Hong Kong's chief executive has hit out at chaos at the city's Disneyland that saw hundreds of angry ticket-holders locked out of the resort, media reports said yesterday.
Donald Tsang's (曾蔭權) comments came after an emotional apology from resort chief Bill Ernest for three days of scuffles when surges of customers forced management to close the gates on hundreds of irate guests.
Most of those locked-out were Chinese visitors in the territory for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Speaking on local commercial radio, Tsang suggested management lapses at the resort, which is 57-percent government-owned, were to blame.
"They missed out and overlooked," he said. "I feel sorry for our mainland compatriots who were very disappointed by the incident."
In a statement, the company said it had been forced to close the gates to prevent overcrowding after the park became quickly full on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
TV images showed dozens of customers who had paid their HK$300 (US$38) entry fee clambering over the spiked fences.
Weekend visitors queued from as early as 4am to guarantee they got in.
At the root of the trouble was a new discounted flexible ticketing system that allows guests to visit on any day within a six-month period except at holiday periods.
Ernest said the company had erroneously omitted to include the last part of the week under the exempted days, prompting hundreds of holidaying ticket holders to surge to the park.
"No one is more disappointed about this than we are," he said. "And we apologize to those who have been inconvenienced."
Government officials, including finance minister Henry Tang (
Some travel agencies that took bookings for the resort said they would sue Disneyland, media reports said.
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