| Type | Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Theme Parks |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Key people | Thomas O. Staggs, Chairman |
| Products | Theme Parks |
| Owner(s) | The Walt Disney Company |
| Divisions | Disneyland Resort Walt Disney World Resort Tokyo Disney Resort Disneyland Paris Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Disney Cruise Line Disney Vacation Club Adventures by Disney Disney Regional Entertainment Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Creative Entertainment |
| Website | The Walt Disney Company |
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises. It is one of four major business segments of the company, the other three being Consumer Products, Media Networks, and Studio Entertainment.
The Parks and Resorts division was founded in 1971 as Walt Disney Attractions when Disney's second theme park, the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, opened, joining the original Disneyland in California. The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is Thomas O. Staggs, formerly the Senior Executive Vice President and CFO. Staggs reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.
In 2009, the company's theme parks hosted approximately 119.1 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company,[1] ahead of the second most visited, Merlin Entertainments.
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Disneyland was dedicated as a single park by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955, and opened to the public on July 18, 1955 in Anaheim, California.
In 2001 the site expanded significantly and was renamed the Disneyland Resort with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park (now Disney California Adventure Park); two hotels, one new and one rethemed; and the Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment district. The resort occupies 500 acres (2.0 km2), and consists of:
Theme parks:
Shopping, dining and entertainment complex:
Lodging:
The Walt Disney World Resort opened Oct. 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom theme park and three resort hotels. Today it is the largest (by area) and most-visited vacation resort in the world, with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, 23 resort hotels, eight golf courses and several additional recreational activities.
Theme parks:
Water parks:
Other parks:
Shopping, dining and entertainment complex:
Lodging:
Tokyo Disney Resort, located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, opened April 15, 1983. On September 4, 2001, the resort expanded with Tokyo DisneySea. There are several resort hotels on site, but only three are actually owned by the resort, which boasts the largest parking structure in the world. Tokyo Disney Resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company and is licensed by the Walt Disney Company. The resort was built by Walt Disney Imagineering, and Disney maintains a degree of control; Nick Franklin leads the Walt Disney Attractions Japan team at the Walt Disney Company, which communicates with the Oriental Land Company over all aspects of the Resort, and assigns Imagineers to the Resort. Its properties, listed below, are divided into parks, shopping centers, and lodging.
Parks:
Shopping, dining and entertainment complex:
Lodging:
Disneyland Paris, Disney's second resort complex outside the United States, opened on April 12, 1992, as the Euro Disney Resort. Located in Marne-la-Vallée in the suburbs of Paris, France, it features two theme parks, a golf course, an entertainment complex and six Disney resort hotels. It is maintained and managed by Euro Disney S.C.A., a company partially owned by the Walt Disney Company whose stock is traded on Euronext. Its properties sit on 4,940 acres (20.0 km2), listed below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and lodging:
Parks:
Other parks:
Shopping, dining and entertainment complex:
Lodging:
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Disney's fifth resort and its second in Asia, opened September 12, 2005. The resort is located in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Currently, the resort consists of one theme park and two hotels, with land reserved for future expansion. It is owned and operated by Hong Kong International Theme Parks, an incorporated company jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and the Government of Hong Kong. The first phase of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort occupies 320 acres (1.3 km2).
Park:
Other park:
Lodging:
In November 2009, Disney received approval from the central government of China to build a Disney theme park in the Pudong district of Shanghai. "China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world and this approval marks a very significant milestone for Walt Disney Co in mainland China," said Robert Iger, president and CEO of Disney.[2] The resort is expected to open in 2016. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 7, 2011.[3]
Park:
Disney Cruise Line was formed in 1995. Its fleet is currently composed of three ships, with another coming soon. The Disney Magic began operation in 1998, the Disney Wonder in 1999, and the Disney Dream in 2011. An additional ship, the Disney Fantasy, will begin operation in March 2012. Each of the ships were designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering.
Disney Cruise Line offers three, four and five-night cruises in the Bahamas; seven-night Alaskan cruises; seven-night Mexican Riviera cruises; and seven-night Caribbean cruises. The Bahamas and Caribbean itineraries include a stop at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. In 2012, Disney Cruises will depart from Port Canaveral, Los Angeles, Seattle, Galveston and New York.
Fleet:
Properties:
Disney Regional Entertainment was the division of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts which developed and operated unique concepts. It previously operated the Club Disney, DisneyQuest and ESPN Zone concepts. The only remaining DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort is now operated directly by the resort. The only two remaining ESPN Zone restaurants in Los Angeles and Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort are operated by third parties.
Projects:
Disney reportedly had plans to build a park named Disney's America. The park was to have been located in Haymarket, Virginia, but local opposition to the idea persuaded Disney to abandon the idea in 1994.[4]
Before Disney's California Adventure, Disney originally had announced plans for a West Coast version of Epcot, WestCOT, which was deemed too ambitious after the rocky financial performance of Euro Disney in France as well as protests by residents of Anaheim.
Another concept for a Disney park in California was Port Disney, to be built in Long Beach next to the RMS Queen Mary which Disney owned at the time. The park was to have led to a permanent West Coast ship in the Disney Cruise Line, which would dock at the park. The concept, although quickly scrapped, inspired the Imagineers to create Tokyo DisneySea.
Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris have room for future expansion.[5]
In November 2009, Disney received approval from the Chinese government to build a Disneyland resort in the Pudong district of Shanghai.[6] The resort is expected to open in 2016.[3]
In early January 2011, conflicting reports emerged regarding Disney's involvement in a proposed entertainment complex in Haifa, Israel, whose plans include a small (30,000 square meter) amusement park scheduled to open in 2013. The project will be partially funded by Shamrock Holdings, a Disney-affiliated investment firm. In the wake of reports from Israeli business newspaper Globes and industry newswire Amusement Management that Disney itself would be involved in the project's development, a spokesperson for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts clarified to Fast Company that Disney did not have any plans to involve itself in the building of the park.[7]
Rita Lau, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development for Hong Kong, announced that the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland had been approved by the Executive Council on June 30, 2009, and also approved by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on July 10, 2009. The park will receive three new lands; Grizzly Trail, Mystic Point and Toy Story Land. Construction began in late 2009 and will take 5 years to complete. The park will feature a total of seven themed lands after the completion of all the new additions.
Disney has made no announcements regarding plans for another American theme park and CEO Robert Iger frequently has cited international expansion as one of the company's three strategic priorities.[8]
The only site that is extremely short on land is Disneyland Resort in California. Although the company has acquired enough real estate to build a potential third theme park on a former strawberry farm near the existing resort, Robert Iger has stated that the company's focus in Anaheim is to improve its second park, Disney's California Adventure, before building a third. The strawberry fields were purchased in 2004 for $99.9 million with a requirement to harvest them until 2009. The remainder of the original Disneyland parking lot, southeast of Disney's California Adventure, was designated as a future growth space for the park. Since the park's opening in 2001, three small projects have been built into that space (A Bug's Land, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and a backstage warehouse) while a third, much larger project known as Cars Land is currently being built.
In October 2007, Disney announced plans to build a resort at Ko Olina Resort & Marina in Kapolei, Hawaii, featuring both a hotel and Disney Vacation Club timeshare units. Scheduled to open in 2011, the 800-unit property to be named Aulani will join the other resorts not associated with a theme park, such as Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina.[9]
In September 2011, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts announced plans to partner with filmmaker James Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment production company, along with 20th Century Fox, to develop theme park attractions based on Cameron's Avatar film franchise, with the first installation planned for Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, in the form of an Avatar-based section of the park. While no specific plans or attractions were announced, construction on the new area is expected to begin by 2013.[10] Disney also secured exclusive global theme parks rights to the Avatar franchise.[11]
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