Euro Disney loses its magic (http://www.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/11/17/euro.disney/index.html) - CNN.com, 11/17/03
PARIS, France -- As Mickey Mouse gets ready to mark his 75th birthday, his parent company's European operations has put a dampener on the celebrations.

France's Euro Disney reported a 56 million euro ($66 million) annual net loss Monday for the year ending September 2003, up from 33 million euros ($38 million) the year before.

The theme park operator's loss was smaller than financial analysts' forecasts of 59 million euros, according to Reuters.

Hard to know what they can do to increase numbers when the place is already Europe's number 1 tourist attraction, but is still losing buckets of money. I know they predicted 17 million visitors and got 12 million and the Studios is (rightly) getting the blame, but would a good fixed up second park make all the difference? A large problem is the French not embracing the park like their european neighbors, who travel longer distances and have to pay more money. Our French cousins, who don't like our American friends, see Disney as a American institution and instead go to awful parks like Parc Asterix. A short break from the UK costs too much, so people from the UK now go to Florida in droves. We have gone to Disney Paris 2 years running in March for 4 days and are going to Anaheim next March for only 50% more for 7 nights. Do the math - the place is just too expensive. They are struggling, yet when we looked at prices for a 2 night stay Halloween or Christmas, the ridiculous prices put us off. Lower the prices - get more people. Good Magic Kingdom POOR POOR Studios, too much money = a half empty park.Even better build Disney London

Wow - we ended up going to Paris instead of WDW when we were comparing prices (from California). Perhaps they're trying to promote cross-continental tourism at their parks?

I loved the park there and definately plan on going again - Disney Studios though has to get a whole lot better if they expect it to get a draw. I really hope they can change the financials for this park, but I think they're just way too in debt at the moment.

Eisner was cheap with the second park at Disneyland Paris. Roy was right the public knows it.
Let's hope something positive comes out of this shake up at Disney.:~D :|