China Daily:
Disney has been fortunate in not only capturing the hearts of many young Chinese Mickey Mouse fans but also being surprisingly welcomed by its Chinese competitors.
In the eyes of Liu Pingchun, chief executive officer of China's top theme park developer, Shenzhen OCT Holding Company, the cartoon mouse may help Chinese theme park operators to cultivate a much bigger market.
A few years ago, Liu visited 12 theme parks in Japan within nine days to make a survey of the influence that Tokyo Disneyland had on the local industry. He found the Disney resort promoted the development of other local parks.
"In the theme park field, the market is always created by park builders," Liu told China Daily.
Will the rising tide lift all boats?
At present, China has around 2,500 theme parks with a total investment of 300 billion yuan, but only a quarter make a profit, according to Chinese media reports.
Wow. I wonder what they're counting as "theme parks," though.