, it can show a almost 100% of people will go to Ocean Park in the future, that means this Park are not boring for them and they have the high tendency to go again for fun and entertainment in there. It can attract them mostly.

20

Table 5.3 Frequency of visiting Ocean Park in last 5 years

Frequency Number of People Percentage (%) 0 2 2.5 1-3 46 57.5 4-6 24 30 7 or More than 7 8 10

5.3 How often did the people visited Ocean Park in last 5 years

From the results in the above table, there are 40% of people have gone to Ocean Park

4-7 times or even more than 7 years within these 5 years, it can show that Hong Kong people are willing to go Ocean Park. In addition, there are 57.5% of people will go to

Ocean Park 1-3 times within 5 year, it is not a very good result although from table

5.2 almost 100% people said they will come for visiting Ocean Park again and there may be some reasons that avoid them to go and the issues should be discussed in the following table 5.5. Also we can see that there are 2.5% of people who have not been to Ocean Park in these 5 years, it may need some recommendation to Ocean Park to increase their proportion of Hong Kong people to come.

The results show that from proportion it is not many people go to Ocean Park regularly and from HKCD.com.hk, mainland and overseas tourists have 74% of the total population until the lunar new years. That means the number of local people who go to Ocean Park in each year not very oftenly with average 1 time per year. It is very useful for this study as which kinds of things should be done better for attracting more people to come as well as in an event or activity.

21 Table 5.4 Demographic background of the respondents (Total number=80) Gender Frequency Percent(%) Male 42 52.5 Female 38 47.5 Age Frequency Percent (%) Below 15 years 7 8.75 15-18 years 10 12.5 19-23 years 57 71.25 24-28 years 2 2.5 29-35 years 3 3.75 36-42 years 0 0 Above 42 years 1 1.25 Education level Frequency Percent (%) Primary school or 0 0 below Junior high school 6 7.5 Senior high school 14 17.5 Diploma/ Higher 22 27.5 Diploma University or above 38 47.5 Occupation Frequency Percent (%) Professionals 2 2.5 (Doctors, lawyers etc) Education 5 6.25 Customer Service 9 11.25 Clerk/ White-collar 5 6.25 Sales/ Marketing 3 3.75 Tertiary School 31 38.75 Students Primary/ Secondary 19 23.75 Students Unemployed 1 1.25 Others 5 6.25

22 Personal income Frequency Percent (HK$) (%) Less than 600 53 66.25 6001 - 12000 21 26.25 12001-18000 2 2.5 18001 or above 4 5

5.4 Demographic Background

Gender - The percentage of male and female to come are in near percentage 52.5

%and 47.5% respectively and it can show the Park is suitable for both male and female.

Age - There are 8.75% of people under 15 years old, the proportion is not relatively high as in this age, may be the children do not have the ability to earn money for going to Ocean Park or need the parents to bring them to go or with permission to go.

The percentage of people aged 15-18 is 12.5% which a little bit higher than the above age group. It may due to the problem they do not have income and time to go.

In the group of 19-23, it is the highest group of people which contain 71.25 %, as within this age group, the teenagers start to have the ability to earn money for doing part time and they can go by themselves as they started tobe independent for going outside without Parents’ permission and they are keen to play the exciting games.

In the age group of 24-28 and 29-35, there are only 2.5% and 3.75% of people going to Ocean Park, it may due to busy for work and they may have experience before when they were young and not willing to go often but to go travel aboard.

Lastly there are no people from 36-42 to go the park and only one who aged above 42 to go to the park as the exciting games such as thrill rides are not suitable for them anymore due to healthy reasons.

23 Education level- The education level of the people are similar to their age range and there is no need to discuss again.

Occupation From the table, it shows that there are 62.5 % of people going to Ocean Park are still studying while other people with other jobs such as clerk and sales were in a very near percentage and so the Park mainly attract the teenagers we can observe from that. But if the adults not willing to go for the park and the birth rate decreases, there may be a risk in the future. So there should be some consideration for Ocean Park and also for event organizers to take care about the unbalanced target group.

Income There are 53 people who earned less than $6000 a month and they should belong to the age group from less than 15 and 15-23 years old. People who can earn more than $6000 or even reach to more than $12001 are in a relatively low proportion.

Table 5.5 Attractive level of each element of Ocean Park from the view of Hong Kong People

Attractive elements of Ocean Park Total Marks (Each Interviewee can choose 1 mark represent the lowest level of attraction while the 5 marks represent the highest level of attraction from 1,2,3,4,5) Advertising and Promotion Methods 306 Kinds of Thrill Rides 308 Exhibition Museum of Animals 324 Performance Programmes 285 Special Programmes 305 Souvenirs 203 Environment & Atmosphere 284 Entrance Fees 209 Convenient Transportation 238 Safety Environment 302 Learning the knowledge of different animals 286 and habitats Clean Environment 273

24 Cost of Food and Beverage 155 (Lowest Level) Sufficient Facilities of Food and Beverage 200 Kinds of Special Programmes 278 Wide Areas 275 Sufficient information and indicator board 286 Staffs' Attitude 285 View rare animals (such as pandas and 325(Highest) acipenser sinensis) Diversity of activities 288 Queueing time 193 New entertainment facilities and scenic spot 296 Kinds of Game Booths 287 Opening hours 279 Special activities (such as Dolphin Encounter, 267 Behind the scenes and Wedding Ceremony)

5.5 Attractive level and satisfaction

5.5.1 Most Attractive and Satisfied

This section is very significant for the whole study as it identifies what sorts of things and elements do the Hong Kong people feel satisfied or need to improve more. It can indicate the fond of Hong Kong people and what they focus on in a theme park and when organizing events or activities, such kinds of things should be considered deeply and properly so as to give a good image for them.

In this study, the total marks of each element are 400marks, if the element can be got more than 300 marks, that means the people feel very satisfied and attractive of this.

If the marks are more than 200 but less than 300, it shows they feel the elements are satisfactory but they can be improve more. If the marks are less than 200, that means the Park should notice more on that and solve the problems.

25 As a theme park and its unique are sea and animals, Ocean Park have its success in the elements of the rare animals such as pandas and acipenser sinensis and the exhibition of the animals and their habitats with the highest marks in this survey. As there must be thrill rides and game booths in a theme park, so the main theme of the park must be unique enough comparing with others. Such as the theme of Ocean park is ocean and animals but the theme of Disneyland is cartoon which are totally different in nature. So the unique of main theme can give people a strong desire to go and deciding whether you can meet the theme or not.

Apart from that, the kinds of thrill rides and special programmes such as the Abyss and Mine Train together with the Halloween can make people fresh feeling for attracting them to go. These kinds of entertainment especially the special programmes should be fresh and unique enough for people to try different things from the daily performance. Also they feel satisfied of the safety environment and promotion methods. An environment with no need to worry about the safety is a must for people to come, otherwise nobody will come again. It is a big concern for all the visitors. In addition, the advertising are creative and funny enough for raising the awareness of

Hong Kong people to go for some special programmes and offers. It is essential for a theme park to have good marketing otherwise the interest of people to visit will be reduced.

5.5.2 Attractive and Satisfied

The Performance Programmes, Environment & Atmospheres , Staffs'

Attitude,Diversity of activities,New entertainment facilities and scenic spot,

Kinds of Game Booths, Wide Areas and Opening hours can make the interviewees feel attractive and satisfied. Those kinds of things are very stable in Ocean park

26 although they are not excellent but totally enough for a visitor to feel good in the

Park,. These kinds of elements must be done well in enhance the image in order to keep the quality. However, for a local person, there are some elements of the Park that need to be improved more. The souvenirs were quite expensive for a local visitor to buy. And also the entrance fees nowadays in Ocean park for an adult is $250, full-time students do not have any special offers except to buy the annual pass. If there are some special offers for the local citizens whatever the souvenirs or entrance fees, it may attract more people to come in the daily time. Also the transportation is not convenient enough for local people to go, it can be seen during weekends or holidays there are a long queue outside the Admiralty Bus stop. It is not convenient for local people and visitors to go on the same bus in the same time during rush hours.

5.5.3 Not Attractive and Satisfied enough

There are two big problems in Ocean Park for long time. The first is the queueing time for playing, viewing, buying and taking the roller casters. People feel annoying to wait in a long queue for a whole day but can only play for several games and viewing the museum and shows. For the internal transportation, there is a new train connects Summit and Waterfront which can help to fluent the crowd by using only the roller casters. May be the extended of the area with more facilities can help to reduce the queue time. It is a problem in different theme park from worldwide but if Ocean

Park can do more on this, it must be become more famous.

Another problem is the cost of food and beverage and their number of provision. It is a worrying factor of Hong Kong people to have lunch or dinner there. Ocean Park should make some changes and decisions with the restaurants and snack bars to reduce a little bit of the cost as it may be one of the factors that avoid people to come.

27 Table 5.6 Effects of Future Development of Ocean Park to the Entry Number of

Hong Kong People (Total selection number = 179)

Elements (can select more than one item) Frequency Percent (%) MTR station 69 38.55 Hotels 45 25.14 Transportation connect Summit and waterfront 31 17.32 The New facilities in Summit and Waterfront 34 18.99 5.6 Effects of Future Development

From the results shown, the most concern thing is transportation that relevant to 5.5.2, having MTR station can avoid people to have long queue and more convenient to go.

Hotels are new for Ocean Park and it is fresh and interesting for local people to live in.

Transportation inside the Park and new facilities can have the impacts for local people to have desire to try. Those factors above will have benefits to the entry numbers.

Figures 5.7

Pie Chart of Desire for Changes

continuously and New

Engineering of Park that lead to Can Cannot economic profits (boost tourism,

raise the job opportunities

directly and indirectly etc) can

help to enhance their image or not

79 people 1 people 5.7 Change for enhance image Almost all of the people feel the change and new construction lead to economic benefits can enhance their image of Ocean park since Hong Kong people are closely related in this aspect as they can gain benefits from that.

28 Section 6- Conclusion

6.1 Introduction

After the primary research and secondary research by collecting the data to find out the unique and successful factors of Ocean Park, it can be shown that after Dr. Allan

Zeman become the chairman, there are so many changes such as “Halloween” become the unique attraction for celebrating this Festival in Hong Kong. This Section includes the SWOT analysis, conclusion and recommendation for Ocean Park in order to maintain their strength and to improve the weakness after the analysis of the research data.

6.2 SWOT analysis

Strengths

Ocean Park has been ranked the world seventh most popular amusement park in a survey by Forbes magazine. This strength is proved by international organization and it must have the positive impacts for the Park. Brand name is very important for increase your reputation and image. Now Ocean Park is famous not only in Asia but started to be noticed in the world and hence if the Park can keep the quality and their strong desire for changes with new facilities and programmes implemented, it will grow their popularity to become famous in the world.

- Animals and water creatures kept inside the Ocean Park are its unique selling point.

Therefore, if people want to see panda, jelly fish and dolphin, they must come to

Ocean Park. There isn’t any close substitute in Hong Kong. It was a very undefeatable factor for Ocean Park, as the discussion in the last section Ocean park aimed at promote the Habitats of Ocean, the rare organisms in the sea and other animals to

29 educate people with environmental conservation. People are satisfied with the main theme and think the it was the most attractive point. It was good to sell their own selling points and no need to compare with other theme parks just like Disneyland as the theme are totally different. If Ocean Park can keep on putting more elements in this, it will be a very famous worldwide marine park.

With 29 years of history, Ocean Park is recognized as Hong Kong’s home-grown park and has established a good image. A long history for Ocean Park in Hong Kong can make people having a loyalty to support. A good image of the service of the park and good treat to the staffs is necessary for people to visit. Ocean Park are the memories of the Hong Kong people and it grows together with them. This can give a friendly and relax feeling to Hong Kong people to learn and to have fun in there. For example people who have birthday on the day of entry are free of charges.

It is some other strengthens :

There are enough financial resources that are allocated for the operation of the park

The government is prepared to provide support for half of the funding of Ocean Park’s redevelopment cost

Appealing to the all age groups

Weakness

Lack of transportation to Ocean Park is a problem whatever to the local citizens or the tourists. It makes people feel time-consuming and annoying to queue for a long period of time outside the bus stop in Admiralty especially during summer. Although there are some buses will cross the and there are bus stops for people to take of and walk to the Park. However, not all of the people know to reach the park

30 with this method and most of them will take the bus in Admiralty especially the tourists. In such case, it may be a disturbing factor for people to go when they know they need to wait for long queue before they can enter the park.

There are too much open space and fewer bushes in Ocean Park. Therefore, weather will affect people’s willing to come to Ocean Park. As a large-scaled theme park, rubbish bin should be put in plenty of number to convenient the visitors, if this is hard to find rubbish bin some tourists may just put the rubbish somewhere and it would affect the image of the Park. Safety and clean is essential for the reputation to the tourists, otherwise it would be a negative factor for attracting people to come.

Jumping in a queue is a problem when the queue time for playing the thrill rides, viewing the rare animals, buying the food and entering into the “Ghost House” is too long. It make people easy to lose patience to wait. It will lead to conflicts or even accidents if people lose tempers and the image of the Park will be reduced.

Some other weaknesses

The theme park has to come up with more diverse attractions to lure visitors

High prices may push potential visitors to competitors with affordable p rices

Opportunities

Individual Traveling Scheme was carried out in 2003. China residents in 48 China cities can visit Hong Kong. This scheme provides an opportunity for Ocean Park.

It can help Ocean Park a lot in these few years to raise their entry number to 0.1 billion. China nowadays become a main role in the world and when other big countries such as United States still have many national debts, China acts as a strong

31 nation to help other countries and the citizens are willing to spend for leisure and travel. With 74% of tourists include a high proportion of mainland tourists, it can identify their financial ability to spend and Ocean Park is the popular theme park which can gain benefits from them.

In the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s website, it recommends that Ocean Park is a notorious spot for visitors. With the new hotels, future MTR networks and new facilities with expanded areas, Ocean Park will be a focus in the world. And now

Japan is suffered from the nuclear explosion and the murder in Philippines. Hong

Kong will be a prior choice for the tourists to go as it is a safe city. If Ocean Park can promote more in this period, they must gain popularity as a landmark in Hong Kong together to boost Hong Kong tourism.

New competitors continually enter the market may be seen as a threat, however, if the park can be show its unique and quality people will tend to go to Ocean park rather than other competitors.

Some other opportunities factors

Provide packages to increase visitors Growing market trend

Threats

Competition and challenges from HK Disneyland for their expanded planning

(Visitors may go to Disneyland rather than Ocean Park) It will be a threat that affecting the entry number of Ocean Park and so it needs to depend on the new facilities and hotels of the Park and attract the people to come or not.

32 Low birth rate in Hong Kong is a problem as Ocean Park’s target customers is families with children. If there is a low birth rate, that means less families will come to Ocean Park. And also the main target customers especially for the special programmes are teenagers too, if the birth rate decreases that means in the future there will be less teenagers and families to come.

More attractive points in the neighboring countries. E.g. If there are new casino and theme park in Macau, visitors may choose to go to Macau rather than Hong Kong.

Hence, fewer visitors come to Ocean Park for fun.

Some other Threats

The threat of not appealing to target market at all therefore generating a loss as opposed to profit

Entry of new theme parks

Vulnerability of the tourism cycle

6.3 Conclusion

Ocean Park is a people-oriented theme park, is ’ theme park. The income of the theme park in Hong Kong partially comes from tourists and partially comes from the local citizens. The administrators of the Ocean Park implements the keen strategy to attract the local citizens. For example, the Ocean Park ticket will be free of charge when the day is the birthday of the resident. As the administrators know that the resident, the birthday one, may go to the Ocean Park with his or her friends.

Therefore, the Ocean Park not only can court the favour of the local citizens, but also earns from their friends.

33

Principle of people-oriented is not enough. Ocean Park has a strong power to face the adversity – the ever-changing market conditions. While the Disneyland placed in Hong Kong,Ocean Park used every possible means to face the keen competitor. Sea

Jelly Spectacular is one of the means. It draws thousands of people to go to this charming facility. Moreover, Ocean Park will provide some activities for different festivals like Halloween. The ghost houses, the mythic atmosphere and the large-scale decoration – these are the winsomeness of the Ocean Park.

Another reason of Ocean Park success is because the Ocean Park considers both the tourist attraction development and the education side. As a result of the Ocean Park is a joint investment with the and the Hong

Kong government, both of the development can be developed thoroughly. For the education side, Ocean Park provides some tour guilds to introduce the work of the Ocean Park and the knowledge of the environmental protection. Over and above, Ocean Park also pays large effort on the animal care, like dolphins and pandas, which are the scenic spot of the Ocean Park.

In the future, Ocean Park will be developed to a Vacation Village. It will have hotel and more exciting facilities. At that moment, the facilities of the Ocean Park will be similar to the facilities of the Disneyland, but the Ocean Park has much more variety than the Disneyland. The magic power will disappear. Not that the wonderland is the Disneyland, but that the wonderland is the Ocean Park.

34 Ocean Park’s phoenix story epitomizes the Hong Kong spirit. Success of the Ocean Park is because of facing the challenges with creativity. With all the unique factors and their strong desire for changes, it leaded to the success of Ocean Park.

6.4 Recommendation

Ocean Park is a success theme park but there should be some points that need to be noticed for them to do the best.

The queueing time outside the park can be solved by the construction of MTR station but queueing time inside the park is their weaknesses. They should set a limit for people to enter each day and they should organize more staffs to avoid people from jumping in the queue to prevent any undesired accidents occur.

Cleaning environment is essential for a park to have a good image and so they should hire more staffs to ensure the cleanness of the park.

Low-birth rate may due to fewer families and teenagers to go to the Park and hence the park should focus the people with older ages to suit their needs to ensure the

Parks’ competiveness will not declined. More activities should be specify for the older groups such as above 42 to raise their interest to Ocean park.

Cost and provision of Food and Beverage is a problem to prevent local Hong Kong people to go. Since the ticket fees is not cheap, it is discouraging to have meals with a expensive price and to wait for long queue. If local people can have special offers to the meals by showing ID card or some special items such as string on arm which are provided by the Park to identify, it may attract more local people to come.

35 References

1. Ocean Park, Hong Kong - World’s Seventh Most Popular Amusement Park -

Meet Pandas Here!". China Travel Golden Route. Retrieved August 25, 2009.

2. The 50 Most Visited Places in The World". Itv News. Retrieved August 25,

2009.[dead link ]

3. Corporate Information - General Facts". Ocean Park Corporation. Retrieved

August 25, 2009.

4. NOW WORLD’S NO. 15 THEME PARK AS

RANKED IN TEA/ERA ATTRACTION ATTENDANCE REPORT 2008".

Ocean Park Corporation. Retrieved August 25, 2009.

5. Hong Kong Ocean Park To Raise Price From 1 October, China Hospitality

News.

6. http://www.doppelmayr.com/daten/daten-fuer-dpl/referenzen-dpl/standseilbah

nen/400-ful-ocean-express.html

7. http://www.gangloff.com/E/cabins/referenzen/standseilbahnen/ocean-park.php

8. http://www.sarner.com/PhotoGallery/Oceanpark%20Oceanexpress%20-%20T

hemepark%20Design%2001.html

9. Diana Lee, Baby hopes for new HK celebrities, The Standard , April 27, 2007

10. Ottermann, Birgit (2009-07-01). "PE dolphins ready for HK trip". News24.

Retrieved 2009-08-03.

11. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/disney-rival-ocean-park-to-woo-

visitors-with-hong-kong-.html Disney Rival Ocean Park to Woo

Visitors With Egg-Shaped Hong Kong Aquarium]Bloomberg.com Wendy

Leung - Jan 11, 2011 12:01 PM GMT+0800

36 12. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-12/05/content_11654234.htm

13. Press release of Ocean Park in 2010-3-31 Ocean park Animal Month

http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/html/en/footer/corporate-information/press/

14. Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.com Retrieved 2010-09-02

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theme 15. Buhalis, D. (2000). Marketing the competitive destination of the future. Tourism Management , 21 (2000), p.97-116. 16. How Amusement Parks Work by Lisa Greathouse 2009 17. Future Development of Theme Parks with the Help of a Comparison ...by .Anne Tucholka, Steffanie Weese 2007 18. The American amusement park by Dale Samuelson by Wendy Yegoiants 2001 19. The Global theme park industry by Salvador Anton Clavé 20. Bao Jigang (Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou,510275) , www.polyu.edu.hk/htm/iast/membership.html 21. Tokidsen, G. (2005). Leisure and Recreation Management (5 ed.). Routledge. 22. Tourism Research and Marketing. (1993). Theme Parks: UK and International Markets . Tourism Research and Marketing, London. 23. Samuelson, D. and Yegoiants ,W. (2001). The American Amusement Park. St. Paul: MBI Publishing Company. 24. TEA/ERA (2009). Attraction Attendance Report 2008, The Themed Entertainment Association and consultancy Economics Research Associates 25. A journal from forbes.com in 2007-2-13 titled Allan Zeman: Hong Kong's Mouse Killer http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/13/zeman-ocean-park-face-cx_vk_0213autofa cescan01.html 26. HK Ocean Park among Forbes' "World's Most Popular Amusement

Parks" http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2006-06/02/content_607567.htm

27. Journal from headline newapaper 27-8-2010(Translated from Chinese to

English)

www.news.hkheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp

28. Journal from headline newapaper 24-7-2009 (Translated from Chinese to

English)

37 29.Ocean Park profit in spin despite record visitors Thursday, November 25, 2010 http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=4&art_id=105334&s id=30422968&con_type=1&d_str=20101125&fc=7 30.www.oceanpark.com.hk/html/en/footer/corporate-information/facts.html 31. The Standard Article-- Ocean Park eyes overseas by Nickkita Lau

Monday, October 12, 2009 http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=89034&sid=2567

5252&con_type=1

38 Appendix

This is the link of the questionnaires: http://www.my3q.com/home2/325/cristianoronaldo/43261.phtml

The questions are in Chinese version but some questions have been already changed to English Version

Here is the translation of the questions below

-Section 1 Q4

-Ticket Fees

-Sales Shop

-Promotion and Advertising

-Thrill Rides

-Animals Exhibition

-Performance

-Special Programmes( Water Park & Halloween)

-New Facilities $ Scenic Spot

-Others

Section 2 is about how attractive of the elements of Ocean Park

1 mark is very unattractive, 2 marks is not attractive, 3 marks is ok, 4 marks is attractive, 5 marks is very attractive

6 Advertising and Promotion Methods

7 Kinds of Thrill Rides

8 Exhibition Museum of Animals

9 Performance Programmes

10 Special Programmes

39 11 Souvenirs

12 Atmosphere

13 Entracne Fees

14 Convenient Transportation

15 Safety Environment

16 Learning the knowledge of different animals and habitats

17 Clean Environment

18Cost of Food and Beverage

19Sufficient Facilities of Food and Beverage

20Kinds of Special Programmes

21Wide Areas

22Sufficent information and indicator board

23Staffs' Attitude

24 View rare animals (such as pandas and acipenser sinensis)

25 Diversity of activities

26 Queueing time

27 New entertainment facilities and scenic spot

28 Kinds of Game Booths

29 Opening hours

30 Special activities (such as Dolphin Encounter, Behind the scenes and Wedding

Ceremony)

31A Future MTR station

31B Future Hotels

31C Transportation to connect Summit and WaterfrontD

31D New Facilities of Summit and Waterfront

40 Thank you for spending time to read this dissertation!!

41