Two Senior Managers Leave Calif. Disneyland
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Two senior managers have left the Disneyland resort, including its top marketing official, a spokesman said on Monday, as out-of-state tourism remains weak in southern California. Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez confirmed that the resort's vice president of marketing and its vice president of reve-nue management both left the company last week. He declined to name the men or the circumstances of their departures, citing "privacy reasons." But a company source said J.J. Beuttgen left as head of marketing, while Rick Rosen left as head of revenue management, which involves such issues as ticketing and revenue plan-ning. Both were at the company for about three years. The two performed their jobs for the entire Disneyland resort, which includes the Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure theme parks. The latter park has met with disappointing results since it opened last year. Gomez said no replacement has been named yet for the marketing position, and that the revenue management job functions will be moved into the finance department. "In the meantime, we're full speed ahead on our summer marketing campaign," he said. Gomez declined to comment on recent trends for the Anaheim, California resort, saying its parent, the Walt Disney Co., does not release attendance figures for either Disneyland or California Adventure. But officials from other southern Cali-fornia theme parks have said previously that attendance by out-of-town tourists is down year-over-year, with many theme parks offering incentives to local visitors to keep the numbers up. In March and April, hotel occu-pancy in Anaheim, where many out-of-town visitors to Disneyland stay, was down more than 5% in both months. That number dropped even further in May, when the occupancy rate was down 9.1%, according to hotel data tracking firm Smith Travel Research. Figures for June have not yet been released. By comparison, hotel occupancy rates were down more modestly in Orlando, home to Disney's other major US resort, Walt Disney World. Orlando's hotel occupancy fell 0.5% in March, 5.6% in April and 4.6% in May. Disney's parks and resorts unit is one of the company's biggest money makers, generating about $7 billion in revenue last year -- nearly 30% of total revenue -- and $1.6 billion in operating income, nearly 40% of the company's total.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Two senior managers have left the Disneyland resort, including its top marketing official, a spokesman said on Monday, as out-of-state tourism remains weak in southern California. Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez confirmed that the resort's vice president of marketing and its vice president of reve-nue management both left the company last week. He declined to name the men or the circumstances of their departures, citing "privacy reasons." But a company source said J.J. Beuttgen left as head of marketing, while Rick Rosen left as head of revenue management, which involves such issues as ticketing and revenue plan-ning. Both were at the company for about three years. The two performed their jobs for the entire Disneyland resort, which includes the Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure theme parks. The latter park has met with disappointing results since it opened last year. Gomez said no replacement has been named yet for the marketing position, and that the revenue management job functions will be moved into the finance department. "In the meantime, we're full speed ahead on our summer marketing campaign," he said. Gomez declined to comment on recent trends for the Anaheim, California resort, saying its parent, the Walt Disney Co., does not release attendance figures for either Disneyland or California Adventure. But officials from other southern Cali-fornia theme parks have said previously that attendance by out-of-town tourists is down year-over-year, with many theme parks offering incentives to local visitors to keep the numbers up. In March and April, hotel occu-pancy in Anaheim, where many out-of-town visitors to Disneyland stay, was down more than 5% in both months. That number dropped even further in May, when the occupancy rate was down 9.1%, according to hotel data tracking firm Smith Travel Research. Figures for June have not yet been released. By comparison, hotel occupancy rates were down more modestly in Orlando, home to Disney's other major US resort, Walt Disney World. Orlando's hotel occupancy fell 0.5% in March, 5.6% in April and 4.6% in May. Disney's parks and resorts unit is one of the company's biggest money makers, generating about $7 billion in revenue last year -- nearly 30% of total revenue -- and $1.6 billion in operating income, nearly 40% of the company's total.