Hong Kong Disneyland would be unable to cope with the influx of visitors from the mainland during the golden week holidays following the National Day, the tourism industry predicted Tuesday.

Michael Wu Sui-ieng, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents, said it was estimated that half of the 650,000 mainland visitors coming to Hong Kong between September 30 and October 10 would visit the theme park.

This means almost 330,000 mainlanders would visit the park in 11 days, stretching Disney's capability of 30,000 people a day.

Wu said travel agents would give tour groups priority when arranging tickets, but there would be little they could do for individual visitors if there were not enough tickets.

They urged Disney to consider allocating more thickets to tourists during "golden week" as Hong Kongers could visit the theme park at other times.

Meanwhile, overseas travel agents and inbound tour operators left out of pocket over unused Disneyland tickets from cancellations or no-shows are calling on the theme park to implement a more flexible ticketing system.

A spokesman for the theme park said that to secure tickets, wholesalers had provided documentation about the number of people in tour groups visiting the park at least 10 days before admission. During the next eight days, the wholesaler can add tickets to their reservation but cannot reduce the number as "we assume that these tickets have already been sold," the spokesman said.

(Shenzhen Daily September 22, 2005)