Ocean Park, Hong Kong's unique home-grown theme park and one of the world's most popular theme parks, yesterday opened a representative office in Guangzhou.

The office is the theme park's first and only representative office on the mainland, offering enquiry services, further promoting the park on the mainland and forging stronger ties with the right mainland partners.

Speaking at the opening ceremony yesterday, Tom Mehrmann, Ocean Park chief executive, said: "The opening of the Guangzhou representative office is a major milestone for Ocean Park. It signifies the importance we place in this market."

Citing statistics, he said, visitors from the mainland made up 44 per cent of the park's total attendance in the 2005-06 fiscal year. The visitors from the province of Guangdong alone accounted for 40 per cent.

"Our strategy now is to bring Ocean Park closer to their doorsteps by actively developing transportation packages to make travelling to Ocean Park easier," he said.

Thanks to the co-operations with the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp, the Eternal East Cross-Border Coach, the CTS Express Coach, and CKS, the direct links are available between Ocean Park and several cities in the Pearl River Delta region via rail, bus, or ferry, he said.

Speaking about the better ticketing service, Mehrmman said that Ocean Park had also joined hands with China Telecom's Guangzhou branch to offer ticket telesales services at a favourable price via the "114 BestTone" call centre. And its co-operative programme with the Bank of China's Guangdong branch makes it even more economical for the bank's credit card holders to visit the park, he said.

The chief executive said that Ocean Park would seek opportunities to develop other programmes to woo more mainland tourists .

He said that a gigantic expansion plan, involving capital inputs of HK$5.55 billion, would double the items in the park to over 70 when completed in six years.

The expansion project, to be initiated later this year, is expected to fortify Ocean Park's position as a premier marine-based theme park in the world.

Li Wenyao, head of Guangzhou Tourism Bureau, said that the establishment of Ocean Park's Guangzhou office would further strengthen the ties between the park and the travel trade in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province and in the Greater Pearl River Delta region in the south and southwest of China.

The official said that Guangzhou would do its bit to join hands with Hong Kong for developing the tourism industry by launching promotional campaigns in the global market together and making best out of the complementary tourism resources and advantages.

The park, which opened in 1977 as a non-profit organization, has attracted about 80 million visitors all over the world and has developed into a world-class attraction connecting people with nature.

Editor: Yan