Disneyland in Hong Kong: American image, glocally renowned

Abstract

Disney is one of the world’s largest global companies and a symbol of American image and consumerism. Disneyland is a well-known attraction with locations found around the world in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Disneyland’s Hong Kong location opened to the public in 2005 with some difficulties. As a Western attraction and entertainment enterprise operating in a foreign location, many were skeptical of how this would work given different perspectives when it comes to operating a business and satisfying consumer appeal in the local market. This viewpoint paper focuses on image and glocalization and challenges us to consider the role and significance of entertainment and event attractions. These will create and leverage diverse impacts, but we need to consider the impact of these attractions locally and culturally, as this will play an integral role in the competitiveness of the site or attraction.