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.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
RSS