Here comed Concast and all if their money!

[Magic Fanatic]

Competition is great. Orlando os getting ready to really heat up in the battle over tourist $$$$$!
http://m.chron.com/news/us/article/Comcast-challenging-Disney-s-hold-on-tourism-trade-5301566.php

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Competition is great. Orlando os getting ready to really heat up in the battle over tourist $$$$$!
http://m.chron.com/news/us/article/Comcast-challenging-Disney-s-hold-on-tourism-trade-5301566.php

I'm not seeing a big heat up here... They're still at a fraction of the profit, rooms, and services, and the last line of the article seems to acknowledge pretty clearly that Universal is not in any way, shape, or form prepared or able to usurp Disney's draw to the region.

They're expanding, and that's great for them, but as the first HP expansion showed, that mega boost they get is a fleeting one. Just like Disney has, in 10 years, they'll have to think of something else to refresh everything, keep up with competition, and expand.

I'm not thinking Disney is really overly shaking in their boots over the 4,700 rooms Universal "hopes to fill" and the 20,000 rooms Disney routinely fills, with no problem, to the point where they openly express concern that they can't build enough hotels fast enough to manage demand.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

I'm not seeing a big heat up here... They're still at a fraction of the profit, rooms, and services, and the last line of the article seems to acknowledge pretty clearly that Universal is not in any way, shape, or form prepared or able to usurp Disney's draw to the region.

They're expanding, and that's great for them, but as the first HP expansion showed, that mega boost they get is a fleeting one. Just like Disney has, in 10 years, they'll have to think of something else to refresh everything, keep up with competition, and expand.

I'm not thinking Disney is really overly shaking in their boots over the 4,700 rooms Universal "hopes to fill" and the 20,000 rooms Disney routinely fills, with no problem, to the point where they openly express concern that they can't build enough hotels fast enough to manage demand.

Agreed. The past expansions, big and small, have not increased visitors or profits by much, especially not against each other. From the statistics I have seen, when Universal expands, Disney also sees an increase in attendance and vice versa. And the increases are rather small on both sides. I think the number was 2%. When people travel to Orlando for theme parks, they tend to spend three or four days at Disney and a day or so at Universal, regardless of who does or does not expand.

These two parks have been competing for years and years, and nothing is changing. This is Comcast trying to hype people up and get publicity, nothing more. Universal is not, and likely never will be in the same league as Disney, but they are competitors. Regardless of what arguments you want to make about quality, Disney is just so far ahead right now in terms of sheer rooms, parks, attractions, etc. Both parks do work off of each other, which is beneficial to all of us, and neither park is afraid of the other. Both are making plenty of money.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

Exactly. For all they're competition, they do have a symbiotic relationship.

That all being said, if Universal vanished tomorrow, Disney would be fine. If Disney vanished tomorrow, could Universal say the same? That's not indicative of a failure on Universal's part, only their degree of force or stand-alone appeal/draw to the area. Yes, it has a draw and I'm sure they wouldn't close if in some parallel universe Disney closed, but I don't think they'd pull the numbers as before.

Is expansion necessary to maintain their market share? Yes. Will it increase it? Sure, of course. But not even Universal is pretending that they're replacing the draw of Disney. I'd argue that some of how Universal markets itself is dependant on being the anti-Disney. Ok for kids, great for adults and thrill seekers, where as Disney is great for kids, great to OK for some adults, and OK for thrill seekers.

 

[DanBoris]

I'm not seeing a big heat up here... They're still at a fraction of the profit, rooms, and services, and the last line of the article seems to acknowledge pretty clearly that Universal is not in any way, shape, or form prepared or able to usurp Disney's draw to the region.

They're expanding, and that's great for them, but as the first HP expansion showed, that mega boost they get is a fleeting one. Just like Disney has, in 10 years, they'll have to think of something else to refresh everything, keep up with competition, and expand.

I'm not thinking Disney is really overly shaking in their boots over the 4,700 rooms Universal "hopes to fill" and the 20,000 rooms Disney routinely fills, with no problem, to the point where they openly express concern that they can't build enough hotels fast enough to manage demand.

When you say the boost was "fleeting" it really depends how you look at it. Wizarding World opened in mid 2010. In 2011, according to the TEA numbers, Islands of Adventure saw a 29% attendance increase over 2010. In 2012 they say a 4% increase over 2011, which means they held onto the entire 29% increase and added 4% more which was the best percentage increase of any major Orlando park that year.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

When you say the boost was "fleeting" it really depends how you look at it. Wizarding World opened in mid 2010. In 2011, according to the TEA numbers, Islands of Adventure saw a 29% attendance increase over 2010. In 2012 they say a 4% increase over 2011, which means they held onto the entire 29% increase and added 4% more which was the best percentage increase of any major Orlando park that year.

I would argue that that large increase also has something to do with the fact that Universal suffered huge losses in attendance the year before, each suffering a 10% or more drop in attendance. Regardless, no denying the expansions did cause impressive increases, but not as impressive as they may seem. This is why I hate statistics, and avoid them most of the time. In 2012 (just using that because I can't find the 2013 stats right now) Magic Kingdom saw a 2.5% increase, while Islands of Adventure saw nearly double that at a 4% increase. However, because of Disney's much higher attendance numbers, their 2.5% increase was an increase in attendance by 394,000, while IoA's 4% was only an increase of 307,000. So, Disney actually saw a larger increase in attendance than IoA, yet the statistics suggest otherwise. The statistics here are also skewed by a lot of other variables as well. Disney's mammoth attendance helps Universal, because as a previous poster mentioned, many visitors from Disney's numbers go to Universal, not because of Universal's expansions, but because they drove/flew all the way to Orlando to go to Disney and want to do everything while they are there. And the point I made earlier, Disney may be benefiting from Universal's expansions as well for the same reasons and viceversa, but the numbers are not likely anywhere near as high as Universal benefits from Disney.

Looking at the actual numbers, it still appears that over the past six years (which is as far back as I can find reports) IoA attendance has increased quite a bit higher than all other parks. Not as much as 2011 and 2010 would suggest, because of the significant decreases in attendance both parks took in the years before that, while Disney's parks didn't see nearly the decreases US and IoA saw. I added in those previous years, because an increase after a large decrease does skew the increase.

Increases in attendance from 2006-2012

Universal's Islands of Adventure: 2,681,000
Disney's Animal Kingdom: 1,088,000k
Disney's Magic Kingdom: 896,000
Disney's Hollywood Studios: 812,000
Epcot: 603,000
Universal Studios Orlando: 195,000

It will be interesting to see what increases we see from the New Fantasyland expansion when the 2013 numbers come out. I don't expect them to be as high as Wizarding World, but it will be interesting to see. What really surprises me is Universal Studio's increase being so low while IoA's is so high. IoA's increases do seem to have leveled off a bit, and seem to be very close to Disney's now. So the argument that expansions make a difference is a very credible one. It will be interesting to see what happens to attendance over the years now that there are no more Potter movies or books coming out.

I will throw out there that combining Disney's parks and Universal's, Disney still saw a 3,399,000 increase to Universal's 2,876,000 increase.

So, with all these numbers, let's be honest. No one is afraid of anyone. Everyone is swimming in their money without a care in the world.

 

[Magic Fanatic]

I'm not seeing a big heat up here... They're still at a fraction of the profit, rooms, and services, and the last line of the article seems to acknowledge pretty clearly that Universal is not in any way, shape, or form prepared or able to usurp Disney's draw to the region.

They're expanding, and that's great for them, but as the first HP expansion showed, that mega boost they get is a fleeting one. Just like Disney has, in 10 years, they'll have to think of something else to refresh everything, keep up with competition, and expand.

I'm not thinking Disney is really overly shaking in their boots over the 4,700 rooms Universal "hopes to fill" and the 20,000 rooms Disney routinely fills, with no problem, to the point where they openly express concern that they can't build enough hotels fast enough to manage demand.

I understand your point and agree that this doesn't have anyone shaking in their boots. I made my comment about competition being good in the sense that maybe with the continued expansion of what is going on at Universal it might force Disney to move a little faster in some of their long term plans. For example the Mine Train, could this have been moved a little faster? Who knows, but with Universal not showing signs of slowing down, it may be the push Disney needs.