No additional guests = No new rides

[BG Rugger]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but with all the good points of attendance not increasing all that much, why are they spending the millions of dollars on a new resort / adding on to resorts ? Especially since most of the time the already existing ones are usually only 50%-65% full??

 

[Nicole]

I read ME's autobiography and he talks a lot about how Disney only has a small percentage share in TDL. The book was written back in '97 and I don't know if things have changed, but if TDL is run by a completely different company its only logical that things would be handled differently there.

It's funny, because the success of TDL was a huge factor in why Disney decided to build DLP, this time not just as a minority interest, but as the driving force. Yet Europe's economy (and possibly personality of the residents) meant that while TDL was and continues to be a huge success, DLP has been a big challenge to the company.

 

[pisco]

Oh, I agree.
I often find myself jealous of TDL's budgets, but only in a "Boy, I could blue-sky some amazing stuff for WDW with that cash" kind of way.

Something important to realize about TDLs budget as opposed to WDW is how much high the per-person spending is on merchandise at TDL. I can't rember the exact numbers but I think it is something like 2-3 times that of stateside parks. This really helps to defray the cost of attractions. Also, from what I understand the cost of carrying debt in Japan is a great deal less that it is here, which allows TDL to carry a higher debt load without it being a drag on the bottom line. It's not that the OLC has much deeper pockets than Disney or that they are willing to take a loss to have better attractions (because the are not). It's just that the economic realities of TDL are radically different than those of any of the other Disney properties.

 

[bork]

Tokyo Disneyland surpasses MK by an average of 2 to 3 million guests per year.

Not anymore. It is true that Tokyo Disneyland used to draw 2-3 million more than the MK yearly, but not since DisneySea opened. Now the MK draws a million more than TDL.

 

[KevinPage]

Speck,

Very true. Most people just assume that the park should keep adding and adding attractions as a never ending cycle, when there are soo many factors that alot of us don't think about or care to consider.

MK frankly doesn't need to add anything to keep it's attendance. From a guest standpoint I want a few more things, which they are giving us (hence replacements, but still NEW things at least).

I'd rather they polish what they have and sink the development $$$ into AK and Future world.

 

[Lee]

Not anymore. It is true that Tokyo Disneyland used to draw 2-3 million more than the MK yearly, but not since DisneySea opened. Now the MK draws a million more than TDL.

I stand corrected.
MK beat out TDL in 2002, for the first time in 15 straight years.