Obviously, Tokyo DisneySea drove the attendance increase. But it is interesting to note that Disneyland in California did not see a similar attendance increase due to California Adventure. (Which is, according to y'all, Southern California's worst theme park.)
The only thing I'd add to the Reuters story would be this. In the last sentence, which reads:
"The positive Japanese results are in contrast to the U.S. market, where last year's attendance at Disney's two California theme parks and its Walt Disney World in Florida fell, due to the economic slowdown and travel crisis after Sept. 11."
Hasn't Enron taught business reporters not to just rewrite press releases?
This is not to say that Disney Sea isn't a lot of fun. You just have a lot of people trapped in a small island nation, with no place to go. The economic slump and spiraling deflation has sucked the normally well-traved and cash-toting Japanese back within their own borders, and dropped them at the themed Doors of Disney and Universal (and a few scatterd local amusement parks).
There are a lot of factors at work. I personally believe that Tokyo Disney would have seen an increase even without the Disney Sea attraction. But, of course, every little bit helps !
The U.S. economic slump can't compare to what's been happening in Japan. But I do think that it is noteworthy that something similar happened in Southern California late last year. Due to travel restrictions, terrorism fears and the recession, hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians stayed close to home, rather than visit Hawaii, Europe, Asia, Mexico or anywhere else outside driving distance.
Las Vegas, and other area attractions including theme parks, redirected their national advertising and promotion dollars to the Southern California market to lure these potential visitors.
In general, they were successful. But while Disneyland could attract paying locals, California Adventure couldn't. Its first-year attendance was almost exclusively people on park-hoppers, annual passes and discounted tickets. That's not good for the company.
But it's not enough to ensure financial success. That company also has to deliver an entertainment venue that people want. Disney and Oriental Land did that in Tokyo. Disney failed to do that in Anaheim.
And the other entertainment options in Southern California and Las Vegas thank them.
Your points about the positive/negative imbalance between attendance at the two Anaheim parks caught me off guard.
Is Tokyo Disney Sea a Japanese Originated theme design idea that was ok'd by Disney headquaters in the states ? OR, is it an American side imagineering design developed at the request of Oriental Land Co who had no idea what to put on their expansion land fill, and asked Disney (usa) to come up with something.
I have never checked into that. If Tokyo Disney Sea is really an American Disney imagineered place, you'd think that they could have done something along that line in Anaheim. If is all a Japanese idea, well...it's about time the Japanese came up with something original ! (with apologies to my Japanese wife, cough cough)
Essentially, Tokyo DisneySea is what Imagineering creates when it gets a blank check. California Adventure is what Disney creates when it pretty much takes Imagineering out of the process and lets the business managers run the show.
Disney doesn't own the Tokyo Disney Resort. Oriental Land does. (I'm pretty sure Rob knows this, so consider this background for anyone else reading this.) Disney gets a license fee from Oriental Land, and, as part of the deal, Disney controls the design and use of its characters and attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort.
So whenever Oriental Land wants something new, it orders it from Disney. And Imagineering fulfills that order in the manner it sees fit, and sticks Oriental Land with the bill. If Oriental Land tries to cut corners on a design, Imagineering starts to holler that Oriental Land is breaking the license deal, and Oriental Land falls back in line. So, in practice, Imagineering gets a blank check whenever Oriental Land wants something new.
An MBA would look at this deal and say that Oriental Land screwed itself by giving up control over its expenses. But in practice, the arrangement has so far helped Oriental Land.
Imagineering doesn't get anywhere near this kind of freedom on Disney owned-parks. These days, business development calls the shots, sets the budget, and often cuts Imagineering out of the process entirely. If Imagineering thinks the business side has set the budget too low for an attraction, tough. Then the business side will just buy some off-the-shelf attraction and ask decorating to theme it up a bit.
The irony? When you forget about upfront costs, as Disney has essentially done in Tokyo, you get more visitors and more revenue on the back end. When you try too hard to contain your upfront costs, as Disney's now doing elsewhere, the company ends up worse off, with fewer visitors and less revenue.
Theme parks, like Las Vegas casinos, are ultimately selling excess. More and better thrills. More and better food. More and better atmosphere. More and better excitement.
A theme park that doesn't deliver "more and better" excess delivers nothing. And should expect to earn nothing, as a result.
We ARE focusing on American theme parks. That's exactly what Tokyo Disneyland, Disney Sea, and Universal Studios Japan are... AMERICAN THEME PARKS ! Just ask anybody in Japan. If they were JAPANESE theme parks, nobody would go.
I KNOW i meant focus on better DISNEY parks in AMERICA. If you look at the facts disney is more focused on foreign places. Heince the new park in Paris and the new one in Tokyo what did we get a sucky crapy one named California Adventures. SO that is what i meant
Thank you Kevin. What Disney needs to do is to reconize that we don't want dinky tacky parks that have more ballons then attractions. Sure profits will boom in Asia and Europe. And i beileve that is what disney wants to give us one little think a year. But focus more on foreign economy they are reiciving. I say that they destroy that California Adventures and build on to Disneyland and World.
