北京环球度假区裁员，受中国坚持动态清零影响

BEIJING—When Universal Studios Beijing opened last September after two decades in the making, NBCUniversal and its Chinese joint-venture partner hoped that the magic of Harry Potter would be a source of profits and jobs.

The resort, which includes the theme park and two hotels, laid off some staff when it had to close for eight weeks in May and June during a Covid outbreak in the city, people familiar with the matter said. Its workforce was around 9,000 at the end of August, based on a social-media group the resort uses to communicate with its employees, down by as much as 25% or so from the opening, according to some of the people.

That number is also short of the 14,000 new jobs an official at the local district’s cultural-tourism zone said the resort would create when he spoke ahead of its opening last year.

A spokesman for Universal Parks & Resorts, a unit of NBCUniversal, said that the company has adjusted its executive and professional staffing levels and compensation amid the pandemic. “Like many other businesses, we had to make difficult decisions as we’ve managed through the pandemic,” he said, adding, “We are encouraged by what we’ve seen since we reopened.”

NBCUniversal’s joint-venture partner didn’t respond to requests for comment. The project is 70% owned by Chinese state-owned companies, with NBCUniversal holding 30%.

The park posted a second-quarter loss in Ebitda, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast Corp., said in an earnings call in July.

The venture’s challenges reflect the impact of China’s zero-tolerance Covid-19 control policy—now in its third year—on the economy and some of the biggest companies there, including one of the highest-profile American entertainment investments in China.

For theme parks, China marks a contrast with elsewhere in the world, where many have bounced back after Covid-19 shutdowns. Comcast said its theme-park business’s 65% year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter was fueled by rising attendance and guest spending in the U.S. and Japan.

The growth “is without much contribution from Beijing,” Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman and CEO, said during an earnings call on July 28.

Shanghai Disneyland has also suffered from China’s stringent Covid-19 policies. It shut down on March 21, shortly before Shanghai went into a two-month lockdown, and reopened with limited daily capacity on June 30, roughly a month after the city’s lockdown was lifted.

Universal’s Beijing resort opened last September to a generally warm public reception, even as U.S.-China relations cooled. It was expected to welcome 10 million to 12 million visitors a year, according to a forecast cited in local media by Beijing Tourism Group, the parent company of NBCUniversal’s local joint-venture partner.

More than 2.1 million people visited the park by the end of the year, local media quoted Guo Wenjie, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, as saying in February.

The rise of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus this year, however, prompted China to lock down major economic hubs. The number of domestic tourists in China in the first half of the year was down 22% from a year earlier, while tourism revenue was down 28%, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed.

As the capital was hit by its own Covid-19 outbreak, Universal Beijing Resort was forced to shut on May 1. A total of 1,216 infections were reported that month in Beijing—not very many by global standards, but enough for Chinese officials to clamp down.

After the May 1 closure, the resort laid off employees, people familiar with the matter said. Other employees have voluntarily left the company after the resort slashed salary payments during the shutdown, these people said.

The theme park was allowed to reopen—with restrictions—on June 25, ahead of the summer peak season, when one-day tickets cost around $92 on most days compared with around $60 in low season. The park closes at 7 p.m. four days a week, instead of the usual 9 p.m., canceling its evening light show on those days.

In late August, near the end of the summer break for many students, the park saw a steady flow of masked visitors. Many were dressed in Harry Potter garb, with wands in hand, while others sported Minions T-shirts and caps.

Popular rides like Decepticoaster, a Transformers-themed roller coaster, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey had lines of an hour or more, a sign of demand for the attractions although the park overall wasn’t packed. Visitors sipped Harry Potter’s Butterbeer and posed for photos in front of quintessential American cars sporting tail fins.

But in the Citywalk shopping zone outside the park’s entrance and exit, some restaurants and booths, as well as the guest-services kiosk, were closed, reflecting the lack of business. The Universal Parks & Resorts spokesman said that the company has temporarily closed some venues in response to the pandemic.

By early September, after the summer holidays, most rides’ wait times were down to just five or 10 minutes, with the longest at half an hour, the park’s app showed.

For NBCUniversal and other U.S. entertainment companies, prospects have dimmed for the Chinese market, which once was seen as a vital global-growth driver. Hollywood studios have been struggling to get many of their blockbusters approved by the Chinese government, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

“While Covid remains a risk we must manage, particularly in Asia, we remain bullish on the parks business, both in the near and long term,” Michael Cavanagh, Comcast’s chief financial officer, said on the July earnings call.

—Bingyan Wang contributed to this article.

Write to Yoko Kubota at [email protected]