Walt Disney Parks and Resorts business unit logo
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
James A. "Jay" Rasulo, formerly the chairman of Disneyland
Resort Paris
. Rasulo reports to Disney CEO
Robert Iger.
Disney resorts
Disneyland Resort
Disneyland Resort logo
Disneyland was founded as a
single park by Walt Disney on July 17,
1955, in Anaheim
, California.
In 2001, the area was officially named the
Disneyland
Resort with the opening of Disney's California Adventure
Park, two new resort hotels and the Downtown Disney retail, dining
and entertainment district. The resort occupies , listed below, and
are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
logo
The
Walt Disney World Resort opened Oct. 1, 1971,
with the Magic Kingdom (similar in layout to Disneyland) and three
resort hotels
a few
miles southwest of Orlando.
The property is twice the size of Manhattan
, with about a quarter of it having been developed
to date. It has become the most popular tourist destination
on Earth, with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and
entertainment complex, 20 resort hotels and eight golf courses. The
resort is divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
Tokyo Disney Resort
Tokyo Disney Resort logo
Tokyo Disney Resort,
located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan
, opened
April 15, 1983. On Sept. 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 resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
- Ikspiari
shopping, dining and entertainment
complex
Resorts:
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris
logo
Disneyland Paris, Disney's
second resort complex outside the United States
, opened April 12, 1992, as 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 , listed
below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and
resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
logo
Hong Kong Disneyland, 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.
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort sits on .
Parks:
Resorts:
Shanghai Disneyland Resort
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.
The resort is expected to open in 2014.
Disney Cruise Line
Disney Cruise Line logo
Disney Cruise Line was
formed in 1995; its two ships, the Disney Magic and
Disney Wonder, began operation in 1998 and 1999,
respectively, and were designed in collaboration with Walt Disney
Imagineering. Both ships offer three-, four- and
seven-night Caribbean
cruises, each with a stop at Disney's private
island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay
. Two additional ships will join Disney's
fleet in 2011 and 2012.
Properties:
Other ventures
Abandoned concepts
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 appears to have
persuaded Disney not to go forward with it in 1994.
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 Disneysea, a contrasting park to Disneyland, 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
, which has recently been deemed the second
best-loved Disney park in the world, after Disneyland.
Tokyo
DisneySea is
currently open at the Tokyo Disney
Resort.
Disney-MGM Studios Europe was intended to be a
European copy of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, to
have opened in 1996 at the Euro Disney Resort Paris (now Disneyland
Resort Paris). Imagineers had been working on plans for six months
before they were told to stop by management after the resort was
drastically underperforming financially.
The Walt Disney
Studios Park
opened in 2002 after the resort started to make a
profit, though was ultimately very different from the original
plans for Disney-MGM Studios Europe
Future properties
Asian & European projects
Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris have
room for future expansion.
Until June 2009, the Walt Disney Company was negotiating with the
Hong Kong Government in funding the Phase 1 Expansion of Hong Kong
Disneyland. The expansion includes three additional theme lands to
the park, which are expected to complete latest in 2013, one year
prior to the opening of rumored Shanghai Disneyland Resort. A
number of thrilling rides have already been chosen in order to
satisfy the market of the young adults and teenagers. It is
reported that the preparation work for the construction has been
finished and the park is ready to start the project once it has
granted permission from the government. However, according to Bill
Ernest, the company is still considering the detail terms,
including the means of funding, with the government. The company is
looking forward to reaching an agreement in 2009 so that the first
theme land can be open in 2011 (during the 5th anniversary
celebration of the Hong Kong park).
On May 7, 2009,
John Tsang, the
Financial Secretary of Hong
Kong, admitted that both the Hong Kong Government and the Walt
Disney Company have reached the basic agreement of the Phase 1
expansion and he is optimistic that the deal will be finalized
shortly.
On June 30, 2009,
Rita Lau, the
Secretary for
Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, announced the
expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland that have been approved by the
Executive Council.
The park will feature a total of seven themed areas after the
completion of all the new theme lands. Later on July 10, 2009, the
Legislative Council in Hong Kong
approved the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland. The park will
receive three new theme lands, which are Grizzly Trail, Mystic
Point and Toy Story Land. Construction may begin in late 2009 and
will take 5 years to be built.
In July
2009 the company was rumored to have been approached by the
Dubailand
executives to build a theme park in their mega-resort.
In
November 2009, Disney received approval from the Chinese government
to build a Disneyland resort in the Pudong district
of Shanghai. The resort is expected
to open in 2014.
American projects
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.
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 planned to be built into that
space in the coming years.
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 will join the other resorts not associated with a theme
park, such as Disney's Hilton Head Island
Resort
in South Carolina.
Timeline
1950s and 1960s
1970s and 1980s
1990s
2000s
Administration
- Chairman and President - Jay
Rasulo
- President, Operations - Al
Weiss
- President, Disneyland Resort - George Kalogridis
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort -
Michael O'Grattan
- Vice President, Disneyland Park - Jon Storbeck
- Vice President, Disney's California Adventure Park - Mary
Niven
- Vice President, Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels -
Tony Bruno
- President, Walt Disney World Resort - Meg Crofton
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Walt Disney World Resort -
To Be filled upon Erin Wallace's
Move
- Senior Vice President, Walt Disney World Resort - George
Aguel
- Vice President, Magic Kingdom - Phil
Holmes
- Vice President, Epcot - Dan Cockerell
- Vice President, Disney's Hollywood Studios - Rilous Carter
- Vice President, Disney's Animal Kingdom - Kevin
Lansberry
- Vice President, Downtown Disney - Kieth Bradford
- Vice President, Resort Operations - Kevin Myers
- Vice President, Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex and
Disney Water Parks - Reggie
Williams
- Vice President, Walt Disney World Transportation, Sports and
Golf - Jim Vendur
- Chairman and CEO, Euro Disney SCA (Disneyland Resort Paris) -
Philippe Gas
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort Paris -
To Be filled upon George Kalogridis's Move
- President, Tokyo Disney Resort - Toshio Kagami
- President of Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Nick Franklin
- Vice President and Executive Managing Director, Walt Disney
Attractions Japan - Joe
Schott
- President and Managing Director, Asia, Walt Disney Parks &
Resorts - Bill Ernest
- Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Andrew Kam
- Vice President of Resort Operations, Hong Kong Disneyland
Resort - Dave Vermeulen
- President, Disney Cruise Line and New Vacation Operations -
Karl Holz
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disney Cruise Line -
Tom Wolber
- President, Disney Vacation Club - Jim Lewis
- Senior Vice President, Adventures by Disney - Ed
Baklor
- Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering - Bruce
Vaughn
- Chief Design and Project Delivery Executive, Walt Disney
Imagineering - Craig Russell
- Senior Vice President of Operations Integration/line of
Business - Erin Wallace
- Senior Vice President, Conservation & Environmental
Sustainability - Jerry Montgomery
- Senior Vice President of Global Sports Enterprises - Ken
Potrock
- Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility - Kerry
Chandler
- Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Diversity &
Inclusion - Jayne Parker
- Executive Vice President, Public Affairs - Leslie Goodman
- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
- Jim Hunt
- Executive Vice President, Global Marketing - Leslie
Ferraro
- Executive Vice President, International Development - Mike
Crawford
- Executive Vice President, New Business Development -
Nick Franklin
References
-
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0352328120091104
- "On September 28, 1994, Michael Eisner announced that Disney
was cancelling its plans to build Disney's America after a bruising
national media fight with Protect Historic America and aggressive
local opposition in Virginia from Protect Prince William and other
citizen groups." http://chotank.com/disneyrom.html
- http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=452465
- Portfolio.com, Top Executive Profiles, Robert A. Iger
http://www.portfolio.com/resources/executive-profiles/39787
- Operated By Westin
Hotels
- Operated By Sheraton
Hotels
, an indoor arcade with traditional video games and
virtual reality experiences, initially developed and managed by
Disney Regional Entertainment.
.
, Submarine
Voyage
and the Disneyland
Monorail.
. The Main Street Electrical Parade
opens at Disneyland Park in Anaheim,
California
.
theme park, Epcot
Center
, opens in Urayasu,
Japan
begins.
opens as part of Euro Disney Resort
and Downtown Disney at Disneyland
Resort
begins.
opens September 12 on Hong Kong's Lantau Island;
Walt Disney World announces that River Country
would remain closed permanently
at Walt Disney World
to begin construction January 2010 and finish
in phases. Phase 1 is to be completed in 2012, while Phase 2
is to be completed in 2013.
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