HONG KONG - Tokyo Disney Resort is opening a new 320 billion yen (S$2.8 billion) section celebrating some of its most popular fantasy franchises, the biggest expansion yet in Japan as Walt Disney invests heavily in theme parks globally.
Located at Tokyo Disneyland’s companion park Tokyo DisneySea, Fantasy Springs spans upwards of 140,000 sq m and will comprise three areas based on franchises Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan.
The resort’s operator Oriental Land forecasts the expansion, which opens to the public on June 6, will help boost annual sales by 75 billion yen and attract 29 million visitors – about the same number seen in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic – to the parks for the upcoming fiscal year, with four million coming from abroad. The two Japanese Disney parks saw total attendance of 27.5 million in 2023.
A weaker yen has been attracting more tourists than ever to Japan, at the same time that high air fares and tepid wage growth are inspiring Japanese travellers to explore closer to home. A record 3.1 million tourists flocked to Japan in March, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, up almost 70 per cent from a year earlier.
International theme parks have been a recent bright spot for Disney, with profit jumping more than fourfold in the fiscal first quarter, bolstered by a new Frozen attraction in Hong Kong and Shanghai’s Zootopia. The company will report its latest earnings on May 7.
Japan’s amusement and theme park industry is returning to pre-Covid-19 attendance levels, with annual visitor numbers climbing back up to 72 million in 2023, from around 30 million in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the pandemic, according to the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The industry’s total sales rose 41 per cent in 2023 from 2022, to 844 billion yen, ministry data shows.
Tokyo Disney Resort’s two parks both ranked in the top five most-visited amusement and theme parks worldwide in 2022, according to a report by infrastructure consulting firm Aecom and the Themed Entertainment Association.
Fantasy Springs includes restaurants and a hotel with hundreds of guest rooms, while new rides will take guests around destinations including a “fairy valley” home to Peter Pan character Tinkerbell and Frozen’s fictional kingdom of Arendelle.
Oriental Land has further upgrades in store for Tokyo Disneyland, and recently announced plans to open the world’s first attraction based on animated franchise Wreck-It Ralph, which has generated over US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Disneyland Paris, meanwhile, plans its own land inspired by Frozen and a revamp of its second park. BLOOMBERG
