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Disneyland Paris Results: What do they mean?
In one word, the results are “outstanding”. Disney resorts tend to suffer in the lull between celebrations and prior to park openings as visitors delay their trips to take in the new features. The newly christened Disneyland Resort Paris (“DLRP”) suffered no such downturn in 2001, as guest numbers actually increased. DLRP was expected a slight fall in attendance after a buoyant 2000 despite no Millennium Celebration on the scale of Walt Disney World. Attendance blossomed just 1.6% to 12.2 million guests, a fairly inconsequential increase without considering the other published statistics that demonstrate that DLRP is in an extremely healthy situation despite a debt mountain that rocketed 25% to just shy of $1 billion in the year.

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The Keys to Success?
Only two figures are required to show that the DLRP is in a strong position to exhibit long term growth. Although attendance figures only increased marginally, the two key statistics to theme park growth increased dramatically. Guest spend finally passed the $37 mark despite minimal price increases and a multitude of special offers throughout the year. With a dramatically increased annual passholder base, this figure is highly encouraging.

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However, the truly stellar result was seeing the hotel occupancy rate hit 86%. The hotels have been the key to DLRP’s survival since the resort almost collapsed into bankruptcy in the mid-nineties. The occupancy rate was languishing in the low 70s when the park opened, with thousands of rooms being perpetually empty during the winter months. Today, nearly 35% of the revenue from the resort as a whole passes through the registers of the hotels. Considering that the majority of guests continue to see the DLRP as a day trip, these figures are outstanding. As a comparison, this figures equates to 1,883,400 stays for the year. DLRP has over 60% more hotel rooms than the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim despite just having one theme park. The key summer season is already jammed with virtually no rooms available until September 2002.

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