Residents' perceptions towards Hong Kong Disneyland and its impacts

Abstract

The Hong Kong Disneyland project is expected to be a key component in helping Hong Kong to reinvigorate and strengthen it as one of Asia's most popular international tourism destinations and more importantly to boost Hong Kong's economy and tourism sector. In order to ensure the successful development, marketing, operation and acceptance of this project, residents' perceptions and opinions towards this project is crucial. The objectives of this study are: (a) to identify and examine the general perceptions of residents towards the impacts of Hong Kong Disneyland and its development based upon a social representations framework; (b) to examine the commonalities in residents' perceptions and to profile the characteristics of the community clusters; and (c) to identify how the sources of information (direct experience, social interaction and media) influence residents' perceptions of Hong Kong Disneyland and its impacts. A sample of 1,060 respondents was obtained through two telephone surveys. It was found that residents showed a high level of support for the development three years after the announcement of the deal to develop a theme park and resort development at Penny's Bay. Generally, residents perceived economic, socio-cultural impacts and community attitude positively while they perceived the environmental impacts negatively. Four groups named as 'Lovers', 'Cautious Romantics', 'Supporters' and 'Environmental Ambivalents' were identified. Moreover, it was found that age was significantly related to cluster membership. For the influence of three sources of information, residents' representations of Hong Kong Disneyland were related to social interaction with their groups or networks and media coverage. Theoretical and managerial implications are drawn within the framework of social representations theory.