Disney - Toy Story, Avatar and Star Wars

Dear Mr. Theme Park:

Disney just made some major announcements recently with the additions of Star Wars, Avatar and Toy Story.  But most probably won’t open for quite some time.  What can Disney --- or any park that is waiting on a major expansion – do to keep attendance thriving until that time?

- Josh, South Carolina

An interesting question, Josh.  Parks – whether they are destination parks like Disney, Universal, or Sea World – and regional parks like Cedar Point, Kings Island, and all of the Six Flags parks absolutely have to continue to reinvest capital on a well planned cycle if they want to continue attendance increases.

Our industry lives on repeat visitation, and repeat visitation is driven by the introduction of new product through capital expansion.  We have seen many times, that when smaller park operators and some of the larger ones hold back on capital planning, attendance remains flat and can actually decrease.

So it is imperative that parks set up a practical schedule for their product planning.  We have seen recently at both Disney World and Universal Studios Florida where they embarked on multi-year expansions.  Disney expanded the Fantasyland into a huge new attraction, which took four years to complete.  They developed the new Fantasyland area in a manner that would allow for sequential opening of various parts of the expansion.  They also built the new area in a way that was partially exposed to the visiting public – thus “titillating” the on-site guests and encouraging them to return to see finished products or to visit along the way during construction.

As parks mature, it is incumbent upon operators to review their internal properties to ensure that they are best utilizing their physical properties and intellectual properties in the highest manner.  We have seen in the industry that product and themes can stagnate, thus creating “wasting assets”.  When this happens, an operator is not getting the highest use and return on their investment, so they have to change and capitalize on fresh new ideas of themes.

This is exactly what Disney is doing – taking wasted assets and areas in their parks and supplanting existing wasted assets with new, popular, high-tech expansions.  Star Wars and Avatar will both be incredible, state-of-the-art new “Attract-Areas” that offer the newest advancements in guest experiential immersion.  Disney is going to publicize the “coming attractions” during its construction periods.  Star Wars is located in Disney Hollywood Studios and Avatar will be located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. 

Parks are getting smarter on planning and introducing their capital expansions.  They have to take the proper time, sometimes several years, to add these new attractions.  But, Josh, no question, the approach is working well and enticing guests to want to come back and see the new introductions.  Whether it is “GateKeeper” at Cedar Point, which removed the Sky Tower a year before opening the new ride, or Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida, where they supplanted half of The Lost Continent to add Harry Potter and where Jaws was shut down to add Diagon Alley, parks are better utilizing their properties.

And, remember, all the time, these new additions are being built, the parks are hyping and promoting to their in-park guests – their best clients.

Josh, keep watching.  There are amazing new attractions and parks coming in the future.  What an exciting industry!