Strong Disney Earnings Suggest No Changes In Current Strategies
By Dave Shute
Disney released and discussed its quarterly earnings yesterday, and its domestic parks shot out the lights, with increases in attendance, per-attendee spending, hotel occupancy, and hotel revenues per room.
Disney does not break out Orlando vs. California any more, but it did report that Disneyland had its highest attendance ever for the quarter (January-March) so it’s unclear how park attendance at Walt Disney World went. However, since the vast majority of Disney’s hotel rooms are in Orlando, clearly the Orlando Walt Disney World hotels performed well.
Hotel bookings for the current quarter (April-June) are running slightly above last year, and hotel prices for the quarter are showing “low single digit” increases–pretty good considering that the earlier Easter in 2012 compared to last year means a couple of weeks of high spring break rates are lost vs. last year.
All this suggests that Disney strategy of continuing to limit its discounting will continue.
Based on its behavior so far, it’s not clear if it will offer fewer programs, fewer eligible dates, a smaller number of rooms/hotels eligible for discounts–or all three. But however it limits its discounts, the net effect is that fewer vacationers will get them.
The economy is the wild card in all this. A major economic setback will throw this up in the air, and the continuing struggles among those who want to have their euro but spend it too could have widespread ripple effects.
But so long as the economy continues to slowly recover, deals at Walt Disney World will slowly diminish.
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