DLP: Euro Village = more visitors?

[Luv2Roam]

Euro Disney studies 1.0 bln euro village site
Reuters, 05.19.03, 10:54 AM ET

PARIS, May 19 (Reuters) - Euro Disney <EDLP.PA> and holiday village firm Pierre & Vacances <PVAC.PA> are studying the feasibility of developing four nature villages at the theme park operator's Paris site at an estimated cost of 1.0 billion euros ($1.16 billion).

Announcing the formation of a 50-50 joint venture at a news conference on Monday, the two firms said the development would be located to the south of Euro Disney's current Disneyland Paris complex east of Paris.

The companies, which signed a partnership agreement on Friday, have agreed to investigate the feasibility of the project over two years, aiming to open the villages -- which will include an extension of the existing Davy Crockett ranch -- to the public in 2008.

Pierre & Vacances Chairman Gerard Bremond told reporters it was premature to discuss the amount each side would invest in the one-billion-euro project.

However the complex will have a total capacity of 5,000 appartments -- some 25,000 beds in all, spread across hotel rooms and tourist residences.

That almost doubles hotel capacity at Disneyland Paris, which expects to have 30,000 beds available, in 8,200 rooms, by the end of 2004, a Euro Disney spokesman said.

The theme park operator says its growth has been hampered by a lack of hotel capacity now its second theme park, the Walt Disney Studios, has come on stream.

Dominique Cocquet, Euro Disney's deputy managing director in charge of development, said the challenge for the operator was to encourage visitors to prolong their stay at the site to a week rather than their current 2-3 days.

The companies said the new complex should create 4,000 directly related jobs and 10,000 indirectly related ones.

They plan to develop no more than 10 percent of the 560 hectare site, the rest of which will be a green space dedicated to the villages' four themes: forest, sports, water and earth.

Forty percent owned by the Walt Disney Co (nyse: DIS - news - people), the Euro Disney site -- comprising the Magic Kingdom, the Walt Disney Studios, the Disney shopping and restaurant village, a golf course, its hotel complex and the Davy Crockett Ranch -- currenty extends over 750 to 800 hectares. (Additional reporting by Caroline Brothers)

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

 

[d-r]

are they nuts?

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by d-r
are they nuts?

I don't see why this proposal is nuts. Pierre & Vacances is one of the largest vacation groups in Europe, with a total number of beds across the group in excess of 100,00. One of their companies is called Center Parcs and is extremely popular with families in the UK and Western Europe. It offers themed woodland/nature holidays in self catering villas with loads of sport, entertainment and relaxation activities, including an indoor (and therefore year-round) mini-waterpark.

Coupling P&V with Disneyland Paris (which is the most popular tourist attraction in Europe) would seem to present many opportunities to create a true resort destination, attracting families for at least a week. Currently DLP is only a "long weekend" type destination, so getting people to stay longer seems an important strategy in DLP ongoing development. From my point of view as a shareholder in EuroDisney, working with P&V shares the risk and means EuroDisney will not have to extend its debt too far.

Nuts? I don't think so.

Regards

Rob

 

[d-r]

I thought that the whole financial problem with Disneyland Paris in the frist place was that there were too many hotels, and not enough guests to fill the rooms. I'm finding it hard to believe that the 1.5 parks there can support 55,000 hotel beds - I have to think that this is probably on the high side of the average daily attendance, and that would exclude counting anybody as not staying on property, day visitors, etc. Maybe I am wrong and there really are 55,000 guests per day at disneyland Paris that are looking for a room to stay the night -

DR

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Disney hotels at DLP have an annual occupancy rate of 89%. Given that there is a marked difference between winter and summer attendance, this means that during the peak season just about every Disney hotel room is full booked. EuroDisney firmly belive that a lack of hotel rooms is holding down attendance levels, and having tried and failed to book an on-site room in the past (and consequently skipped a visit) I tend to agree with them. The way that EuroDisney is dealing with this problem is to work with partners to increase hotel capacity, For example, four new hotels at the Marne la Vallee site are under development (2 just opened, another 2 due within next 12 months), plus a Marriott vacation resort. In each case the commerical partner pays to build and operate the hotel on Disney property (who have control over such things as prices, service standards, marketing etc) with Disney taking a proportion of profits. I think this is similar to the way the WDW operate with their partner hotels. While an over-supply of hotels rooms may have contributed to EuroDisney's financial problems in the first few years (but was not the entire cause of near bankruptcy), this is most certainly not the case now.

My understanding of the new proposals with Pierre & Vacances is that the new developments will be vacation destinations in their own right. Perhaps families will stay for a week, spending three or four days in the theme park and the rest of the time at the new nature/woodland based resort or visiting local attractions.

Regards

Rob

 

[wtg2000]

I first went to DLP in October 1997 having heard the stories that the hotels were empty and that the village was empty since everyone went directly back to Paris after park close.

The hotels were full (I couldn't get a room for a Monday night in off-season) and the village was a total zoo. Thus, I no longer believe what I read about such things.