Hong Kong's Ocean Park ends ticket sale for 3rd time on full visitors during Spring Festival

HONG KONG, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Ocean Park temporarily ended tickets sale Monday for the third time during the Spring Festival on full tourists, at a time when the canteen and retail business in the park both recorded high increase.

The Park resumed selling tickets at around 2:00 p.m. local time on Monday after a temporary halt starting from about 11:00 a.m. local time. It was the third time that the Park took such measure to ease the jam in the park.

"We did not expect such crowded visitors as it is already the fifth day of the Chinese New Year," said Una Lau, the public affairs director at the Ocean Park.

The park had stopped selling tickets for a while on Saturday and Sunday due to the pressure of large groups of visitors.

A tourist from Wuhan said it was her first time to travel in Hong Kong, and she bought the ticket one month in advance to avoid possible shortage on tickets during the holiday peak.

Lau said the tourists' volume for Feb. 3 (the first day of the Spring Festival) and Feb. 4 advanced 30 percent and 50 percent from a year earlier respectively, while the data for Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 gained 30 percent and 15 percent respectively.

Visitors from Chinese mainland accounted for about 60 percent in total, according to Lau. At the same time, the number of Hong Kong local visitors also rose as they are "also very interested in the newly-opened 'Grand Aquarium'," Lau said.

The Ocean Park launched a new flagship marine-themed zone " Aqua City" on Jan. 26. One of the major attractions in the zone is the Grand Aquarium, which features the world's largest aquarium viewing dome, bringing the guests the view of around 5,000 fish over 400 species.

Sales from the restaurants in the Park jumped 80 percent from a year ago during the Spring Festival, Lau said, referring to not only the increasing visitors, but also the newly-opened canteens matching up with the "Aqua City".

Retail sales for the last few days added 50 percent from a year earlier, Lau said, among which, the "hammer head shark" toy, which one can put up on his head, enjoys good sale.

"We have almost sold out the 'hammer head shark' since they are on the shelf from Jan. 27," Lau said. "We need to re-stock the ' shark' as soon as possible."

Founded in 1977, the Ocean Park is one of the biggest marine theme parks in the world. 

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-02/07/c_13721868.htm