Hong Kong Disneyland pushes prices to record high with new ticketing system

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort has revealed price increases in certain ticket categories while rolling out a new tier of day passes for its most popular periods, effective from Wednesday.

Disney created a four-tier ticketing system. The newly added Tier 4 day pass costs HK$879 for adults and HK$659 for children, a 15.8% hike over the previous highest "Peak Plus Days".

“Select days that historically see high demand will be tiered as Tier 4 days. The Tier 4 days will start to kick in during the coming Christmas season,” said a spokesman, according to the press release.

Tiers 2 and 3 tickets, or what used to be “Peak Plus Days” and “Peak Days”, now cost HK$799 and HK$719 respectively. The price of Tier 1, original “Regular Days”, remains the same.

Prices for annual passes including silver, gold and platinum cards have also gone up. Students will no longer pay the same price as children and instead will pay an extra 15% for passes. Adult and children tickets have gone up by around 9%, while senior tickets remain unchanged.

Local people and magic annual pass holders can renew their passes at the current prices before Nov. 15. Hong Kongers can also purchase annual passes at current prices before the date.

Some mainlanders decided to buy annual passes ahead of the price hike.

Summer Xia, a 23-year-old mainland student and her friends spent more than 45 minutes online before they could buy their tickets. During the process, Disney’s official page was overloaded and paralyzed several times.

“Disney is going to launch its new Frozen-themed zone,” said Xia, “We were waiting for the Magic Access Group of 3 Special Offer but decided to purchase now to save money.”

According to the Resort, the new tiered-pricing structure aims to effectively manage visits and market demand.

“Personally, if we have plans to go to Disneyland during public holidays, we will not change our plans only because of this price increase,” said Ella Sun, a tourist who wants to visit the resort during her holiday.

Although Hong Kong Disneyland Resort attracted about 3.4 million visitors last year, it has been losing money for eight consecutive years. Its loss in 2022 stood at HK$ 2.07 billion, according to the Resort’s annual report.

“Since inbound tourism resumed, we see strong demand among tourists from far and wide,” said the spokesman, according to the press release.

Disney’s price hike comes as the Hong Kong government tries to revive the local economy after the pandemic. Recently, the Hong Kong Tourism Board distributed HK$100 million worth of concessions and discounts to tourists to spice up its night economy and tourism. It is among nine measures of the “Night Vibes Hong Kong” campaign launched by the government last Thursday.