Hong Kong - News that Shanghai is to have its own Disneyland theme park was greeted Wednesday with mixed feelings in Hong Kong.

Tourism chiefs felt the Shanghai park would not adversely affect Hong Kong Disneyland while others felt it was bad news for the park, which has been dogged by controversy since it opened in September 2005.

The Shanghai park, which is to be located in the Pudong area, would be the first on the Chinese mainland and was expected to the largest Disney theme park.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, has been criticized for being too small and too expensive and for its failure to meet attendance figure targets.

News of the Shanghai park came two months after Hong Kong Disneyland announced plans to expand with three new themed areas, including one with rides based on the Toy Story films, at a cost of 3.63 billion Hong Kong dollars (465.4 million dollars).

Hong Kong Commissioner for Tourism Margaret Fong said she believed the Shanghai park would not affect Hong Kong Disneyland, which would remain competitive with the planned expansion making it unique and attractive to visitors from mainland China.

"The three new theme lands will either be exclusive worldwide or exclusive to Asia, and, therefore, we believe the appeal will continue to be there," Fong said.

"We are also very confident that our Hong Kong Disneyland is not only attractive to mainland Chinese visitors but also to international visitors, who generally account for around 25 to 26 per cent of total visitors," she said.

However, Democratic Party vice chairwoman Emily Lau said the Shanghai park was bad news for Hong Kong.

Speaking on government radio RTHK, Lau said: "This will deal a very devastating blow to the Hong Kong theme park. I have said so in Legco [the Legislative Council] for some time."

"The original decision to put the theme park here was a big mistake," she added. "We have committed tens of billions of dollars, and now I just don't know how we will recoup that money."

The Hong Kong government has encountered strong criticism for shouldering most of the cost of the park.

Disney invested 2.45 billion Hong Kong dollars for a 43-per-cent share of the park while taxpayers contributed about 23 billion Hong Kong dollars and acquired a 57-per-cent stake.

Until the end of May, more than 17 million people had visited the theme park since it had opened.

Although Hong Kong Disneyland has always been reluctant to reveal exact breakdowns of attendance figures, a large proportion of the visitors are known to come from mainland China. (dpa)