Disneyland Paris
... played a hands-on role in the planning of Disney World, but just over a year a later, in December 1966, he died. As expected, his brother Roy O. Disney took control and spent the next five years supervising the construction of the Magic Kingdom, two resort hotels, and a campground. The park opened on October 1, 1971 and Roy O Disney named the park "Walt" Disney World so the public would forever recognize who was responsible for bringing it to life. Three months after the park’s opening Roy O Disney passed away, but by then Walt Disney World was hitting its stride. For the next decade, it became part of Florida's landscape. Families that once saw Orlando merely as a whistle-stop on the way to Miami now made their vacation base at Walt Disney World. By the time Micheal Eisner arrived as CEO of Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World had become what it is today – the most popular vacation spot in the United States. Under the new CEO, Disney started tapping the rich aspect of business: hotels. The Orlando area had around 65,000 hotel rooms with fewer than 10% belonging to Disney and later Disney added about 3400 hotel rooms and 250,000 sq. feet of convention space. One of Walt Disney's last plans had been the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, as he called it was added to the Walt Disney World, Florida. Disneyland, Tokyo With the success of Disneyland Florida and California, plans were afoot to open the first oversees theme park and thus Disneyland Tokyo opened on April 15, 1983 and Japan was taken by the storm called “Mikki Mausu” or “Mickey Mouse”. Disneyland Tokyo was owned by Oriental Land Company, a Japanese Government owned company and Disney had a 45 year contract. The contract gives Disney 10% of admissions, 5% of food and merchandise sale, plus licensing fee and management fees. Disneyland Tokyo was 210 acres of American culture on Japanese soil. All signs were in English with few Japanese translations. The food was American and Disney followed the strict rule of no-alcohol and no-outside food. But later some Japanese restaurants were added. It tried to create a mirror image of the original Disneyland California. On the opening day at Disneyland Tokyo, about 13,000 visitors passed through the gates and on August 13 of that same year registered a one-day attendance of more than 90,000 which surpassed even the U S Disney attendance records. The high attendance levels were a norm for the Tokyo Disneyland and it took less than four years for the park to break even. Between 1983 and 1989, nearly half of the Japan’s entire population or about close to about 60 million people had walked through the gates of Disneyland Tokyo. Demographics played an important role in the success of Disneyland Tokyo – 30 million Japanese lived within 30 miles of the park, which is three time the population of the Disneyland California. Another important factor that led to success was the Japanese tradition of “omiage” or little present brought for friends. This translated in to the sales of merchandise sales and the total bill for all Disney omiage purchased at the park was over $1 billion. Disneyland Paris Following the success of it two parks at California and Florida in the U.S. and the one in Japan, an idea of a new park in Europe were too much to resist. The plans to build a European version first started around 1975, nine years after Walt Disney died. Initially Britain, Italy, Spain and France were all considered as possible locations, though Britain and Italy were quickly dropped from the list of potential sites because they both lacked a suitably large stretch of flat land. The most likely site was thought to be in the Alicante area of Spain, which had a similar climate to that in Florida for a large part of the year; however the area was also rejected as it was inundated by the notorious Mistral winds. Eventually the French location Marne-la-Vallee was chosen because of its close proximity to Paris, and also it's central positioning within Western Europe. When the Walt Disney group started to plan for Disneyland Paris, first of all they built on their experience with their existing theme parks. Disney had lots of data available about guest attendance figures, spending patterns and guest behaviour from there decades of successful activity in the theme park industry. In addition, Disney could also refer to their experience with the Japanese theme park which turned out to be a tremendous success. The Disney Management concluded that they had the appropriate know-how to adjust the very American Disney concept to other cultures. Another factor was the careful selection of the location for the European park. The proposed location of the park was within 4-hours drive for around 70 million people, and 2 hours flight for a further 300 million or so European population. Belgium, England and Germany were within a day’s drive or high speed trains ride. Good transportation was another advantage; one of the trains of the Paris Metro subway ran to the park site. And the park would be close to the A-4, a modern highway that runs from Paris to Germany border as well as to the freeway that runs to Charles de Gaulle airport. Finally the Chunnel between France and England was expected to be completed near the time of Disneyland, Paris opening. Thus Disneyland Paris was looking at a huge market Construction began in 1988 and the park’s development was to consist of two major phases. Phase one of the park would be a theme park as well as hotels, golf courses and an aquatic park, while the phase two which was to start after 1992 was to built a community around the park consisting of a sports complex, a technology park, a conference center, a theater complex, a shopping mall, a university campus and villas. Exhibit 2 gives the detailed phase I and phase II layout plan The phase on completed in early 1992 and Disneyland Paris was officially opened as “Euro Disney” on April 12, 1992. The admission prices for the theme park were set higher than the American theme parks. The theme park later changed its name to Disneyland, Paris in 1994. As a result of the name change, it added more attractions, and the entire Theme Park complex was restructured was done to better appeal to European tastes. The resort consists of the following: · Disneyland Park, a theme park modeled on the original Disneyland park of Anaheim, California. It has five themed lands, and the majestic Castle of the Sleeping Beauty at the center. It is the most popular theme park and the most popular tourist destination in continental Europe. · Walt Disney Studios Park, the second theme park in the resort, with several gated lands. The park is themed around a bustling 1940s working movie studio in Hollywood, and features exhibits on how Disney animated classics are made. · Disney Village, a bustling and popular shopping complex just south of the two parks. It is the European equivalent of the American Downtown Disney complexes. It features many high-quality restaurants and popular shops and nightclubs. · The Disneyland Resort Paris hotels: o Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Hotel New York (four-star hotels) o Disney's Newport Bay Club and Disney's Sequoia Lodge (three-star hotels) o Disney's Hotel Cheyenne, Disney's Hotel Santa Fe, and Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch (two-star hotels) Disneyland Paris, the holding structure Unlike Disneyland Tokyo, the Disneyland Paris had Disney holding 49% of the stake while the remaining 51% of the stock was distributed through the London, Paris and Brussels stock exchange. Of this stock half was set aside for the French, one-fourth went to English and the remaining was distributed through out the rest of the European Union. Disney kept the management control and invested close to $200 million for the project as against the French government which had invested about $800 million for the project. The Walt Disney Company received the same commission rates as in Japan: 10% of the admission fees, 5% of the food and merchandise revenues. In addition, Disney would collect management fees, incentive fees and 49% of the profits. Disney expected profits in the first year to be around $230-600 million and between $320 million -$1 billion in the second year. Cultural Chernobyl? Disneyland Paris became the “most western” of all Disney theme parks as market research had revealed that European tourists are highly interested in seeing the western states when visiting America. But still the European roots of Disney Characters like Snow White, Peter Pan and many others were incorporated in to design and architecture of the park. Disneyland Paris still remained a very American despite such provisions for European tastes. Examples are the strict taboo of alcoholic beverages and the “Disney-Look” code of staff appearance with strict rules of grooming. Disney adopted what worked well in the American and Japanese Disney parks, which appealed to diverse culture. The concept of Disney was known all over the world as something very American. A theme park that was obviously more European than American would have had the risk to loose much of its Disney appeal. But despite such careful planning, Disneyland Paris was criticized for “Americanizing” Europe, especially the French who are very proud of their history and their heritage. They see themselves as “la grande nation” and even have laws to protect their language against English words. Many locals cited the theme park as an attack on their cultural landscape. The French intellectuals spoke about cultural imperialism and the theme park was damned as an example of American neoprovincialism Disney was aware that there were some cultural differences to take into account when developing a Disneyland in Europe. General categories are patterns of holiday and leisure activities, the influence of climate on these, cultural heritages, tastes, buying patterns, working conditions, service and others. And Disney did take some provision for such differences. Examples are: · Guest attendance was expected to be higher in summer and during holidays. · Features designed to make attendance less dependent on the weather. · More inter-connected covered areas. · Extensive shelters sheltered queuing areas. · More indoor activities. · Ticket and entrance area at the ground floor of the Magic Kingdom Hotel. · More emphasise on themes drawn from European sources. · Wider choice of food and broader variety of restaurants. · French as first language, universal signs, multilingual staff, menus and handbooks. Despite Disney’s careful planning European visitors didn’t perceive Disneyland Paris as the unique high quality attraction that is worth the high prices. Disney’s provision for cultural differences was not really appreciated. On the contrary, people felt they were not really cared for, exposed to long waiting lines, and overcrowded restaurants. EXHIBIT 4: Admission rates Park 0-3 years 4-11 years 12-17 years 18+ years Average total $spent by person in the park Disneyland California 0 $23 $29 $29 $45-$60 Disneyland Florida 0 $28 $35 $35 $45-$60 Disneyland Tokyo 0 $27 $35 $38 $75-$80 Disneyland Paris 0 $33 $47 $47 $30-$45 Source: The Herald, April 11, 1994, Let’s Go Cal, Let’s Go France, Fedor’s Japan. Opening Day…. During the late March 1992 Disneyland Paris opened the theme park to its employees, main sponsor for testing. On April 11th 1992, the formal press pre...