Park to splash out by hiring 400 staff

Ocean Park is recruiting 400 people, including 100 lifeguards, for its Water World addition - set to open this summer - and will be holding a month-long open recruitment from next week.

Construction of facilities is nearly complete as the park turns to recruitment and training, chairman Lau Ming-wai said yesterday.

It is also hiring security guards, event coordination specialists, administrators and staffers for catering, retail and customer service, but some positions will be recruited internally.

The open recruitment will be held at the park from March 31 to April 30 on weekdays from 2pm to 4pm.

Water World Ocean Park executive director Bryan Fish said the aquatic operators and lifeguards need not have prior experience or certifications.

"They need to be comfortable with water. We have a variety of positions requiring different levels of skills. If you can simply be in and around water comfortably and have minimal swimming ability, we have work for you."

He said Water World will help train new staff from scratch in first aid, CPR and guest services, adding salaries will be competitive.

Part of the park's rebirth plan, Water World will be Asia's only year-round, all-weather seaside water park.

The Legislative Council's finance committee agreed on a HK$1.66 billion funding injection for the park last Friday to help it stay afloat for another year. Lau said half the funding would be used for staff salaries at the water park.

An annual subsidy of HK$280 million was also granted to support the conservation and education work costs over the next four years.

Water World will have 27 attractions, including a FlowRider that facilitates indoor surfing.

"[FlowRiding] is actually known around the world as a sport and there are competitions held around the world. We hope to be able to, in the near future, represent Hong Kong in those competitions as well. We are looking forward to people developing their skills in it," Fish said.

Water World's management is also looking at overseas examples of how theme parks have adapted during the pandemic, including distributing masks and requiring visitors to show proof of testing negative or vaccination.

"Some [parks] will distribute masks that can be worn in water and we are looking at the possibility of doing that as well," Lau said.

"We will follow the instructions given by the government, the Department of Health and experts."
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