Background of Ocean Park Hong Kong
Ocean Park Hong Kong, which is located in the southern side of Hong Kong Island, is one of the world’s educational theme parks covering more than 870,000 square meters of land. Ocean Park was built with the donation from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and opened in 1977 as a private organization for commercial purposes. At that time, its main incomes were ticket revenues and the fundings from the Jockey Club. Ocean Park had long been operated under deficit because of the low ticket price. Later, the Hong Kong government established a trust from the fundings of Jockey Club and Ocean Park was separated from Jockey Club to become a non-profit organization. It gradually raised its ticket price and the deficit turned into profit.
Ocean Park consists of two sections, the Headland and Lowland, which are connected by a 1.5 km long cable car system, as well as the world's second longest outdoor escalator. The park has over 14 thrill rides such as the Dragon, Eagle and a heart throbbing thrill ride that delivers a free fall experience. Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park also operates educational facilities such as ocean theatre, shark aquarium, sea jelly spectacular and bird aviary, etc. Therefore, Ocean Park is not only providing entertainment, but also contributes in the protection and education of the marine animals.
Ocean Park successfully establishes itself as one of the major tourist attraction in Hong Kong and has over 4 million visitors each year. It continues to develop the park’s facilities and launch special festival events, such as Halloween Bash and Christmas HoHoHo, to further strengthen Hong Kong as a premier tourist destination.
The Halloween Bash details would be further discussed in the following sessions.