HONG KONG, Aug 28, 2008 (AFP) - Hong Kong Disneyland has seen a surge in visitors in its third year of operation, but the troubled theme park was still well short of government targets, a report said Thursday.

Visitors numbers were expected to hit 5.6 million when the park reaches the end of its third year of operation next month, up from 4.2 million the previous year, the South China Morning Post said citing unnamed sources.

The sources attributed the improvement to a better marketing strategy, which has focused on mainland Chinese visitors, and strong economic growth in the southern Chinese city, the English-language daily said.

However, the figure is still well short of the 6.22 million visitors the government had originally projected in the park's third year, the report said.

Despite the improved numbers, the park made a loss of 272 million Hong Kong dollars (35 million US), although the figure is well down on the previous year's loss of 1.5 billion dollars, the report said.

The Hong Kong government, which owns 57 per cent of the park, has become increasingly concerned in the past year about its performance, and has even looked at pumping more money into the attraction.

The government had forecast visitor numbers of 5.2, 5.5 and 6.2 million in the first three years after it opened in September 2005, the Post report said.

Visitors numbers plunged in the park's second year of operation, after attracting 5.2 million visitors in the first 12 months, well below Disney's own target, the report said.