Bob Iger reflects on 10 years of Shanghai Disneyland as it defies the Chinese pullback

Spend a day at Shanghai Disneyland and also you would not know Chinese shoppers 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 get pleasure from the park.

“We save in our each day lives so we are able to 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 (*10*)Disney CEO Bob Iger flying in for the festivities.

“I am feeling stuffed with delight actually,” Iger advised CNBC throughout an interview at the park. “I have been concerned on this mission from the very starting in the late ’90s.”

Iger mentioned the event carried additional significance “understanding not solely how profitable it’s been, however actually how vital it is in lots of respects, not simply to the Walt Disney Co. however to the individuals of China.”

Shanghai Disneyland hit 100 million cumulative guests in 2025, in line with the firm. It is a comparatively new however vital foothold in Disney’s greater than 100-year historical past.

Disney’s experiences division, which incorporates its theme parks, resorts, cruises and merchandise, reported almost $9.5 billion in income throughout the firm’s most up-to-date quarter, led to March, a 7% enhance 12 months over 12 months. The division is the second largest at Disney’s, accounting for nearly 40% of the firm’s general income and almost 60% of its working revenue.

Whereas Disney executives have famous current softness in worldwide guests to the firm’s U.S. parks, its outposts in different nations are faring higher.

In accordance with the Themed Leisure Affiliation, which tracks world theme park knowledge, the Shanghai park attracted 14.7 million guests in 2024 — a 5% year-on-year enhance — making it the fifth most-visited theme park in the world behind Disney parks in Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; and Tokyo as effectively as Common Studios Japan.

Beneath newly appointed CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney is eyeing additional world enlargement, with a brand 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.

“As a result of of the out there property and since of the properties, the mental property that Disney has, the alternatives to develop are limitless,” Iger advised CNBC this week. “As lengthy as the enterprise is profitable, which it has been, there isn’t any purpose why it will not proceed to develop 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 remark on reviews that Disney is contemplating one other theme park for China. 

Shanghai Disneyland is bucking a much bigger development in China: consumption broadly is poor.

Retail gross sales dropped in Could for the first 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 individuals in China in the present day are usually not refusing to devour. Moderately, 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.

“If a Disney journey delivers sturdy recollections, compelling social content material, and excessive emotional worth, they’re nonetheless prepared to pay,” Lin mentioned. “If it is simply an unusual go to, they may tighten their budgets. The recognition of characters like LinaBell in China additionally reveals that younger shoppers, even beneath financial strain, are nonetheless prepared to pay for emotionally comforting consumption.”

College scholar Smile Wei is one such parkgoer.

Wei traveled with a buddy 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 at the park, Wei mentioned.

“My buddy and I deliberate to ebook a resort 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 at the park on June 16.

“It is each my birthday and the park’s 10^th anniversary,” she mentioned. “There’s nowhere else I’d relatively spend this special occasion.”