Case Study – Euro Disney, the First 100 Days

In 1955, Disney opened its first theme park, Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, which covers more than 160 acres. The opening day was not without issues. The

The case “Euro Disney: First 100 days” talks about the issues faced by the Walt Disney Company when expanding to international borders. The case begins with the history of Disneyland and then describes the reasons behind its success and expansion to various states across the country. It then describes the success of Tokyo Disneyland, first Disney theme park outside America and the factors affecting it.

| In 1955, Disneyland was introduced to the American public by creator Walt Disney. It was one of the first theme parks offered in America and attracted crowds of young children and families. The theme park was inspired by many of Walt Disney’s animated features as well as historical figures like Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.

     However, the opportunity should have not been ‘taken for granted’. Other cultural factors should have been analyzed to decide the positioning of Theme Park. Their prevalent mistake has been the failure to recognize the cultural differences between Americans and French people. Locating the Theme Park near Paris and acquiring agricultural land as well as imposing the U.S spirit undeniably negatively affects french citizens. The French peoples’ lifestyle deeply depends on the gratitude to their traditional agriculture. Thus, the land takeover by an American Company mainly does not provide pleasure to them.

Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.

As we know, Disneyland is very success in U.S. when the first Disneyland built in Anaheim, California on 17 July, 1995. After some debate about the site for a European theme park, Michael Eisner and Jacques Chirac signed a contract for the building of s Disney theme park at Marne-la-Vallee, a region of sunflower and sugar-beet farmland and small villages located twenty miles east of Paris (Janis, F., 1998, P.247). However, the European Disneyland was not as such success as they expected. This essay going to regards the main issues in opening the Euro Disneyland and compare the French cultural with American cultural by using Hofstede’s cultural Dimensions and Trompenaars ‘s cultural dimensions. This essay will then end by

With the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in April 1983 and the inflow of yen royalty receipts, the Walt Disney want to increase the assets and decrease debt, they realized they had an opportunity to use the yen royalties from Japan to pay down some of their debt:

The first Disneyland outside the US was opened in April 1983 in Tokyo. Disney took a

Euro Disney could not modify the main theme of other Disney parks to create something unique for Europeans. Restaurants were not prepared according to the European eating habits and one of the biggest mistakes was not selling alcoholic beverages in the park which has very close connection with French culture. Customers had to leave the park to buy those from outside.

5. Tokyo’s overwhelming success encouraged Disney to conquer the European market. They felt that they were able to evoke international appeal of the Disney concept and it would not be a hard task to wet their feet in Europe.

Culturally, Disney cannot force itself on another people, which in this case was the whole of the European continent. Disney promoted its product, the theme park, similar to that of Tokyo Disneyland believing Europe wanted their piece of “Americana”.

Secondary things such as leisure and traveling would not be in the list of the people’s spending. Beside, during its first year operation, Euro Disney could not compete with its competitors such as Parc Asterix which had undergone a major renovation, the Olympics in Barcelona, and the world’s fair in Seville.

The main problem of the Euro Disney was that all calculations made by Walt Disney Company were based on parks in the USA and Japan considering Europe as a mass of people rather than many countries with different languages and cultures. Americans see theme parks as a destination where you can stay between 4 and 6 days. In Europe, Euro Disney was seen as a part of the experience when traveling to Paris. The cost was also a problem for the park. A night in a hotel inside the park costs as much as a high quality hotel in the French capital. So, given that the park was located 40 minutes by car from Paris, visitors preferred to spend a night in the romantic city of Paris.

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American entrepreneur, cartoonist,animator, voice actor, and film producer. He and his staff created numerous famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. These cartoon characters became so famous that he designed theme park for the entertainment of children and family in U.S.A. Disney then thought to spread the theme parks around the world. Therefore Disney theme parks were opened first in Tokyo, Japan called "Disney Resort" which became sucuessful by luck. The second theme park was opened in Paris called " Disneyland Paris” which became unsuccessful because of the cultural differences between U.S and Paris. Keeping this problem in mind, Disney opened third theme park in Hong Kong called Hong Kond Disneyland which became successful.

Hong Kong Disneyland was opened in September 2005 through a joint venture between the Walt Disney International and Hong Kong government. Disney has been on an international expansion since it first opened its park in 1980 in Japan and China being the most lucrative market, Disney decided to open the park in Hong Kong after selecting the city in the bidding process. The park was the first American park in Chinese territory.