The comments were made by Walt Disney Co. Asia Parks President Bill Ernest, amid concerns the new Disneyland Shanghai park could siphon out visitors from the company’s already active Hong Kong amusement destination.

Ernest commented that in America, with only the quarter of the Chinese population, there are two large scale resorts, one in Orlando, Florida as well as one in Anaheim, California.

According to Ernest, there is lots of room to accommodate more of such venues. He made the comments while at the Disneyland Hong Kong groundbreaking ceremony, adding that the entertainment giant believes the business is sufficient to support the two amusement parks.

The proposal for a Disney theme park to be developed in one of Shanghai’s districts was finally approved last month by China’s planning agency.

The move has been seen as part of the Chinese government push to make the country’s biggest city and main financial hub into a international tourist destination as well as global services center.

Although Ernest claimed that it was too early in the negotiation process with the Chinese government to have any accurate numbers about the resort’s price tag, the estimated cost of the proposed Shanghai Disneyland Park has been set at $3.5 billion.

As for the Hong Kong theme park, it’s already schedule to go through expansion, as $465 million have been announced last July by Disneyland and was seen as a long-overdue project in order to attract more young adults by dealing with the fact that the the park was considered too small.

The first theme park on Phuket, Splash Jungle, is now scheduled for a January 2010 launch date.

West Sands’ owners settle the dispute by allowing public use of a road which runs through the park in order to access the Mai Khao beachfront.

West Sands’ CEO Tony Cousens told reporters that construction work could now resume with a full schedule.

The Splash Jungle project, estimated at 500 million baht ($15m), will cover 64000 square metres and will feature a large range of waterslides, a wave pool, seven mini-parks plus a 345 metres long river.

The park was originally due for a December 2009 opening, at the same time as the West Sands Resort, but the dispute with local villagers has hindered its development.

Mr Cousens said both projects will open during the first half of the month of January.

The West Sands Resort will feature 110 villas and condos and is already due for expansion by the end of 2010 which will bring its total accommodation capacity to 447 units.

Normal admission fee at the water theme park will be 2000 baht ($60) for adults and 1500 baht ($45) for kids, but discounted introductory prices will mean that for the first few weeks, the venue will only charge 1495 baht for adults and 750 baht for kids. Children who measure less than 100 centimetres won’t be charged any fee at the gate.

The early January opening will still allow the amusement park to benefit from the huge seasonal upswing which Thailand usually experiences during the winter months.

Iger said today that the largest theme park operator in the world has already started to pull back on special offers from a year ago. He made the comments while at a UBS AG investor conference in New York.  In November 2008, Disney offered discounts in order to counteract the ill effects of the recession.

He said the entertainment giant will be able to pursue reducing the promotions through out 2010.

By that statement, Iger was referring to promotions on accommodation, food and merchandise. But he did say that Disney as waiting to experience the market conditions before making further commitments.

Iger claimed that Disney had scaled back offers based on its experience with several economic downturns.

Since 2008, it has given away free hotel nights and had offered food and merchandise discounts. At that time, the US theme parks under the Disney banner had reported four consecutive quarters of shrunken revenue and reduced profits compared with the previous year.

This November, the company revealed that a swap was planned between Chief of Disney Parks Jay Rasulo and Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs in attempt to provide different experience to both executives. The change will come into effect at year’s end.

In related news, Disney got the go ahead to open its first theme park in mainland China. The announcement came late last month, when Beijing officials finally agreed to let the entertainment giant launch an amusement park in a district of Shanghai.

The fame and thrill brought on by the likes of Disney World and other glitzy hi-tech amusement affairs appear a long time away.

Planned for construction just off Kanakapura Road in Bangalore on 28 acres of land, the park has been created on the lines of Disney World, but it will feature the adventures of Lord Krishna rather than the ones of Mickey Mouse.

The project will boast a heritage tower and a total of nine attractions after the two phases of the park are completed.

Chanchalapathi Dasa, vice-president at Iskcon Bangalore told reporters that the concept with the Krishna park was to take head-on a form of cultural imperialism associated with modern action figures. This includes Indian kids being attracted to fantasy figures and popular super heroes while abandoning regional epics to a detail in the background.

According to Dasa, there is a negative impact stemming from globalisation. This affects local cultures and Dasa’s group believes its simply cultural imperialism.

He said the destination will prove to be environmentally friendly and will feature a multi-sensory technology-assisted story-telling experience.

The park will showcase two temples, puppetry workshops, story-telling activities for children, a 4-D theatre, expos and costume shows. Rides on an artificial Yamuna river through recreated Vrindavan Gardens will offered to visitors as a way to experience the Govardhan hill.

Dasa revealed the park had already passed a major hurdle, that of being cleared by the Karnataka government and is now waiting for a BDA decision. Dasa said his group would love to do the bhoomi pooja, the Hindu ceremony for a new construction, by mid-January in 2010.

Another park similar in concept is taking form at Vrindavan.

The speculations started when The Hong Kong Economic Times reported that an unnamed source had said that Disneyland was planning a further expansion, following a deal last July to grow the park by nearly 25%.

But a spokeswoman for the entertainment company denied these plans.

She told AFP that the park’s position at the moment is to introduce the plans for an extension as already agreed to in July 2009 with the construction of three themed sections carried out in phases. She added that no discussions on other expansion has been done.

Disney is ready to contribute 6.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (795 million US) to develop a set of 30 new attractions spread over the course of five years.

Under this agreement the Hong Kong Government is set to retain control of 52 percent through an ownership stake.

Since its 2005 debut, Hong Kong Disneyland has been keen to increase the quality and number of its attractions at the amusement park as it struggles to bring visitors. The Hong Kong park originally cost three billion US dollar to built.

Since Chinese Government officials gave the green light for a similar project to be developed in one of Shanghai’s up-and-coming districts earlier this month, the future of Disneyland Hong Kong was perceived as being more fragile.

The Shanghai project will be the first for Disney on mainland China and will be launched in 2014.

Concerns have been raised about the potentiality of having two large Disney them parks within the same world region.

One of the smallest of all the entertainment giant franchises with only 116 hectares (1.2 square kilometres) in surface area, the first phase of development for Shanghai Disneyland will be smaller than its Hong Kong counterpart which has a surface area of 126-hectare.

Minister for Tourism Margaret Hodge announced the grant approval in Margate last Monday.

The funds, which represent the largest amount collected recently for the project, will contribute to creating a heritage theme park on the Dreamland site.

The goal of Dreamland is to have a theme park featuring old amusement rides such as merry-go-rounds and wooden roller coasters. Some of these will be rescued from other parks and be restored and reassembled at the park. It is said that some of the rides are the last surviving examples.

Dreamland is planning to install the rides around the park’s centerpiece, UK’s oldest surviving wooden roller-coaster called the Scenic Railway.

Much of the old roller coaster suffered extended fire damage in April of last year but is currently being restored.

The theme park project also includes a restoration of the distinctive fin-shaped Grade II-listed Dreamland cinema building.

The Dreamland theme park project was made possible by an association comprising of The Dreamland Trust, the Margate Renewal Partnership, the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company and Thanet council, which submitted the application.

Benefiting from a match-funding of 10 per cent from Thanet council, The Dreamland Trust has already booked a first-round pass of £548,000 stemming from the Heritage Lottery Funding.

The Dreamland Trust chairman Nick Laister said that the recent news was great and helps to deliver a world-first visitor attraction.

Citing a government representative, The National Business Daily reported that the local government has completed the registration process of villagers seeking compensation for the cost involved with vacating the four-square-kilometre parcel of land.

Government officials still have to work out the details concerning the cost allocated to each relocation.
Authorities came up with the six billion yuan figure by basing themselves on a previous compensation paid to residents of a neighbouring land, industry insiders said.

Shanghai government officials were not available for comment.

The Shanghai government and Disney announced a few weeks ago that Beijing had given its okay for the theme park project, which will represent one of the largest foreign investments in the country.

None of the parties involved have revealed any costs or time line for the project but speculation has revealed an estimated total price tag of 24.5 billion yuan for the first phase of the ambitious them park.

The attraction will be located in the Chuansha county of Pudong, Shanghai’s up and coming district, and will also include would include a hotel and a shopping complex.

During a weekend long open house to present the nearly completed entertainment project to the public, Guy Drouin, president and CEO of the project developer Groupe Village Vacances Valcartier, proudly unveiled the new Calypso Theme Waterpark to the media.

Despite the rather cool October weather in Ottawa, the weekend long test run gave a good excuse for project promoters to turn on the taps for the greatest amusement of the thousands of visitors.

The behind-the-scenes tour also gave visitors an overview of what the theme park will provide to make their day trips a memorable experience. Guests were able to get acquainted with the ticketing and season pass system.

Located about 30 kilometres south-east of Ottawa, the construction of the new waterpark took two years and created more than 100 jobs.

During the peak summer months, the theme park will require 500 full-time seasonal employees to cater to all the different jobs necessary to run the large attraction, such as water safety, food service and customer service positions.

The waterpark will be Canada’s largest, with an area covering more than 100 acres. It will feature 35 different water slides, all using the latest technology. It will also feature Canada’s biggest wave pool, at 50,000 square feet, where swimmers will enjoy 4.5 feet waves. Its landscaped areas will accommodate 4,000 sunbathers and the one-of-a-kind Jungle Run River will permit visitors to meander lazily through a tropical forest river.

The water park is considered a welcomed addition to Ottawa as the Canadian capital lacked this kind attraction.

Calypso Water Them Park opens in June 7 2010. Air Canada offers daily year-round service to Ottawa from Heathrow airport and Thomas Cook serves the city through out the summer.
Please visit www.calypsopark.com for more information.

A member of the family operating the park since its beginnings, Mary Rynes, said that they’re just going to take it the closure one ride at a time. She added that it was really difficult at the end of the day.

A tearful patron, Bonnie Parker, who had been making regular visits to the park for 40 years, paid $100 for one last ride on the Ferris Wheel for her family of four.

She said she had to be there for the final day.

Funny enough, Craig Burda of the National Amusement Park Historical Association claims small family owned and run amusement parks like Kiddieland have really done a booming business during the recession.

Close to home with reasonable prices, the attractions offer an alternative to a vacation for downturn-stricken families.

The other side of the coin is that the family owned businesses are vulnerable to petty family squabbles, said the association’s historian Jim Futrell.

This is what happened with Kiddieland. In this case, one side of the founder’s family owned the land o which the park was operating and refused to extend the lease to the other faction of the family.

Futrell said that Kiddieland had always been a very successful family business, adding that the amusement park and its old vintage rides were admirably maintained.

Universal Orlando Resort in Florida, is planning an experience so immensely magical that  it will be unlike any other experience on the planet when it will be launched in spring 2010.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will offer visitors a mystical journey to Hogwarts Castle, where fans will be able to shop at the wand boutique Ollivanders and hop onto a Hippogriff for a training flight.

Also in the park will be The Owlery, an idea by author J. K. Rowling and featured in the movies,  including birds nesting in the rafters and fans able to mail letters, stamped with the Hogsmeade postmark, thorugh The Owl Post.

Visitors will be able to head to The Three Broomsticks and Hog’s Head pub where food and drinks will be served.

Unveiled recently during a webcast presented by Mark Woodbury, President of Universal Creative, the event gave a lesson in hype.

Woodbury deemed the park a project of monumental proportions, while Potter film stars gave breathless quotes.

Daniel Radcliffe, portraying the much-loved Harry in the six films, said that he would come out of movie theatres when younger and wished that world could really exist and that he could be a part of it.

Ron Weasley actor Rupert Grint claimed the park will be like experiencing the movies.