Attendance/discount articles

[mattjs]

Couple of articles about attendance and discounts, etc...

AP article today...

Hotel occupancy rates at Walt Disney World are 90 percent of normal this year due in part to discounting, but Disney officials plan to cut the size of the discounts as conditions improve.

And Business Week online from late June...

The key now is to ease up on some of the promotions, and that will increase our [revenue per visitor], adding more fuel to the rebound.

But if the "rebound" is mostly due to the discounts...well...ummm.... sounds a little catch 22 don't it...

 

[raidermatt]

Its a gradual process (assuming recovery is real).

When occupancy/attendance gets to a certain point, some discounts are pulled back. Theoretically, occupancy/attendance increases slow, until more momentum is gained, allowing more discounts to be pulled back...

If in fact the economy does not improve, and tourism does not increase, then of course you can't pull back discounts without losing guests....

 

[mattjs]

It's a fine line to walk with the economy the way it is though. So I guess I'm a little surprised at the seeming assuredness in the statements about shrinking the discounts.

I'd guess that the trend towards last minute booking is heavily due to folks taking advantage of and/or looking for the code discounts. And, if the discounts are phased out, I just don't see what the factor is out there that would maintain demand. It's not the economy. It's not the draw of a new park. Mission: Space will be somewhat of a draw though it's really just one ride so I doubt it's gonna have too much effect.

So, while in terms of revenue it's nice to think about scaling back on the discounts, I just can't imagine that being a realistic option anytime soon. Yet you get the impression Disney's pretty sure of itself with regards to moving in that direction.

Admittedly, mine is a very layman oppinion though so.........

 

[Lesley]

Very possibly this isn't as simple as:

Recovery=No need to discount
Low attendance= need to discount

which seems to translate to Low attendance= Bad economy.

Has anyone considered that the need to cut back prices, or conversely, the desire of folks to spend the money on a Disney trip may not have anything to do with the economy at all?

Perhaps its just time to do things differently....maybe the old rules don't apply anymore.