Ocean Park’s Water World staying closed till at least April amid HK$200M deficit; lawmakers question taxpayer bailout
Hong Kong Free Press
Lawmakers have questioned the sustainability of Ocean Park’s water park after the theme park revealed a HK$200 million deficit in its latest financial year.
Ocean Park chairperson Paulo Pong said during an economic development panel meeting at the Legislative Council on Tuesday that Water World had only been operating for two years and that things were “still being figured out.”
“In the summer, [it] is very popular and [operations are] very good,” Pong said in Cantonese. “But in the winter, it’s harder because of the weather and people’s consumer habits.”
Pong confirmed that Water World had lost around HK$200 million in the recent financial year after being pressed by lawmaker Michael Tien, who accused Pong of not mentioning Water World at all during his presentation at the start of the meeting about the park’s operations over the past year.
Tien said the government’s HK$280 million yearly handout to the park, a four-year scheme that will end in 2026, was essentially being used to keep the water park afloat. Yet the scheme was meant for supporting the park’s education and conservation efforts.
Opened in September 2021, Water World is Ocean Park’s water park extension. The park, which cost about HK$4 billion to build, is located next to to the main theme park in Wong Chuk Hang.
It is billed as an all-weather theme park open all year round. But it closed in October for a “seasonal break” and is scheduled reopen next summer. Pong said staff were moved to the main park, and that Ocean Park did not slash manpower.
Ocean Park Corporation (OPC) announced its financial results for the year last week. While attendance across Ocean Park and Water World was up by almost 30 per cent, the park still reported a deficit of HK$71.6 million in part due to rising operating costs.
See also: HKFP Lens: Two giant pandas gifted by Beijing debut to media at Ocean Park
The park is now home to six giant pandas, after a panda couple gave birth to twins in August and Beijing in September gifted two five-year-old pandas. Ocean Park has said it will capitalise on “panda tourism” to launch panda-themed attractions and merchandise to attract visitors.
Park to reopen earliest April
During the Legislative Council meeting on Tuesday, lawmaker Regina Ip said there seemed to be a lack of information about Water World’s operations since the park opened, such as its finances and visitor numbers.
In response, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung said Water World’s operations had fallen short of initial expectations and that authorities were considering how to boost business.
Ip also questioned why the park closed in October, which – according to the Hong Kong Observatory – was the hottest October since records began.
“The time that [Water World] is open for is actually quite short… at the start [I thought] it would be open throughout the year,” Ip said in Cantonese.
Regarding the closure, Yeung said the park had observed a drop in visitor numbers at around this time in previous years.
Ivan Wong, the chief executive of Ocean Park Corporation, added that the park starts seeing fewer visitors from August because the summer break is over.
“One of the reasons why we chose to close in mid-October is so we can deploy some of our staff for Halloween,” Wong said, referring to the park’s annual Halloween festivities. “Because we need a lot of manpower for Halloween.”
He also defended the park’s decision to close the all-weather Water World, saying that water parks in countries near the equator typically would also shut for two to three months.
Wong added that all-weather parks in other places in the world, mostly in countries near the equator, would still shut their parks for two to three months a year
After calculations, the park estimated that the move would be in its financial interests, Wong said, citing the difficulty of keeping the park up and running in previous autumn and winters.
He expected that Water World would reopen in April or May depending on the weather.
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