A false rumor that the Walt Disney Co. plans to construct a major resort on the Pacific coast is getting new life, thanks to telephone solicitors for real estate deals.
A study by a local consultant shows no evidence that Jacó or Quepos will join ranks with the likes of Los Angeles, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; or Hong Kong; the five population centers where Disney has theme parks and resorts.
The rumor has been so persistent that a local real estate firm contracted the consultant, Garland M. Baker, to investigate. The company later agreed to make the report public.
Persons who have invested or are considering investing in Costa Rican land say that the Disney theme has worked its way into the sales pitches of telephone salesman in the United States. One man who bought property said he was told that the Disney announcement would appear in the Jan. 6 issue of USA Today. He has been watching that newspaper since.
Baker’s report said that Costa Rica does not have the infrastructure or the population to accommodate a major theme park. The country has about 4 million persons and about 1.5 million tourists a year. Hong Kong Disneyland, the newest location, hosted a million visitors in the first two months after its opening Sept. 12.
Baker said he consulted Walt Disney’s last four years of annual reports, Edgar Online’s extensive research and disclosure database encompassing required corporate report filings, Merrill Lynch’s and Charles Schwab’s research databases and stock rumor research databases.
“Costa Rica does not have the infrastructure or traffic to sustain a multi-million or multi-billion dollar investment on the part of The Walt Disney Company and its stockholders,” Baker concluded.
However, a more modest theme park already is in the works. A local landowner has announced plans to open a simulated African landscape near Liberia. The operation is
called Africa Mia. The master plan calls for a 100-hectare (247-acre) tract housing only herbivores – including endangered species — to minimize the stress on the environment and animals.
The Africa Mia project is considerably less ambitious than the $3.6 billion Disney and the Government of Hong Kong invested in the attraction there.
Baker’s study also notes that the term eco-Disney has worked its way into the local language: “. . . such crass exploitation of the eco-tourism label occurs that we have heard European visitors refer to Costa Rica as eco-Disney,” he said.
Other theme parks around the world are also using the term eco-Disney to refer to themselves but have no connection to the Walt Disney Co., he said, adding, “in conclusion, eco-Disney is a phrase used by many to describe a pseudo-ecology or ecotourism project or environment and is not a project of the Walt Disney Co. in Costa Rica or elsewhere.”
