The Shanghai Disney Resort launches its 5th birthday celebration and the 10th anniversary of groundbreaking for the site on April 8. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

The Shanghai Disney Resort celebrated the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking on Thursday, with president and general manager Joe Schott expressing great confidence in the resort's future.

"We believe in the long-term benefits of the China market. That's what you'll see us continue to do," Schott says.

Since its opening on June 16, 2016, the Shanghai Disney Resort has set many records, which include beating market expectations by welcoming more than 11 million visitors in its first year of operations.

The main features of the resort saw rapid expansion of its operations. The first major expansion, Disney∙Pixar Toy Story Land, opened on April 26, 2018, making Shanghai Disneyland the fastest Disneyland in the world to expand after opening.

The second major expansion is the Zootopia themed land, which is currently under construction. It is also the first-ever Zootopia themed land at any Disney park in the world.

He Jianmin, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, says the resort has made a positive impact on the industry, improving service quality and innovating tourism products.

Shanghai plans to double the number of scenic spots and tourism projects with more than 10 million visits annually in 2025, as compared with last year. In this context, He says the Shanghai Disney Resort could be a new driver for high-quality development of the tourism industry in the Yangtze River Delta.

Analysts have pointed out that the continuous development of China's economy and the growing middle-income population have increased consumption demand for culture and tourism among Chinese people.

Quan Heng, an economist with the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations, says the success of the resort reflects China's continued expansion of opening-up and has proved the trend of win-win cooperation among different economies.