Pan Am, Sears, Kodak...an assumption of invulnerability is unwise, for a business leader and investor..
They aren’t visiting because it’s too damn expensive.
It's also complicated and stressful.
Hoping Disney has the good judgment not to be yanked around by the whims of investors and instead play the long game.
The long game is to create great entertainment, on screens in theaters, at home, and in the parks. They need to figure out how to do that across every segment, more reliably. Do they have the right people working under the right management in the right culture with the right resources?
Would park attendance be higher if they actually made a Star Wars land that felt like Star Wars, or a Marvel land that felt like being in a comic book or movie (instead if an industrial park) or a Princess and the Frog attraction that felt like it was made by people who liked -- not despised -- the movie? Over, and over, and over, they have been squandering opportunities and making disappointing entertainment.
What makes you think that prices are being increased because attendance is falling and not the other way around?
Disney has indicated for years now a desire to reset the valuation of their experiences product. They have basically said they wanted to control attendance and temper demand and the best way to do that is with price increases. So doesn't it follow then that their price controls are actually being done to control attendance rather than the other way around?
If their goal was to increase attendance, they could easily do so with price manipulation, but that's not their goal.
Is your theory that they are raising prices to decrease attendance? Then why spend billions to increase park capacity with net increases in numbers of attractions and amenities and guest-accessible square-footage?
Right... but Disney controls the price increases, so if the price increases are going to lead to revenue that Disney isn't comfortable with, they can just slow or pause them. They're fully in control of the pricing and as such, they determine what their attendance is going to be.
Demand for Disney Parks has been relatively inelastic. Changes in pricing will have a negligible negative impact on attendance...for a while. That's because Disney Parks are historically unique and dominant in the industry. There's a lot of cultural and consumer behavior pattern protection (families that go to Disney Parks
by tradition).
But customer resentment, changing tastes, and competitive offerings all work against them. It's like in the 1990s and early 2000s when the cable companies kept ratcheting up monthly rates and treating customers terribly -- why not? They essentially had a monopoly. All of a sudden a viable alternative comes along and "see ya!" customer jumped at the opportunity to dump cable.
And once you lose a customer it can be hard to get them back. They find alternatives they like as much or better. They retain their resentment. Family travel traditions change.
