‘Ocean Park will keep its focus on locals’

The government may be trumpeting the imminent reopening of borders through ‘travel bubbles’ and other quarantine-free travel schemes, but Ocean Park chairman Lau Ming-wai said on Sunday that the cash-strapped attraction will keep its focus on local customers over the next year or two.

“No matter what new measures there may be [involving] visitors from outside Hong Kong… we forecast that serving Hongkongers is what’s in front of us, even with the resumption of tourism and the launch of travel bubbles,” Lau said at an event at the park.

Like other tourist attractions, Ocean Park has been devastated by the effects of the pandemic, having been forced to close for months and accept billions of dollars in government bailouts in return for a major overhaul.

Lau cautioned that no one yet knows how the global tourism sector will recover from the pandemic, and instead of banking on the return of outside visitors, local patrons are a safer bet.

The government has long been negotiating proposed ‘travel bubbles’ with other economies where the Covid situation is under control, and Chief Executive Carrie Lam had said the government would soon be opening up the border to a ‘limited number’ of mainland travellers without having to go into quarantine.

For now, Lau said the park is happy to let in fewer people than allowed, to encourage more social distancing and enhance the comfort of visitors.

Under current regulations, the park is allowed to fill up to 75 percent capacity, but Lau said he doesn’t see this threshold being reached in the near term.

But longer term, the park’s future is far from assured.

Lau’s term as chairman expires in two months’ time, and he refused to answer questions on whether he’d seek an extension.

Former tourism commissioner Joe Wong is set to join the park as its new chief executive on Saturday, though his term is set at a maximum of six months.

“There will need to be a lot of interactions and coordination with the government to implement the reform package, and no one is more familiar than Joe in terms of such work,” Lau said.

In January, the government announced a radical overhaul for the struggling park that effectively ended its life as a traditional theme park.

It involves moving away from ageing thrill rides to focus more on conservation and education; while the area of the park near the MTR station will be taken over by a developer, to convert it into a shopping, dining and retail area – with no entrance fee.