Ocean Park, Destination for ``Edu-tainment
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Hong Kong's water attraction Ocean Park is making efforts to attract more Korean visitors with its programs that combine education and entertainment.
Executives of Ocean Park visited Korea Monday for their first promotion here.
The park, comprised of aquarium, zoo, theaters and rides such as roller coasters, has become a must-see destination in Hong Kong, drawing a growing number of visitors. Among them, Koreans take a considerable portion, the officials said.
They said Korea is the largest Asian market for Hong Kong, accounting for 67 percent of the total Asian travelers to the region, excluding mainland China.
``The number of Korean visitors to Hong Kong sustained double-digit growth year-on-year since 2004. About 800,000 Koreans came to Hong Kong in 2007, and 200,000 among them visited Ocean Park,'' Paul Pei, Ocean Park's sales and marketing executive director, said in a media briefing in central Seoul.
As part of its effort to reinforce its outreach in the Korean market, the park signed a joint promotion with Kookmin Bank, offering a 10 percent discount on admission to the bank's credit card holders. It also holds promotions with some travel agencies.
``We are also looking at initiating having signboards in Korean in the park,'' Pei said.
Ocean Park, built on 870,000 square meters of lands on top of a hill in 1977, is committed to providing a mixture of wildlife conservation values, entertainment, and education programs.
The tourist destination has 35 attractions and plans to double the number by 2012 with the investment of 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. ``New attractions will open every six months starting 2009,'' the executive director said.
Besides, it will set up three hotels there.
The park is also famous for its education program. Through multimedia presentations and interactive tours, children can touch animals, learn their lives, and understand what humans can do to protect the environment and why it is important to keep the ocean clean.
``We will offer the education program to Koreans in new packages we are rolling out this month. The program will be in English, so children can learn English as well,'' Pei said.
Regarding other theme parks established or to be established in nearby countries, Matthias Li, deputy chief executive and chief financial officer, said that he sees them not as competitors but as a good sign that the industry is growing.
``In 2005 when Disneyland opened in Hong Kong, we had 3.8 million visitors. But in 2007, we had more than 5 million,'' Li said, adding that with Ocean Park and Disney, Hong Kong is being recognized as leisure, family-oriented destination.
The park also presents five big annual events ― Lunar Lucky festival every Chinese New Year, Animal Close Encounters around Easter, Summer Splash, Ocean Park Halloween Bash, and Christmas Sensation. The first event this year will be held on Feb. 2 through 17.
Ocean Park was recognized as one of the ``10 most popular amusement parks in the world'' by Forbes.com; the ``best theme park in Asia'' by Travel Weekly; and as one of the ``world's 50 most visited tourist destinations,'' by Forbes Travel.