The Walt Disney Company is the number one entertainment company in the world. A subset of that, the Walt Disney World Resort is the top theme park destination in the world as well. The Walt Disney World Resort is able to maintain this title year after year by offering a great product and continually delivering new, unique, and exciting experiences people can't get anywhere else. To say that any company rivals the success of the Walt Disney World Resort would be a farse, but the Walt Disney World resort does have rivals who compete for our business in the Central Florida tourism market.
The biggest rivals the Walt Disney World Resort faces off against are the Universal Orlando Resort. Universal Orland has not been in the market as long as Walt Disney World, but have both established themselves as worthy destination that offer unique experiences (modeling the same practices utilized by Disney).
In order to be successful in any industry, you have to offer a product that is unique to your company and is not easily found somewhere else. In looking at Walt Disney World, we do this very well, feeding off of our Guests' bond to movies, television shows, and brand recognition to help ignite the success of our resort. We refer to this practice as "synergy". For example, last year, Disney's Wide World of Sports underwent a massive rehabilitation and re-branding. Every year thousands of amateur and professional athletes compete in various athletic events at the complex, allowing Disney to gain great exposure in the athletic market. However, as Disney owns and operates ESPN, a name that is synonymous and recognized in the world of sports, so it made sense to incorporate the ESPN name/logo into our on-site sports complex. After it's rehab, Disney's Wide World of Sports emerged as the new, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
This idea of "synergy" is viewable in our theme parks as well, as we often utilize various attractions and characters to promote different parts of our business. Classic attractions such as The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean were turned into film franchises, while successful movies such as Cars, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King, have been the inspiration for various attractions, shows, restaurants, and character meet and greet areas. Practicing synergy has helped grow our business and left our competitors struggling to imitate our success.
This imitation was best attempted by the Universal Orlando resort in 1999. After undergoing a massive expansion, Universal Orlando was debuting three new hotels operated by the Loews Hotel group, a massive retail and dining area dubbed "Universal's Citywalk," and a new theme park called Islands of Adventure. They were attempting to transform themselves into a vacation destination like Walt Disney World as opposed to a place people could visit in one or two days. Unfortunately for them, they failed miserably.
Islands of Adventure was supposed to transform the theme park world. Universal promoted it as "The most technologically advanced theme park in the world," but it lacked in emotion. They attempted to establish a bond with their guests like Disney does by creating attractions based on comics , superheros, and a successful movie franchise, but guests did not and have not responded like they imagined they would. Universal's major expansion failed miserably and the Company has been sold twice since it's debut.
**Side note. In June 2010 Islands of Adventure underwent a major rehabilitation to incorporate the 'Wizarding World of Harry Potter' into their theme park. It has been a great success thus far, boosting Universal's attendance and profit margins. The affect on Walt Disney World? Our attendance increased as well!**
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