Shanghai Disney Welcomes Nearly 8 Mln Visitors

Shanghai Disneyland received close to 8 million visitors in the first nine months since opening in mid-June 2016, said Bob Iger, Walt Disney chairman and CEO Thursday.

The grand opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort was "one of the proudest and most important moments in the history of the company," said Iger at the company's annual meeting of shareholders.

"We're absolutely thrilled with the response and we expect more than 10 million people to visit this park by its first anniversary, which is this June," Iger added.

Early in February, as the company reported its quarterly earnings for its first fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31 last year, Iger showed confidence in the resort's ability to break even this fiscal year.

The resort also plans to open a new themed area, Toy Story Land, in 2018, the first addition to the 3.9-square-kilometer Shanghai resort.

Shanghai Disneyland is the first Disney resort destination on the Chinese mainland and the sixth in the world.