Cultural Challenges Faced by Disney in Asia and Lessons Learned from Hong Kong Disneyland

Running head: GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
Global Management
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1GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
Disney is widely famous as a cartoon company, set up by Walter Disney in the year
1923, in U.S.A (Voigt, Buliga & Michl, 2017). This report shall elaborate on identifying the
cultural challenges that are posed by Disney’s expansion into Asia as well as the lessons that
have been learned by Disney from Hong Kong Disneyland in terms of cultural adaptation.
With the same, it shall illustrate how the cultural variables influence the location choice of
Disney theme parks around the world. Lastly, the essay shall highlight the reasons behind
why the Tokyo Disney Resort has succeeded even though it involves few cross-cultural
adaptations.
2. Discussion
2.1. Cultural challenges that are posed by Disney’s expansion into Asia
With huge population and relatively less number of theme parks, Asia was a
tremendously attractive location for the expansion of Disney. The company has already been
successful in Tokyo, Japan but its park in Hong Kong was less profitable. Therefore, the
company believed that its further expansion into the Asian region is worth it.
Notwithstanding this fact, Disney has faced a good number of cultural challenges in its
expansion in Asia. It is to mention that the cultural challenges that are posed by the expansion
of Disney into the Asian continent are very limited attractions that are based on the local
political regulations, the size of the market, the high prices of tickets and the hot weather
(McCarthy & Cheung, 2018). Moreover, language poses a significant issue for Disney. The
language confusions raised as the Hong Kong Disneyland was officially trilingual-
Mandarian, Cantonese and English. This formed a language barrier as the songs and shows
remained primarily English, not understood by many. With the same, there was climate
issues. There were accommodations for the drizzly climate, there was more rainproof spaces
and coverage and low visibility a d high level of air pollution. Disney tried to serve the local

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favourite food like the shark fin soup and this angered the environmentalists in Asia. Also,
the company did not considered the Chinese New Year in their holiday lists and had to turn
away good number of patrons with the valid tickets. The company seems to be learning from
its Hong Kong experiences. In Hong Kong, the company found in many ways that the
customers always do not behave as expected.
2.2. Cultural variables influence the location choice of Disney theme parks around the
world
The cultural variable influence the choice of location for the theme parks worldwide due to
the fact that they are vital factors for determining whether or not that parks would actually
become successful or not. In order to locate a theme park, Disney had to think and make
research on whether the people in the nation would like this type of theme parks or not and
whether or not they would go for them. The Disney parks greatly promote Disney themes
and characters. Most of the visitors want to see and experience the Magical Kingdom of
Disney Land. In Asian countries, Disney has encouraged the desire and acceptance for all the
things by exposing the population there to its films, products and characters over time (Pan,
Bahja and Cobanoglu 2018). Such strategy facilitate the efforts of Disney to market its theme
parks and at the same time, helps in reducing the requirement of customising its services and
products. Disney adapted several aspects of its Theme parks in order to meet the
requirements and needs of the locals but at the same time, is committed towards standardising
the other elements over different cultures. It is to note that there are several aspects of this
exercise which could be brought back to a single statement and that is of- knowing your
customers. Notwithstanding this facts, while picking a location for the theme parks, the
cultural variable that influence the location can include the following:
 The potential of recruiting staffs and employees for the corporate image and language