Park Hotels
www.parkworld-online.com
THEME PARK HOTELS A MARRIAGE MADE IN DISNEYLAND?
When someone builds a theme park, it’s common for other businesses spring up in the immediate vicinity feeding off the
park’s success and ready flow of guests;
convenience stores, fast food outlets, guesthouses, even other attractions. Yet park operators are increasingly keen to stop some of that trade drifting outside the park gates, by building their own on-site accommodation.
Owen Ralph investigates the rise and rise of theme park hotels, while elsewhere we highlight a few of the
new on-site accommodation offers that have opened in the last 12 months
MAIN PHOTO: Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland Resort in California, with the two Disney parks on the horizon
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writers on this magazine, and increasingly one of the most repeated answers is, “a hotel.”
“W
As with so many industry innovations, Disney was a pioneer in the field, with on-site accommodation integral to all its parks and resorts from day one. Today the group operates 38 hotels around the world, providing over 34,000 rooms – all within easy reach of the park gates. While this gives Disney a ready- made supply of guests, it also provides the hotel’s residents with an extension of the theme park experience.
“Disney resort hotels are designed to provide a lot more than a pillow beneath guests’ heads,” says says Charles Stovall of Walt Disney World in Florida. “They are themed to immerse guests in a continuation of the worry-free vacation and adventure of the Disney parks.”
At Universal Orlando Resort, “The hotels benefit greatly from their ‘on-site’ location and are certainly the preferred place to stay for anyone visiting our two great theme parks,” says vice-president of sales and marketing, Vince LaRuffa, After an enjoyable, but tiring, day at the park, a bed and somewhere to unwind close at hand can often seem an enticing prospect. Keeping families on the
hat’s your new attraction for this season?” It’s one of the most repeated questions asked to park owners from
property and perhaps encouraging them to visit the park, or a sister “second gate” attraction, the following day clearly has its advantages for park operators too. “The development of theme parks around the world has followed a typical product life cycle of market growth followed by stabilisation and then investment to diversify,” notes Christian Aaen at the Hong Kong office of AECOM Economics. “Combining parks with peripheral property development can generate significantly greater returns than from the theme park alone. Peripheral developments have been lead by Disney and Universal, however regional parks in the United States, Europe and Asia are increasingly focusing on hotel development followed by retail. By having guests stay on-site, the parks ensures a much higher propensity for repeat visits.” “A hotel can extend the visit significantly, by as much as three days,” highlights industry observer Dennis Speigel of International Theme Park Services. “A hotel holds guests longer on a site, thus generating more income for the facility as well as being a revenue producer itself.”
Themed Escapes
Michaela Euler of Phantasialand near Cologne, one of several German parks with successful hotel operations, explains the decision to branch out into overnight accommodation: “Many guests already came to
FEBRUARY 2011
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