Tokyo’s Harry Potter park hopes to enchant Asian fans

Tokyo – Harry Potter fans will soon be able to take up their wands, put on their robes and immerse themselves in the boy wizard’s world at a new theme park set to open in Tokyo on Friday.

Built on the western site of the beloved Toshimaen amusement park, which shut in 2020 after 94 years, the Warner Brothers Studio Tour Tokyo recreates a number of iconic film locations, such as Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic.

The location near the Japanese capital is ideal, especially as global tourism picks up after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Torben Jensen, vice president and general manager of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo.

“Being the first tour in Asia and the increasing inbound visitors to Japan will also put us in the centre of the regional market,” Jensen told media during a tour of the park, saying it offered Asian fans a new dimension in Harry Potter movie-making.

Tickets for adults cost 6,300 yen (about R800), and Jensen said they were sold out into August.

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