3.) How should Hong Kong Disneyland address competition? The efforts of Hong Kong Disneyland in gauging the Mainland Chinese market had a level of success and failure. In their competition with local competitor Ocean Park, Hong Kong Disneyland failed to acknowledge the cultural diversity of the Mainland Chinese to their more familiar target market customers in Western societies. Through the lack of experience in the new environment, Hong Kong Disneyland naively overlooked four main factors that led to the success of Ocean Park. Firstly, Hong Kong Disneyland failed to connect with their market through their unfamiliarity with classic, American, Disney characters. Secondly, they overlooked the fact that the experience wasn’t initially what the Chinese were looking for; it was the memories they could take back and show to others. Thirdly, there was no educational benefit towards children or adults, only illusions of fantasy. Finally, the lack of relationships with travel agencies hindered their promotion. With all of the factors above considered, it is evident that Hong Kong Disneyland wasn’t a thrilling success as anticipated. However, much was learned from these lessons in failure and will be corrected in future projects. Disneyland should take its experiences from its project in Hong Kong and become more culturally aware. They need to realize that not all markets around the world act the same way. There is a need for respect towards the many different nations cultures and time and research needs to be taken in order to understand these differences. Competition should be addressed as a learning process. Whether it be small businesses or large corporations such as Disney, there is always room for learning and growing in the marketplace to gain an edge in the level of competition being experienced. In all, Hong Kong Disneyland should look at competition and take the good things that make other businesses a success and incorporate it into their own business without diluting their own values. Examples of this can be through introducing local foods and a variation of Disney and local animated characters into the theme park. This will create a sense of familiarity to the local customers while also introducing them to the classic Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Additionally, closer ties to the travel agencies will help benefit the promotion of Disneyland. With this, it is essential to address competition in a way that respects local culture while promoting new ideas that will attract. Learning lessons along the way is a part of growing and happens to every business in any market.