Disney expands to Shanghai, but will it also hook Shamu?
This week, Disney announced that it's expanding its theme park empire yet again. Just as it did in Hong Kong, the company is going into business with an Asian government (China's) to construct yet another theme park, this time in Shanghai. If everything goes according to plan, Disney will open its sixth theme park resort location in 2014, bringing its total park count to a cool dozen.
But it could be even higher. That's because it's one of the potential bidders for SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, which are being unloaded by their new Belgian owner, InBev. A few weeks ago, Busch Entertainment, which owns the parks, announced it would no longer serve free beer, a longstanding tradition. Many financial observers thought the company made that particularly deluded move this month to make the parks more attractive to a buyer, who wouldn't have to endure the bad P.R. of axing the popular tradition later on.
