Spend a day at Shanghai Disneyland and also you would not know Chinese language customers are struggling.
Wang Jiandong and his girlfriend Yan Xu mentioned they’ve been skipping meals out and scrimping on day-to-day requirements so they might afford to benefit from the park.
“We save in our day by day lives so we will spend extra on journeys,” Wang defined whereas taking pictures with Yan in entrance of Disney’s iconic citadel. “It is a romantic place.”
Shanghai Disneyland celebrated its tenth anniversary this week, with former Disney CEO Bob Iger flying in for the festivities.
“I am feeling crammed with delight actually,” Iger advised CNBC throughout an interview on the park. “I have been concerned on this challenge from the very starting within the late ’90s.”
Iger mentioned the event carried additional significance “understanding not solely how profitable it has been, however actually how essential it’s in lots of respects, not simply to the Walt Disney Co. however to the folks of China.”
Former CEO of Walt Disney Firm Bob Iger (2L) and his spouse Willow Bay attend a celebratory occasion marking the tenth anniversary of Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai on June 15, 2026.
Jade Gao | AFP | Getty Photographs
Shanghai Disneyland hit 100 million cumulative guests in 2025, in keeping with the corporate. It is a comparatively new however essential foothold in Disney’s greater than 100-year historical past.
Disney’s experiences division, which incorporates its theme parks, resorts, cruises and merchandise, reported practically $9.5 billion in income in the course of the firm’s most up-to-date quarter, led to March, a 7% enhance yr over yr. The division is the second largest at Disney’s, accounting for nearly 40% of the corporate’s general income and practically 60% of its working earnings.
Whereas Disney executives have famous latest softness in worldwide guests to the corporate’s U.S. parks, its outposts in different international locations are faring higher.
In response to the Themed Leisure Affiliation, which tracks international theme park information, the Shanghai park attracted 14.7 million guests in 2024 — a 5% year-on-year enhance — making it the fifth most-visited theme park on the earth behind Disney parks in Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; and Tokyo in addition to Common Studios Japan.
Below newly appointed CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney is eyeing additional international growth, with a new cruise ship berthed in Singapore and a forthcoming park and resort in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The corporate introduced a 10-year, $60 billion funding into its parks in 2023.
“Due to the accessible property and due to the properties, the mental property that Disney has, the alternatives to broaden are limitless,” Iger advised CNBC this week. “So long as the enterprise is profitable, which it has been, there isn’t any cause why it will not proceed to broaden over time.”
Iger, who stepped down from his second stint as CEO in March and remains to be a member of its board of administrators, declined to touch upon reviews that Disney is contemplating one other theme park for China.
A cautious Chinese language client
Shanghai Disneyland is bucking an even bigger development in China: consumption broadly is poor.
Retail gross sales dropped in Might for the primary time in three years. Automotive gross sales are down by double digits. Individuals are downgrading their consumption, however they have not in the reduction of altogether.
“Younger folks in China immediately should not refusing to devour. Relatively, they care extra about ‘worth for cash,'” Lin Huanjie, president of the Institute for Theme Park Research in China, mentioned in written feedback to CNBC.
This picture taken on June 16, 2026 exhibits a view of Shanghai Disneyland in its tenth anniversary themed decorations in east China’s Shanghai.
Liu Ying | Xinhua Information Company | Getty Photographs
“If a Disney journey delivers sturdy recollections, compelling social content material, and excessive emotional worth, they’re nonetheless prepared to pay,” Lin mentioned. “Whether it is simply an extraordinary go to, they are going to tighten their budgets. The recognition of characters like LinaBell in China additionally exhibits that younger customers, even underneath financial stress, are nonetheless prepared to pay for emotionally comforting consumption.”
College pupil Smile Wei is one such parkgoer.
Wei traveled with a good friend for a trip to Shanghai and advised CNBC their finances was 5,000 yuan ($735) for the five-day journey. They already spent a fifth of that on the park, Wei mentioned.
“My good friend and I deliberate to ebook a lodge room with two beds,” Wei mentioned. “However we downsized to a single to purchase extra souvenirs right here.”
Shanghai resident Wang Lu advised CNBC she particularly wished to be on the park on June 16.
“It is each my birthday and the park’s 10th anniversary,” she mentioned. “There’s nowhere else I’d slightly spend this big day.”