2009 Annual Report due 12th November

[MagicStar]

Go and look at a brochure for Walt Disney World, see how they present themselves, and then tell me which you think joe public would consider "worth the money".

100% agree. I thought the next new brochure only can get better. But unfortunatley I was wrong. Its a cheap photoshop work with nearly NO real pictures of our beautiful resort. Do they really think that attracts new guests?

The company has come out fighting, they even built a second park against the odds.

It wasn´t their free decision to built the second gate. It was part of their agreement with the french government. They had no choice.

You haven't heard about the economic crisis that is holding the entire world in it's grip? You actually have the illusion that people are not vissiting the resort because they think MMP is crap? Wake up! Consumers all over the world are spending less money on EVERYTHING.

Oh come on. You don´t really want to put the blame on the economic crisis.
I don´t want to start a global discussion about our world wide economy. But if you take this argument, please inform yourself before. It annoys me, that so many people everywhere jump on that "Argument-Train". Its an so easy to take argument. But If you would catch up with this issue a bit closer, you would see that this crisis is bad, indeed. BUT, more than 60 % of all enterprises, that blame this crises for their loss, had a bad financial situation even before!!!
DLP had these big losses before, too! Its not a result of a economic crisis. Even if it is a more than welcome excuse for the management.
Lets have a look at other theme parks...
Europa-Park - had a record attendance this year.
Phantasialand - had a record attendance this year.
DLP had a record attendance.
So again... economic crisis? :roll:  People spend money!!!
DLP has to give their guests the possibiliy to spend money? Does anyone remember the huge selection of merchandising, they once had? If I compare this to the selection they now have, it doesn´t wonder me!
Nearly every shop has the same products! Disney Village, Emporium, Hotel-Shops... its all the same! Best example: Snowglobes. They haven´t released new ones the last 1,5 years???!!!!
In former years you had merchandise that fits perfectly in the theme of each land. Now, every shop offers nearly the same. No wonder, people spend less.

[Willow]

Europa Park and Phantasialand are less reliant upon international visitors though.
Many UK parks have had record attendances as well this year, due to more people staying in their own country.

Disney made a profit last year (if I remember rightly) so if all was normal they should have either made a profit or only a small loss this year.

[MagicStar]

Europa Park and Phantasialand are less reliant upon international visitors though.

Oh no. More than half of the visitors of Europa-Park are international-guests. In their acutal press release they even say, they could increase the attendance of international guests.
Phanatsialand guests are about 30% international visitors.
So I still think, the economic crisis has not the primary debt.

[experiment627]

Europa Park and Phantasialand are less reliant upon international visitors though.

Oh no. More than half of the visitors of Europa-Park are international-guests.

...which isn't that hard considering the park is right next to the French border and less than an hour away from Switzerland.  :wink:

[Tuvok]

Can you stop putting words into my mouth? I didn't blame the loss on anything actually, just posted a few suggestions about where they could look to improve business, where they might actually be setting themselves back.

Thanks for completely misreading and/or twisting around an objective post.

Agreed, Anthony, you're right. I was reading multiple topics when I made this post and reacted on all of them in this particular post. The second part was meant more in general and not for you personally.  :oops:

[Anthony]

Agreed, Anthony, you're right. I was reading multiple topics when I made this post and reacted on all of them in this particular post. The second part was meant more in general and not for you personally.  :oops:

Ok, phew.

I did hope I was being more objective than that. Also need to clarify for anyone reading that no, a Twitter account would not solve a €63m loss, but it interests/confuses me why DLP are so reluctant to... this probably isn't the right choice of words... "put themselves out there" like that. For example right now they're running this 30% discount offer - it'd make sense to email everyone on their mailing list wouldn't it? I've hardly seen the offer advertised, so they're maybe only saving people 30% who would have booked anyway.

On a completely other topic, the journalist who contacted me a few weeks ago raised something worth thinking about in an email, hopefully he won't mind me quoting:
"What I cannot understand is why the park does not resurrect and fast track the Lava Lagoon project or an equivalent since it would be a relatively cheap ($50m-100m) way of extending the length of stay at the resort from 2/3 days to at least 4. It would also generate a profit in itself due to the lower construction cost  being lower than a park."

Which is an excellent point. Although it'd probably cost much more than $100m. With the benefit of hindsight, and ignoring the government agreement, they should have opened a water park in 2002 and continued to add to Disneyland Park. Unfortunately now I suppose it's probably unlikely to happen until the Convention Centre is done?

[Tuvok]

On a completely other topic, the journalist who contacted me a few weeks ago raised something worth thinking about in an email, hopefully he won't mind me quoting:
"What I cannot understand is why the park does not resurrect and fast track the Lava Lagoon project or an equivalent since it would be a relatively cheap ($50m-100m) way of extending the length of stay at the resort from 2/3 days to at least 4. It would also generate a profit in itself due to the lower construction cost  being lower than a park."

Which is an excellent point. Although it'd probably cost much more than $100m. With the benefit of hindsight, and ignoring the government agreement, they should have opened a water park in 2002 and continued to add to Disneyland Park. Unfortunately now I suppose it's probably unlikely to happen until the Convention Centre is done?

Yes, that is indeed an excellent point. Although I'm personally not a fan of waterparcs, it should extend the visist of lots of people, especially families. Every extra day that people are in the resort, they will spend additional money.
On the other hand, I think the Convention Centre will also generate a lot of money from businesses and congresses. I would vote for the Convention Centre, because maybe, just maybe, we will get our own D23 Expo in the future. How amazing that would be!

[Willow]

Disney could economise much better than they do currently, Lava Lagoon could be done for the same cost as TOT, yet have a bigger impact upon the resort.

(Sorry for mentioning Alton Towers again but...) Look at the interest Alton Towers' FREE Facebook and Flickr accounts have generated for their new ride, their FREE Twitter account generates some advertising as well.
They also send e-mails out to everyone on their mailing list every month or so advertsing the latest offers and whats going on at the moment.
All of those things are either free, or at a small cost.

[Tuvok]

Disney could economise much better than they do currently, Lava Lagoon could be done for the same cost as TOT, yet have a bigger impact upon the resort.

(Sorry for mentioning Alton Towers again but...) Look at the interest Alton Towers' FREE Facebook and Flickr accounts have generated for their new ride, their FREE Twitter account generates some advertising as well.
They also send e-mails out to everyone on their mailing list every month or so advertsing the latest offers and whats going on at the moment.
All of those things are either free, or at a small cost.

DLRP does that too. As an annual passholder and shareholder I receive emails, flyers and magazines (some of them monthly) with information from all around the resort. From the latest discounts, to the next theme years, rides, shows and financial reports, etc.

Maybe Alton Towers does al those things for free to all guest, not just the annual passholders? I can't comment on receiving mailings from DLRP as 'regular guest' or if that's even possible.

But I agree. DLRP should have their own blogs, youtube accounts, etc. Just to keep in the loop of the online community. The Disney Parks Blog for the US resorts is realy great!

[Willow]

Shareholders and Annual Pass holders are just a small amount of the 15 million+ people who visit the resort.
Things like those e-mails should be going out to everyone who has ever stayed or even enquired about the resort.

Alton Towers' mailing list is basically anyone who has ever bought a ticket online, or stayed at the hotels. (Plus the people who have signed up on the website).
They also have 133,271 fans on Facebook.
This is from a resort approximately 1/5th the size of DLRP.

Also, alongside a much more user-friendly website DLRP could seriously increase their online presence at a minimal cost.

[ightenhill]

Europa-Park - had a record attendance this year.
Phantasialand - had a record attendance this year.
DLP had a record attendance.
So again... economic crisis? :roll:  People spend money!!!

Whilst I agree in principle to your argument that its easy for companies to hide behind the flag of an economic crisis etc etc..Your rather simplyfying the issue out of context..

It doesn't really matter if your guest input is up - it can be up 100% but the major problem for all companies at the moment even if you take share price out of the equation is that your  rolling investment capital on your income per quarter is not reaching its expected earnings , this is a huge problem..