GrumpyUTboi
08-18-2004, 11:48 AM
Anyone read the 3rd quarter results for Disney. To me it was interesting, but then again I work in the business word.
QUOTE "Revenue and operating income growth was driven by higher attendance and occupancy at Walt Disney World. Revenues increased by $557 million, of which $332 million was due to the consolidation of Euro Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland. The remaining increase of $225 million is primarily due to higher theme park attendance and hotel occupancy at the Walt Disney World Resort. Higher visitation at Walt Disney World from both domestic and international tourists as well as Florida residents reflected the continued success of Mission: SPACE, Mickey's PhilharMagic and Disney's Pop Century Resort, improvements in travel and tourism and the impact of promotional programs offered during the quarter"
"Costs and expenses increased $488 million, of which $317 million was due to the consolidation of Euro Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland. The remaining increase of $171 million was driven by increases at Walt Disney World due primarily to higher operating labor and other volume related expenses, and increase costs associated with employee benefits, new product offerings, and marketing and sales initiatives. At Disneyland resort increased guest spending and attendance were offset by higher expenses. During the quarter Disneyland opened the "Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror" and announced its upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration."
"Local attendance is softer at Southern California was well, as we have not chosen to match discounts being offered by competitors. So, although overall attendance is currently down by single digit percentages at Disneyland, we are more than offsetting the impact on theme park revenues with higher per capita spending." END QUOTES (Miceage Aug 17, 2004 www.miceage.com)
The company that I work for did the same thing that Disney did and are we ever paying for it! We wanted to make more money and we could either raise prices or drive traffic count. In the short term raising prices is much easier than to drive traffic count, so that is what we did. When prices were raised our dollars sent by customer went up quite a bit. Once the consumers realized this our traffic count went down, so much that we are doing much worse than what we did last year.
Attendance is softer at DL. Hmmmm... let's look at that for a moment. Last year DL and WDW had the offers of buy 3 get 5 days DL, WDW buy 4 get 7 days. This of course drove traffic to the resorts. Usually, not always when this happens people that normally would not come to the resort due to money issues came, hence they were on a stricter budget. Less spent per person at eh resorts. This year with prices higher those people stayed away and people that could more readily afford the resort came. The people that came this year probably spent the same amount of money as last year, but because of softer crowds this looks as if people are spending more money.
Disney needs to ask a very important question RIGHT now. That is would we rather have cheaper prices and have more traffic and HOPE that indiviuals will part with their money, or should we have higher prices, less traffic and hope that individuals part with their money? We found out by sad experience that we would rather have more traffic, less money per person and hope that people will part with more of their money once we have them hooked.
Any comments?
QUOTE "Revenue and operating income growth was driven by higher attendance and occupancy at Walt Disney World. Revenues increased by $557 million, of which $332 million was due to the consolidation of Euro Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland. The remaining increase of $225 million is primarily due to higher theme park attendance and hotel occupancy at the Walt Disney World Resort. Higher visitation at Walt Disney World from both domestic and international tourists as well as Florida residents reflected the continued success of Mission: SPACE, Mickey's PhilharMagic and Disney's Pop Century Resort, improvements in travel and tourism and the impact of promotional programs offered during the quarter"
"Costs and expenses increased $488 million, of which $317 million was due to the consolidation of Euro Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland. The remaining increase of $171 million was driven by increases at Walt Disney World due primarily to higher operating labor and other volume related expenses, and increase costs associated with employee benefits, new product offerings, and marketing and sales initiatives. At Disneyland resort increased guest spending and attendance were offset by higher expenses. During the quarter Disneyland opened the "Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror" and announced its upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration."
"Local attendance is softer at Southern California was well, as we have not chosen to match discounts being offered by competitors. So, although overall attendance is currently down by single digit percentages at Disneyland, we are more than offsetting the impact on theme park revenues with higher per capita spending." END QUOTES (Miceage Aug 17, 2004 www.miceage.com)
The company that I work for did the same thing that Disney did and are we ever paying for it! We wanted to make more money and we could either raise prices or drive traffic count. In the short term raising prices is much easier than to drive traffic count, so that is what we did. When prices were raised our dollars sent by customer went up quite a bit. Once the consumers realized this our traffic count went down, so much that we are doing much worse than what we did last year.
Attendance is softer at DL. Hmmmm... let's look at that for a moment. Last year DL and WDW had the offers of buy 3 get 5 days DL, WDW buy 4 get 7 days. This of course drove traffic to the resorts. Usually, not always when this happens people that normally would not come to the resort due to money issues came, hence they were on a stricter budget. Less spent per person at eh resorts. This year with prices higher those people stayed away and people that could more readily afford the resort came. The people that came this year probably spent the same amount of money as last year, but because of softer crowds this looks as if people are spending more money.
Disney needs to ask a very important question RIGHT now. That is would we rather have cheaper prices and have more traffic and HOPE that indiviuals will part with their money, or should we have higher prices, less traffic and hope that individuals part with their money? We found out by sad experience that we would rather have more traffic, less money per person and hope that people will part with more of their money once we have them hooked.
Any comments?