Disneyland (and more) in Brazil?

Yofie-Mouse

New Member
Original Poster
It seems to me that Brazil has a lot of potential to build a Disney theme park along the lines of Disneyland, Disney World, and similar theme parks, due to its growing economy and population, along with the fact that Disney World in Florida is hugely popular with Brazilians (and they deserve such a park closer to home). In fact, I understand that there have been proposals in the past few years to build just such a park in Brazil - I've read in various articles that it would be either around Curitiba or around Rio de Janeiro. Which of these two areas is right, and what has come out of these proposals?

On a related note, let's say that Argentina (along with Uruguay) fulfills its economic potential much more than in real life and becomes an advanced country, and that has positive effects on neighbouring countries such as Brazil. If Brazil is somewhat wealthier because of this than in real life (though still a developing country), and millions more are thereby lifted out of poverty than in real life, would that have caused the Disney company to decide on building a theme park in Brazil before thinking about Shanghai or even Hong Kong? In other words, would the Disney company have wanted to open a park in Brazil instead of Shanghai by 2016 or even instead of Hong Kong by 2005, and push off Hong Kong or Shanghai until later? After all, with the parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai, there would be in the near future no less than two parks in Greater China, and three in Asia (and none in Latin America)!

With the enhanced socio-economic conditions in Brazil as described above, would Universal Studios also have thought of opening up a park in Brazil at the same time as in Dubai, South Korea, or Singapore?

Having said all of this, any such parks in Brazil would be targeted not just at Brazilians, but also South Americans more generally. This is so, not only because Brazil is the largest country in South America with the biggest population and GDP, but also because Argentines and Uruguayans, I'm sure, would think of Brazil as their "sunshine province" if they were much wealthier than in real life. Namely, Brazil would be a California/Florida/Caribbean/Mexico or Mediterranean or Queensland for them in terms of visiting warm-climate destinations. Having a Disneyland in Brazil would greatly add to these vacation amenities!
 

Goofy Kid

Member
I'm not trying to be a hater, but Brazil was recently ranked by travelers digest as being more dangerous than Iraq. Doesn't sound like a place to take the kids...
 

Yofie-Mouse

New Member
Original Poster
But a hypothetical, richer Brazil would be slightly less dangerous than in real life. And different parts of Brazil have different crime rates - such that some areas have much lower crime rates than others.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Are there enough people from South America to keep such a park afloat? I really can't see too many Americans and other foreigners going there on a continuous basis, other than the initial first trip.
 

wm49rs

A naughty bit o' crumpet
Premium Member
Disney's overseas focus is in Asia, particularly China currently. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

And I'm not sure there's any incentive for Disney to build in South America when air travel to Orlando (or Anaheim) is readily available, and the visa restrictions are being eased by the U.S. government.
 

MissMorrow

Active Member
IMO, I don't see much fiscal sense in doing that. They are coming to Orlando by the plane load, no need to keep them down there. China is a different story.
 

MarkTwain

Well-Known Member
Makes perfect sense to me. One of the ways Disney was able to justify the construction of Tokyo Disneyland in the '80s was from the huge influx of Japanese tourists to Disneyland (ask anyone on a Disneyland forum that's been going since the '70s). Disney suspected that this represented a larger desire in Japan to visit a Disney park. Sure enough, today TDL is one of the most-visited theme parks in the world.

If you ask me, something very similar could be happening in WDW with Brazil, and taking Disney parks to places where there is already demand for them makes much more sense that trying to build demand for them from the ground up (Paris, Hong Kong).

It would also likely have the double effect of reducing the current number of Brazilian visitors in WDW, which I don't think many WDWmagic members would argue against. ;)
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
Any brazilians that have money already come visit WDW, so why build in the country and take away from all of those who would've visited WDW instead? That would hurt WDWs attendance and profits considerably.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
For reasons that I shall not dwell on in this thread, I for one am completely in favour of Disney opening a massive Disney resort in South America.

Mission: Chant
Tour Story Midway Mania
Lights! Motors! Chants!
Voyage of the Little Chantmaid
Living With The Land of Chant
 

jpittore1

Well-Known Member
Are there enough people from South America to keep such a park afloat? I really can't see too many Americans and other foreigners going there on a continuous basis, other than the initial first trip.
Have you seen all the "flag" led groups in the park?
 

Yofie-Mouse

New Member
Original Poster
But is the influx of Brazilians visiting Walt Disney World (and Orlando in general) more massive than the influx of Japanese visitors to Disneyland in Anaheim prior to the opening of Tokyo Disneyland ever was?
 

wm49rs

A naughty bit o' crumpet
Premium Member
But is the influx of Brazilians visiting Walt Disney World (and Orlando in general) more massive than the influx of Japanese visitors to Disneyland in Anaheim prior to the opening of Tokyo Disneyland ever was?

Ever was? That's difficult to say. But Tokyo Disneyland is also owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company, so the financing and development of the parks there was a bit different. And between the World Cup and the Olympics I'm not sure the government of Brazil (or its major corporations) could afford any further investments in large-scale projects like a Disney park.
 

Florida_is_hot

Well-Known Member
I would go love to go to Rio any way.
Mind you I am not American.

Yes read the crime rate is high, dress as if you are not a target/tourist.
Watch your surroundings you should be fine.

Weather is great.
The economy is strong and growing.

If I was the Disney Corporation and I was looking for a market I think about Brazil.
 

Joshua&CalebDad

Well-Known Member
As the child of a Brazilian and a US citizen holding dual citizenship in Brazil, I can tell you that Brazil is the economic cornerstone of South America. Whether Disney or some other entitiy, such as the one in China, builds a park in Brazil now or later, the park would survive and would flourish. Much like the Europeans do, many South Americans travel back and forth across their neighbors borders to conduct business and leasure travel. With this being a case, a park in Brazil would attract all South Americans and would be economically viable.

As for the drop in Brazilian tourists, this wouldn't be a bad thing would it? The way most posters go on and on about the Brazilians. And no I am not offeneded by the remarks because they annoy me too. The Brazilians would continue to travel just us we Americans travel oversees to other Disney parks. By the way, I'm sure that although the Brazilians add to Disney's overall earnings I don't think that the company would suffer from another park opening in the untapped market of South America. Whatever money they would lose at Orlando Park Division would easily be made up in South America.

Would the crime rate dissuade some tourists from going a Brazilian Disney World? Maybe but I doubt it. Carnival in Rio is lucrative time for the criminal element but year after year the locals and tourist flock from all over to be apart of the massive party.
 

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