Disneyland is the most successful amusement park in the world. Since the original park opened in 1955 more than a half billion people have visited the Disney theme parks worldwide, making it the most visited theme park in history. It is a symbol of global Americanization and cultural expansionism. American pop culture is prevalent all over the world and Disneyland is the perfect representation of this notion. Tourist from all over the world come to America and enjoy the Disney theme park experience and soon enough new Disneyland parks will be built around the world.
Tokyo Disneyland
Once Disney discovered the amount of Japanese tourist that visited the Disneyland parks in America, it was inevitable that the Disney Corporation would build a theme park overseas. In 1962, the Japanese company, Oriental Land Co. (OLC) approached Disney with the idea of building a theme park in Japan. The Walt Disney Company licensed Disney characters and other copyrighted material to Tokyo Disneyland; however, Oriental Land Co. owns and operates the amusement park.
Tokyo Disneyland was built on the reclaimed land in the Tokyo bay area and was predominantly designed after the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida. It was marketed that it was a 100% replica of the American Disneyland, which also encompassed selling only American food and Disney products inside the park. OLC’s objective was to create the feeling that visitors would be taking a foreign vacation by coming to their amusement
Most individuals are familiar with Disneyland, otherwise known as the happiest place on earth. Walt Disney, the founder, envisioned a theme park where families can have fun and create memories together. With his vision, he created a magical world with five different lands both adults and children can enjoy.
Disneyland is a huge organization which has about 20,000 direct Disney employees and 3,800 third-party employees. But, every employee is controlled by top management without any remonstrant. The employees are happy with their work and perform well at work. This make a lot of profit for Disneyland. Disneyland as the self-proclaimed “happiest place on earth” occupies an enviable position in the amusement and entertainment worlds as well as the commercial world in general. What make Disneyland so successful in the world? Is just because of Walt Disney?
“Walt wanted to create an amusement park in which his cartoon characters could come to life and interact with the visitors.” A place where both parent and child could have fun. So in 1955 Walt purchased 160 acres of land in California and began the $17-million-dollar project to construct Disneyland. His vision of how he wanted to construct Disneyland was unpretentious. He wanted the entrance to embody a euphoric restoration of the conventional American main street. The goal was that people would walk down “Main Street, USA” and want to discover more by going to the other 4 different “dream lands,” he had creted: Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. Fantasyland was created to be more child orientated, where all of Disney’s
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.
There is one place that millions of people will flock to annually. Guests from all over the world save up to visit California’s Disneyland to experience and share the happiness and magic. Stepping inside Disneyland, in the heart of Orange County, California seems to teleport people to a place they have never been before. They are no longer in the hustle and bustle of California; they are now at the gates of Main Street USA. Disneyland is truly the happiest place on Earth, filled with wonderful rides, life-sized characters, and magical shows that will leave everyone in awe.
The Walt Disney Company has seen their share of success in taking their parks and resorts into global markets. “60 years ago, the first Disney theme park opened, in California and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself, who was motivated by the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters.” (Forbes, 2016). Disneyland California penetrated the market rapidly, and its popularity led to the opening of Disney World in Florida, followed by global expansion in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. Their latest expansion came in June 2016, on a 963 acres’ site in Shanghai, China (Xu, 2012). After one year in operation, Shanghai Disneyland is outpacing their most optimistic projections, and the park’s
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.
To start with, Disney turned his TV series into a theme park. Disney's TV series was so popular that it ran for 29 seasons and because it was so popular Disneyland opened. Disneyland was a huge success. Disneyland the series became a theme park because it was so popular and millions of people loved the characters. People wanted to go see the characters and interact with them. So Disney created a place where it was possible for people to do that (Beattie). This suggests that viewers wanted to spend time with the characters they watched at home. Disney had a great idea to turn his shows into an amusement park, which attracted a lot of people. At the same time, Disney used his T.V. show to advertise his amusement park. “By 1954, Disney had recognized the growing popularity of television and produced a series called Disneyland, which he initially used to promote his new Disneyland theme park in California” (Lackmann). This maintains that Disney was a smart and bright person who knew how to be successful. Additionally, Disney wanted to create a homelike atmosphere at his park. “Disneyland put a new spin on amusement parks when its gates opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955. Before deciding whether to enter Disney's Adventureland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, or Fantasyland, all visitors to Disneyland passed through Main Street, which attempted to recapture the
Disneyland grand opening was on July 17, 1955. Walt began planning and visualizing his Disneyland. He hired construction companies, landscapers, and craftspeople to help build his project. Walt bought 160-acres of land in Anaheim and would be the new location of Disneyland. The construction team first started build Main Street, U.S.A. This was the first the you’d see when entering Disneyland. Main Street was a replica of a midwestern American town that had an ice cream shop, a movie theater, and a fire house. “While walking down Main Street, visitors could see the majestic spires of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.” (citation 7) Walt’s idea was to put a big attraction that would attract people to that area like a magnets. He use this tactic in other areas such as, Frontierland and Tomorrowland. On grand opening day many news channels televised Walt Disney’s new and completed Disneyland. Disneyland became a huge success, it attracted over 4 million people in the first year. After the success of Disneyland, Walt had a bigger dream. So in 1964, he sent trusted employees on a special trip to Florida. “Their mission was to buy as much land as they could.” (citation 7) With over 27,500 acres, Walt and his brother Roy envisioned Walt Disney World, a bigger and better version of Disneyland, including old attractions and new ones. This was the total vacation package that Walt wanted for families. Walt wanted to create a
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:
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”.
Walt Disney Company had always been successfully operating theme park until 1992. Starting in 1955 where the first Disneyland set its foot at Anaheim, California and in 1983 in Florida (Hill, 2000). While in 1983, Disney faced a true challenge as they opened the first international Disneyland in Tokyo. In a fear of wide cultural differences between American and Japanese, it turned out an unexpected massive successful Tokyo Disneyland. As a result, Disney did not hesitate to invest a big sum of money for Euro Disney in 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.