Walt Disney Co yesterday unveiled plans to launch a new cruise ship to set sail from Tokyo starting in fiscal 2028, adding a ninth vessel to the brand’s growing fleet.
The new ship, to be modeled after the Wish, which is the largest vessel in the group, is a partnership with Oriental Land Co (OLC), the operator of Tokyo Disneyland. It is part of a 10-year, US$60 billion expansion of Disney’s theme parks and cruise business.
Disney has five cruise ships in operation. In addition to the Tokyo-based vessel, it has plans for three others, including one that is to set sail from Singapore next year.
Photo: Toru Hanai
The new Tokyo-based ship, whose name was not revealed, would have a maximum capacity of 4,000 passengers and is expected to bring in about ￥100 billion (US$621.77 million) in annual sales within several years of launch, OLC said.
“To set sail from Japan will make Disney vacations at sea more accessible to Japanese guests, who we know are some of our biggest fans,” Disney Signature Experiences president Thomas Mazloum told reporters.
The cruise line expansion comes as the industry is enjoying a rebound from a global shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cruise Lines International Association expects the number of passengers to reach 34.7 million this year, up 17 percent from 2019.
Disney’s experiences business, which includes its domestic and international parks and cruise line, accounted for more than one-third of the company’s revenue in the March quarter and nearly 60 percent of its operating income.
The company’s stock tumbled in May after chief financial officer Hugh Johnston warned about a “global moderation” in travel in the fiscal third quarter and other impacts, including higher wages and pre-opening expenses related to two of the new cruise ships and the new vacation island, Lookout Cay.
The rising tide for Disney’s cruise lines could help offset any softness in the company’s domestic theme park business, UBS analyst John Hodulik said.
The company said its second-quarter booking occupancy is at 97 percent for all five ships.
The rapid expansion of Disney’s cruise capacity “helps derisk the medium-term outlook” for the parks business, Hodulik said.
Disney’s other recent investments include three new areas at the Tokyo DisneySea theme park, recreating the worlds of Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan, the opening of a Frozen-themed land at Hong Kong Disneyland and a Zootopia experience in Shanghai.
The company at its D23 fan convention next month is expected to announce plans for new attractions at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in central Florida.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS