Most Nearby Attractions Count on Disney
to Bring Tourists to the Area
When the Walt Disney Co. last year announced the opening date for California Adventure, other tourist attractions in Southern California knew they had to ramp up their efforts to draw business or risk losing it to the mouse.
But with the turnaround in the economy, concerns about power and gas prices and soft initial attendance at the new theme park, all tourist attractions are faced with new challenges for getting tourists through the turnstiles. That puts Disney,the 800-pound gorilla of the amusement business,under a powerful microscope, because what happens this summer in “grizzlyland” could signal visitor trends for the balance of the year.
It also means that the industry’s increased marketing efforts may pay off in previously unanticipated ways.
Disney officials maintain that, after poor weather in February and March, spring break numbers were good and summer looks “strong, based on advance bookings.” But much of the springtime strength appears to have come from visitors to Disneyland rather than California Adventure.
Some people have complained about the limited number of rides and a lack of things to do after dark at the new park. At Pacific Wharf, the Lucky Fortune Cookery has only been open on weekends “because of a lack of business,” according to one employee. And park visitors often have the luxury of getting back on rides like coaster California Screamin’ with only a minimal wait and without a Fastpass.
Before the park’s opening, Irvine entertainment analyst Kevin Skislock suggested that watching Disney’s marketing programs would be one way to gauge initial attendance.
“If we see there’s a program to attract locals during the summer, then there’s extra capacity,” he said.
On April 26, Disney announced it would bring back the long-popular Main Street Electrical Parade July 4 at the new park,a move widely seen as an effort to bolster lagging attendance.
Ironically, all this could be worrisome rather than a relief for other attractions.
As recently as last fall, tourist businesses in other parts of the state were worried that Orange County would steal their thunder. Some spoke of promoting Southern California as a “regional destination,” but it was widely believed that other visitor destinations would suffer at the hands of Disney.
“Our staff has been talking about Anaheim a lot,” Patty MacJennett of the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau told the audience at a tourism conference in November.
More recently, a group of nine hotels around LA International Airport launched a joint marketing effort with the bureau to position the area for corporate meetings and business travel. And next-door neighbor Marina del Rey joined with Westchester and the airport area in March to create a separate convention and visitor bureau for that area.
The LA bureau also added an executive vice president who is an expert in entertainment and tourism to “leverage the role of LA as a center of entertainment and the home of Hollywood,” according to a release.
On the other hand, Beverly Hills was unconcerned with the Anaheim developments.
“About 90% of the people who stay in Anaheim think they’re in LA anyway,” said Jeb Baird, director of the Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau. “We don’t lose business to Anaheim. (They) attract more to Southern California, and that makes it better for everyone.”
Universal Studios, however, didn’t wait around to see what might happen in Anaheim. Instead, officials there launched a bus service called Universal Studios Express from Anaheim on Feb. 1,a week before the debut of California Adventure. The in-your-face campaign stops at various Anaheim and Garden Grove hotels four times daily in buses gaudily splashed with Universal Studios advertising, to carry visitors to LA for a day,a reversal from the past, when people would trek from LA to OC for a day at Disneyland.
Eliot Sekuler, director of park operations for Universal Studios, said the buses have worked for Universal.
“It seemed like a natural service to provide,” he said. “It’s working very well.”
Universal Studios also will add two rides this summer.
Further south, San Diego tooled up for the summer season, too.
Georgeanne Wood, director of marketing promotions for the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the San Diego is doing more advertising to the local market this year, targeting 8 million households with a coupon book called “Sunny Money.” It also is doing television, radio and print advertising in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“We found that 50% (of our visitors) stay in private homes,” Wood said. “It’s the first time we’re doing this much local advertising.”
At nearby Sea World, the marine park created an eight-state “Shamu Across America” campaign in which customized VW Beetles toured the West to promote the park. Bob Tucker, director of public relations for Sea World, said it was the first time they’ve taken the whale on the road.
“We did it to create a buzz for Sea World to counter California Adventure,” he said.
“We’re very bullish about attendance for the summer,” Tucker added.
Sea World isn’t worried about the power crunch, either.
“Even if we have rolling blackouts, we’ll be fine. We can still do a show if the power is out. Shamu doesn’t care.”
Closer to home, most visitor bureaus and tourist sites have geared up to attract the additional tourists California Adventure was expected to bring to the area.
Knott’s Berry Farm bumped its marketing budget up about 4% to bring visitors in and will continue to offer discounts to its traditional Southern California audience. One of those promotions,good through June 10, just about when school lets out,offers visitors to either Knott’s Berry Farm or Soak City a free ticket to the other park.
But director of public relations Susan Tierney said the park also is marketing its hotel packages to feeder cities like Bakersfield and Fresno as well as to Arizona, Nevada and Northern California.
Knott’s also recently launched a new 7,000-square-foot Snoopy headquarters store at its California Marketplace, a retail area outside the park.
In Newport Beach, the Conference and Visitors Bureau is doing a summer campaign that promotes the new Disney park as well as the city. And city hotels like Sutton Place are selling their own Disneyland Resort packages, too.
“We’re trying to piggyback on the biggest story that’s out there,” said Bridget Lindquist, director of travel industry sales for the bureau.
In Orange, that means emphasizing the city’s proximity to Anaheim and working with the local hotels to bring people to Old Towne.
In Laguna Beach, it means targeting Anaheim visitors more heavily through print ads in visitor publications. But that campaign won’t go into full swing until fall in an effort to reach conventioneers, according to Kathleen Spalione, director of the Laguna Beach Visitors Bureau.
“We’ve found the leisure market that goes to Anaheim stays there,” she said.
In Huntington Beach, a new shuttle service called the Surf City Bus will run between Anaheim and downtown beginning June 1. The summer trial program will pick up tourists at Anaheim hotels four times a day and bring them back in time for dinner.
“People in Anaheim also want to come to the beach,” said Diane Baker, president and chief executive officer of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau. “We want to give them reasons to make it easy.”
Even shopping areas like the Mills Corp.’s Block at Orange and Ontario Mills have jumped into the fray. That’s no surprise, given a new study by the Travel Industry Association of America that found 51% of travelers say shopping was a major component of at least one trip they took last year.
Peter Wong, senior director of tourism for the Mills Corp., said places like the Block cater to all age groups and are good family destinations.
“Shoppertainment fits in every market segment,” he said. “People get that buying feeling when they go on tours. It’s the universal language of the world.”
Wong said the tourism market seems to change every day and industry players have to be attuned to those changes. Tourism officials, he said, “understand reports (we get) and if we find a shift in the market segment, we’ll design programs to fit that market.”
The Mills Corp. encourages travelers to look beyond OC with bus service to Ontario Mills from the Anaheim area four times a week.
Wong said he’s encouraged by all the new attractions here.
“I think it’s a good thing, because new projects are a way to attract new travelers,” he said.
And those new travelers may be where Disney gets the last laugh in the long term.
While some visitors have criticized the new park for not being Disneyland, the fact is that California Adventure was designed to complement the original, not imitate it. And its appeal to an older visitor may benefit from marketplace trends that indicate mature travelers (those older than 50) are likely to generate the most travel dollars in coming years.
Already, that group accounts for about 25% of attendance at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Figures for Disneyland were not available. And with mature Americans making up as much as a third of the nation’s demographic base and with grandparents increasingly traveling with their grandchildren, the laid-back feel of California Adventure might just suit this group better than the frenetic pace of Disneyland.
Randy Garfield, senior vice president of sales and travel operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and president of the Walt Disney Travel Co. last year told an audience of travel agents that “we’ve found mature adults are looking for vacation experiences that offer relaxation as well as a variety of activities.”
And if that group finds the new Disneyland Resort to its liking, the rest of Orange County could benefit as well. n
