TDS cause 30% less foreign WDWvisits

[TiggerFreak]

Has anyone mentioned that the lower overseas visitor numbers at the theme parks could be traced back to the astounding numbers we have seen at TDS.

I see it as a choice between traveling 4 or less hours instead of 12 to 18, to someplace as incredible as TDS versus WDW in a country that is still trying to reconcile 911 ????

Anybody have numbers?

 

[YoHo]

But I thought the Dropoff was European Visitors for whom TDS woudl eb even further?

 

[TiggerFreak]

Some have said that visitors from the east are the largest foreign group. Maybe Land beat Michael at his own game! Wouldn't be the first time that has happened to an American company with a leader that has an ego as large as the water tower at MGM.

 

[raidermatt]

Good point. At some point, there has to be an affect.

I haven't been to Tokyo Disneyland, but its pretty apparent that the Tokyo resort outclasses DLR. Disneyland (CA) maybe where it all began, but Disney Seas is so far ahead of DCA that there seems to be much more reason to stay in Japan than to go to Anaheim.

WDW still has far more scope, but there has to be some who were willing to visit 4 parks in Orlando when there was only one in Tokyo, but won't now that there's two.

Same with Europe, which now has two parks, though the Studios park doesn't appear to be a rousing success. But having a disappointing park in Europe might discourage Europeans from going to WDW also. After all, if your first trip to a Disney park is disappointing, does that make you more or less likely to take a bigger trip to a Disney park?

Soon, there will be a park in Hong Kong, and possibly Shanghai.

It might be in Disney's overall best interest to build the parks overseas, but its also unrealistic to expect it to not have an impact on the number of foreign visitors in the domestic parks.