The number of visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland was running well below government forecasts two months after the park opened, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

Disneyland officials have refused to say how many people have visited the park. This has angered lawmakers, who say the public has the right to know, since the government owns 57 percent of the attraction.

The Post's headcount of visitors to Disneyland has revealed that fewer than 13,000 people visited on a weekend day less than a week after the amusement park introduced discounted rates for Hong Kong residents.

The Post reported that it sent four reporters to Disneyland on Nov. 13 and 16 to count visitors with handheld tally counters. The reporters counted 12,972 visitors passing through the turnstiles on Nov. 13 and 11,399 Nov. 16, the paper said.

The government has said it expected 5.6 million visitors - an average of 15,342 per day - to the park in its first year of operation.

But many of those travelers were people who visited the square outside Disneyland or the nearby Inspiration Lake, where they did not have to pay to enter.

Despite introducing a discounted price for Hong Kong residents from Nov. 8 to Dec. 8, the park appeared to be failing to attract the crowds it had anticipated.

The MTR Corp., which operates a special subway line to the park, said it usually carried 10,000 riders a day on weekdays and 20,000 on Sundays. However, some of the riders only visited the promenade outside Disneyland and didn't go into the park, the paper said.

Hong Kong legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing has been pressing the government to release the attendance figures in light of continuing negative reports about the park.

"The situation is a matter of concern," she said. "If they are not getting the number of people that they have anticipated, it is worrying."

But a Hong Kong Tourism Commission spokeswoman said the Hong Kong SAR Government, which is the majority owner of the park, wouldn't disclose attendance figures for commercial reasons, the paper said.

A Disney spokeswoman said the newspaper's count was flawed but declined to give the company's own figures.

The park was expected to yield US$23 billion net profit within 40 years. The projection was based on an economic assessment report submitted to the Legislative Council in 1999.

"The assessment was made six years ago, and the park has been open for two months,"Lau said. "The government needs to review the situation with updated data, especially when the attendance rate seems to fall below expectations, to give tax payers a reasonable explanation."

Editor: Donald