Most of the employees. The Walt Disney Company knew they wanted to build a park in Europe but needed to find a place where they could build their own reality free from the sights and sounds of the real. Firstly, the lack of prior market research and study for European lifestyle and cultural before European Disney built.
Walt Disney is the world leader in family entertainment and one of the most valuable brands in the world. Since the opening of Euro Disney, the Walt Disney Company has learned to take into consideration important determinants so that their investment will not be a huge financial loss.
Unfortunately, Since Disney did not research as much as they should of when deciding to open Euro Disney, this lead to one of the biggest failures for the Disney Company and is today used as an example of international marketing failures.
Disney had high expectations about opening up a Disney Theme Park in France. They …show more content… Walt Disney assumed that there would not be any problems with any of these critical factors because they had no problem in the United States or in Tokyo Disney. The climate in Paris is rainy but it is continual rain that will fall steadily for up to 12 to 17 hours. Orlando has occasional drenching down pours and California weather at the park is dry, warm and sunny.
Also the proximity to other tourist attractions were considered but in the summer most tourists are drawn to go on the coast of the Mediterranean whereas the Orlando and California parks have always drawn tourists and they are always adding new attractions to both parks. The regional consumer traffic was another determinant. Paris is nearby which is a plus because of high population densities but north south and east of the park the densities are quite low.
Walt Disney's plans were based on the theme parks in the United States and they should have looked into it more instead of having an attitude of "We know best" because it actually lead them to bigger financial losses in the long run. Climate is also very important. If you build a park in a climate that some guests may not be used to, then it could affect the experience and vice versa with a climate that is too cold.
With all this being taken into consideration Disney did their due diligence when deciding on where the perfect location would be for its first Euro Disney park. For a brief period, it looked like Spain might have taken the accolade but the land that was being proposed eventually fell through.
Disney estimated that the site would be accessible by only a 4-hour drive to 68 million people across Europe and a 2-hour flight for a further million. This, coupled with a suitable climate for most people, swayed the decision and Disney put pen to paper in , with the final contract being signed in Construction started soon after this and Euro Disney was officially born. So, with so much planning involved and the backing of one of the biggest brands in the world, why on earth was Euro Disney considered a failure at first?
Well, the main reason behind this is that Disney totally overestimated how many guests would attend the park on both a daily, monthly and annual basis, as well as how much cash each person would spend when inside the park.
Nevertheless, it put Disney in a very uncomfortable financial position that took them years to get out of. We talked earlier about how Disney spent years meticulously doing their due diligence when deciding where the Euro Disney park should be built.
However, one thing they did not take into account or choose to pay attention to was the cultural impact and reaction an American-built park might have on the current economic state of Europe as a whole at that time. For readers who have never visited Europe or France, you might be unaware of how important culture and traditions are in these countries. This, coupled with the ongoing European recession meant that the opening of the park was never going to be as smooth as others had been.
Keeping in the theme of overestimation, Disney forecast an attendance of around 50, guests. The reality was only about half of this number for its opening day. Initially, Disney put this down to the fact that the French government had actually warned people to avoid the park on opening day.
Their basis for this was a survey which suggested that more than half a million people in a total of 90, cars were expected to travel. Obviously, this would have caused huge congestion and thus many people might have chosen to avoid this. The main railway line connecting the center of Paris to the park was also on strike at this time which really did make the park inaccessible to a lot of people.
With that being said, even if the disappointing opening day attendance could have been attributed to this, the following days, months and years could unfortunately not. Many people just did not have the disposable income needed to visit the park.
Due to these miscalculations, Disney spent the first few years trying to manage its debt and avoid bankruptcy. The turnaround really began in when Euro Disney officially changed its name to Disneyland Paris which in a way felt like a fresh start for the park and its guests.
There are a few explanations for the lack of success the park had in its early years. The debut on April 12, was far from perfect, for one thing. Based on reports of expected attendance, the government was worried that the roads would be chaotic, so the French radio warned of traffic. People staying home due to the warning and a one-day strike that cut a railway connection from the center of Paris contributed to a paltry attendance, estimated to be less than 25, visitors, on the opening day of Euro Disneyland.
Some pundits felt that the park would purport American cultural imperialism. The bigger issues, though, were centered on employment practices. The Hollywood Reporter reported that a quarter of them, about 3, individuals, had quit by May of The big issue, though, was an untimely recession and a collapse in the French property market, which left the financial plans of Disney and its partners in the EuroDisney project in ruins.
The company which thought itself on top of the world suddenly had to start second-guessing itself. That was especially true for its theme park plans, specifically the Disney Decade it had boasted about only a couple of years earlier. Many of its ambitious plans for Disneyland and Walt Disney World had to be downsized or scrapped in the wake of the Euro Disneyland disaster. Our theme park guides contain reviews and ratings of rides, restaurants and hotels at more than 80 theme parks worldwide.
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