Shanghai Disneyland to feature luxury retail neighbor

SHANGHAI - The Shanghai resort that houses the first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland will add a luxury shopping compound next to the theme park to tap the consumption potential of visitors, the resort's operator said on Monday.

Shanghai Shendi Group, operator of the Shanghai International Tourism and Resort Zone (SITRZ), on Monday announced a joint venture with retail outlet developer Value Retail to build a luxury shopping compound next to the Shanghai Disney Resort.

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Value Retail's Chairman Scott Malkin said the shopping compound, called Shanghai Village, will be "the most important tourism outlet shopping location in Asia."

Covering 50,000 square meters, the compound will boast a number of international and Asian brand stores as well as restaurants and cafes and is expected to open in autumn 2015, according to Value Retail.

The developer has previously opened a similar shopping outlet next to the Disneyland in Paris, France, and is set to open its first shopping compound in China in May, in the tourist city of Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province.

Fan Xiping, chairman of the Shanghai Shendi Group, said the shopping compound will be the SITRZ's second iconic project after the Shanghai Disneyland.

The group said it pinned high hopes on the shopping compound to generate tourism and retail sales.

Neither the group nor Disney has provided an estimate of the number of people who will visit the park or the revenues these visitors are expected to generate. However, Shendi said the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, another event that brought a large number of visitors from home and abroad, hinted at how the joint venture will boost retail sales in the resort.

The expo attracted 70 million visitors and contributed 4.5 billion yuan ($730 million) in retail sales in six months.