HK Disneyland apologizes to guests
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-04 09:36

Hong Kong Disneyland on Friday once again apologized to guests who had unpleasant experiences in the past few days.

Bill Ernest, executive vice president and managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland made the apology in a written statement to the press on Friday.

He said, "Once again, we apologize to any guests who were inconvenienced and we appreciate their continued support."

This is HK Disneyland's first year of operations during Lunar New Year and the staff members were extremely busy, he said.

Ernest admitted that "frankly, we are experiencing an unprecedented demand at the park. In particular, the influx of visitors from the Chinese mainland has been enormous." He emphasized that "this has been a true learning experience for us."

He said the park always anticipated the fluctuations during the key periods, "but this has been extraordinary in determining the designated special days." He said really is that visitation to Hong Kong fell short of predictions during the Lunar New Year or the current "golden week".

The park will review the need for more designated special days in the future, he added.

Tickets to Hong Kong Disneyland have been sold out for five consecutive days from January 30 and quite a number of passengers with tickets valid for 180 days were refused for entry into the park in the past two days.

The park opened at 8:30 on Friday and its usual opening hour is at 10:00. The park has temporarily suspended the internet selling of tickets in order to control the daily passenger flow.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has urged the theme park to improve its ticketing management and nearly all local media agencies have called on the park to treat its passengers kindly in an effort to maintain Hong Kong's image as a good tourism destination.