Disney Adds to New Park; Calls it Part of Process
Walt Disney Co. officials say they’re seeing an uptick in visitors to Disney’s California Adventure after making some tweaks to counter a slow start at the new park in Anaheim.
While Disney isn’t offering attendance numbers, officials say the revived Electrical Parade and more attractions for kids is helping to boost the park’s appeal to families and locals.
Disney is working against a tide of factors that have made for a slow start at California Adventure,a $1.4 billion investment designed to lure more visitors to Anaheim and get them to stay longer and spend more money.
In the month before the opening of the much-touted park, a weakening economy took a turn for the worse, energy costs climbed and rolling blackouts focused national attention on California’s electricity crisis.
“All theme parks are hurting and it’s going to be a tough year,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.
While Disney could be looking at a longer payback on California Adventure, that doesn’t mean officials are worried the new park will fail.
California Adventure wasn’t intended to be a one-year wonder, they say. The recent changes are part of the company’s theme park philosophy,ostensibly handed down from Walt Disney himself,that no park is ever really complete, but always in a state of change.
Analysts still are upbeat and stand by the park’s,and the company’s,prospects over the long haul.
Observers point to lessons learned at France’s Euro Disney and Florida’s Epcot and Animal Kingdom,each of which had slow starts. Those projects serve as examples of how Disney can tweak things until they work.
UBS Warburg analyst Christopher Dixon recently said California Adventure has some insulation from a short economic downturn because of its relatively low construction cost and modest attendance expectations. The park is projected to draw a maximum of about 7 million visitors a year,half that of Disneyland.
A prolonged downturn could have “ominous implications” for the tourist industry here, according to economist Kyser. As such, park operators need to look at creative ways to bring in the locals, even during the normally busy summer, he said.
Disneyland officials recently cut the California Adventure ticket price for locals, from $43 to $33 for adults, with one child between 3 and 9 admitted free with the paid adult admission. One- and two-day “parkhopper” passes that let locals cruise both parks still are yet to be made available, though three- and four-day versions are available to visitors at area hotels.
Inside the park, a new version of the former Main Street Electrical Parade debuted on July 4. A live show version of the Disney’s TV game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” is being built and is expected to open before Labor Day.
More live entertainment has been added to California Adventure, and insiders say a Tower of Terror modeled after a similar ride in Orlando is a sure thing somewhere down the road.
Disney also is looking to promote the park with hardcore Anaheim Angels fans, offering free entry to California Adventure with the purchase of 15 Angels tickets. Disney hasn’t cross-promoted its baseball team with the Disneyland Resort since 1998, according to Angels marketing and promotions official Robert Alvarado.
Disney officials also are trying to address a key criticism of the new park: there’s not enough for kids to do.
The number of Disney character appearances at the park has increased. Story hours were added to the Redwood Challenge Trail in the Golden State section of the park. And a “Junior Explorer” game and kids’ map with a printed trail of bear paws leading to kids’ activities is handed out near the entry gate.
Families have to be targeted if Disney hopes to encourage longer stays in Anaheim, one former Disneyland official said.
“Young families are the core of Disneyland,” she said.
But California Adventure also faces something Disney can’t control,the economy. Jim Benedick, a Tustin theme park consultant, said if the economy causes even a small number of people to cut back on vacation spending, it shows up at theme parks and hotels.
In April,the height of spring break,hotel occupancy in Anaheim decreased 2.7%, according to figures from Henderson, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research. At the end of May, though, Anaheim was one of only two of the major 25 markets tracked by Smith to have occupancy growth year to date.
About 85% of tourists in California come from other parts of the state, according to state tourism research.
And tech-heavy Northern California, which normally provides many of those visitors, has been hit hard by the downturn. With hotels and other attractions relying on Disney overflow to carry the summer, that just turns up the heat on Disney all the more.
Attendance at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida is down by as much as 7% this year. Southern California parks haven’t seen that much drop so far, but they haven’t seen much growth, either. And what growth there is has been largely due to additional parks such as California Adventure, Soak City at Knott’s Berry Farm and new rides at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
Even more perplexing for Disney is that 46-year-old Disneyland is booming, while California Adventure on many days seems, well, underused,the reverse of expectations. Part of the problem is that locals have not embraced the new park in expected numbers.
While California Adventure is a strong tourist attraction, “50% of the market isn’t tourists. It’s locals,” Benedick said.
And therein lies part of the problem.
Kevin Skislock, an Irvine entertainment analyst, said locals might not care about seeing a faux California.
“I have fundamental doubts about the appeal of that attraction,” he said. “Would people go to a Florida park called The Floridian that was a microcosm of Florida?”
A former Walt Disney Imagineering worker called the park a good idea that didn’t turn out quite the way he thought it would. But he also defended the change of concept.
“Everyone complains it’s not the same as Disneyland,” he said, “but it can’t be. Things are different now.”
Despite his skepticism, analyst Skislock calls the business plan behind the new park solid.
“The business model was to increase head counts, extend visitors’ average stay and increase average expenditure per person,” he said, much the way multiple parks make Orlando a tourist destination.
The difference is that Orlando doesn’t have the local population base of Disneyland. Observers say that means more attention has to be paid to the hard-to-please local crowd here, which is likely to buffer against an economy-related falloff in out-of-state visitors.
In the long run, though, Benedick is one who thinks it may not matter.
“Even if just the tourists come, they may have a winner,” he said. n
