A tale of three Disney cities in Asia

Asia is beginning to pull ahead of North America in the global theme park business. In East Asia, the focus is on Disney parks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2014, the worldwide attendance growth in the top 10 theme park groups exceeded 5 percent. These conglomerates including Disney, Merlin, and Universal-received more than 392 million visitors.

In the postwar era, the theme park industry was mainly American. Since the 1980s, it has expanded in the advanced economies. Last year, Disney's overall revenue grew by $4.4 billion, top-ping $50 billion for the first time.

In Hong Kong Disneyland, visitors from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong each still account for about 40 percent of the total visitors. While Hong Kong Disneyland is only a decade old, its daily capacity is barely 34,000 visitors; the lowest among the Disney parks.