More important: Tourist vs. Locals?

[HUH?]

I have a question after reading some of the different threads. Should Disneyland Resort cater more towards the locals, or more towards the tourist crowds?

After reading some of the post on different threads, it seems like people think that AP and locals are the more important crowd. I personally believe that there is more money in the tourist crowd. Before anyone gets to upsert I do believe that both crowds are important, its just that people that are spending more money to get to DLR, make it more of an event, and probably spend more money, might be just a little more important.

The main reason I bring this up is that people seem to be nit-picking things that wouldn't bother tourist as much, and act like disney needs/has to listen to them. Keep in mind I am talking about things that would be considered small annoyances to tourist, I am not talking about Pressler era shabbiness and rides falling apart.

Now I have been both a local and a tourist. I used to live in Irvine, and then in N. California, now I live in Texas. I have been both a local and a tourist, but I have not been to DLR in 2 years.

Just curious.

[dramaqueen]

Tourists spend more money than locals. Also locals then to trash their parks- look at Six Flags.

It is better in the long run for Disneyland to cater to the out-of-towners.

[frodo potter]

When I lived in NJ the few times I came to DL I had no complains and loved every minute of it.
However, now that I live here there are some things that I notice do need to be worked out. For example the parking problem that we experienced the last time we went when it took us 32 min. to get out of DTD. I would guess that 99% of tourist would never experince this problem but for the few who do it could meen the difrence between an amazing vacation and just a good one.
My point is that I feel that the "job" of locals is to bring potential problems to the notice of Disney so they do not ruin the once in a life time experience for a visitor.

[wolfy]

It should be catered to the tourist, but the AP's spend a lot of money also. 50/50 toss up.......Being a stock holder, I would like the tourist to be the target, maybe this summer that is what will happen.

[Jspider]

tourists get the summer and possible the month of december

the rest of it is fair game for those APing freaks

the whole point of two parks is to have tourists youknow it just doesn't make logical since otherwise (unless the second park is really just a water park)

[sir clinksalot]

DL = Local's. DL doesn't have the room or the funding to be the resort destination that WDW is. Not to mention that there aren't any other parks except for Knott's in the immediate vicinity. You have to drive on the crappy LA Freeway system to get anywhere.

WDW = Tourists. Has the room, the funding and the surrounding parks to be a resort area.

[robotpirates]

They're TRYING to cater to tourists, but they can't even get people to go to DCA without the Park Hopper ticket so...

[Jspider]

They're TRYING to cater to tourists, but they can't even get people to go to DCA without the Park Hopper ticket so...

the problem is that us out of state visitors only visit Disneyland while passing through

disneyland is only a part of a vacation to California, it might be a huge highlight but it's still only part of the trip you go for the beaches or the historical areas or for the whole package or maybe your just taking a senic route to Mexico

Disney has done very little to convince tourists that staying longer then a day is neccisary

also compare it to florida were well honestly WDW IS the big draw very few things compete (Nasa? not really? all the other theme parks exist there because Disney does)

the problem with tourists as far as Disneyland park goes is that since Indy Disney has given people less and less reason to go to Disneyland while on their trip because it seems like hardly anything is going to be "new"

but yeah most people I know visit Disneyland while seeing every other thing in California or passing through

ask em about DCA they either haven't realized it was there or just figured they only had time for one theme park while doing other things so they decided to go to the best of the best (or if they wanted thrills they'll skip em both and do Six flags since it's right off the grapevine or whatever *I'm not even a Six Flags fan but everytime we're driving into LA if theirs a traffic jam I can't help but wonder if I could run out of the car take a few rides and then jump back in before traffic picks up, yeah I was a little kid back then sue me :P*)

[fkurucz]

[QUOTE=Disney has done very little to convince tourists that staying longer then a day is neccisary
[/QUOTE]

I am not so sure about that. They do sell a lot multiday passes at DLR

[Jspider]

I am not so sure about that. They do sell a lot multiday passes at DLR

they don't advertise it enough to get people to really think about multiday stays

from what I hear just asking people who visit Disneyland often or once every five years around my town they either hadn't realized it on their trip (bad advertising) and thus hadn't planned for two parks

or Disney hadn't convinced them of any "must see" attractions that would be in the park

the fact that the locals dislike it doesn't help much either

I think overtime DCA might see a slow tourists build as the tourists slowly come to recognize that their's another park there

yes they did do a bit of advertising recently for ToT and it's the first time I've seen ad's reach all the way up to my town since we had the vague "come see the park that's RIGHT NEXT DOOR" marketing scheme

however it was vague enough for people to go to WDW and think they've seen the new ToT (which is actualy fine but still)

I've often thought that the western united states should get more Disneyland ads

simply because it's cheaper for westerners to travel out to DLR as opposed to WDW (less $$ and time spent traveling = more money and time to spend at the resort)

but then again WDW is almost rediculously oversized at this point sure it's a cash cow but it's not neccisarily the most efficient/effective way to earn money while managing spending (not to mention I'm not sure Disney is willing to spend the money needed to keep up all that they now own over there but that's another story)

[TDLFAN]

Disney should cater to both locals and tourists alike. Once we go under that train station, we are all *guests*. As a local at WDW all the time, I can enjoy myself as much as any one from say... Brazil.

[Jspider]

Disney should cater to both locals and tourists alike. Once we go under that train station, we are all *guests*. As a local at WDW all the time, I can enjoy myself as much as any one from say... Brazil.

very true TDLfan

how does TDL handle things?

arn't they mostly localized to Japan/Tokyo?

[ksejr1]

On one hand you have the AP's. they basically help the park cause they're always there. Without them, the park would be empty. Also, they know what's around, and often want to buy something new and exciting. On the other hand, you have the tourists, which spend more money in one shot. So I think for the tourists, things are fine the way that they are because they dont realize how the park is all the time.

I have a question after reading some of the different threads. Should Disneyland Resort cater more towards the locals, or more towards the tourist crowds?

After reading some of the post on different threads, it seems like people think that AP and locals are the more important crowd. I personally believe that there is more money in the tourist crowd. Before anyone gets to upsert I do believe that both crowds are important, its just that people that are spending more money to get to DLR, make it more of an event, and probably spend more money, might be just a little more important.

The main reason I bring this up is that people seem to be nit-picking things that wouldn't bother tourist as much, and act like disney needs/has to listen to them. Keep in mind I am talking about things that would be considered small annoyances to tourist, I am not talking about Pressler era shabbiness and rides falling apart.

Now I have been both a local and a tourist. I used to live in Irvine, and then in N. California, now I live in Texas. I have been both a local and a tourist, but I have not been to DLR in 2 years.

Just curious.

[dshimel]

I have a question after reading some of the different threads. Should Disneyland Resort cater more towards the locals, or more towards the tourist crowds?

They should cater to the out-of-towners during peak spring/summer and holiday seasons. You are hitting near capacity those days and it makes no sense to fill the park with people spending $30 a day when you could fill it with people spending $100 a day.

In the off-season, when the park is not reaching anywhere close to capacity, is when all the focus should shift to locals. Better to fill the park with people spending $30 a day than have it mostly empty.

[Druggas]

Face it, take either one of them away, and poof, no DL. They need each other.

[ah schucks]

They should cater to the out-of-towners during peak spring/summer and holiday seasons. You are hitting near capacity those days and it makes no sense to fill the park with people spending $30 a day when you could fill it with people spending $100 a day.

In the off-season, when the park is not reaching anywhere close to capacity, is when all the focus should shift to locals. Better to fill the park with people spending $30 a day than have it mostly empty.

Dshimel is right...

I think they pretty much do it like this as it currently is being organized. They discontinue all So Cal offers by mid to late April and don't start up again until the following Spring.

I think Disney works harder than any other Southern California Themepark to cater to both. Six Flags, Sea World and Universal Studios all offer outragious annual passes at a fraction of the cost, leaning more heavily on local support. Disney prices there AP program higher but off sets the damage to local tourism by offering pseudo-limited passes in the way of the 2fer or low cast admissions.

Lastly a local is still a tourist, hence the name- local tourism and it accounts for a large share of profits all across the globe, with rising fuel costs, local tourism will have to account for more in the coming years.

[ModHatter]

Yeah... I'd say there are actually different KINDS of tourists. DLR shouldn't try to capture long-term resort vacationers, because that's a niche already being served by WDW, and it will cost billions to compete with that. And why compete? That's just taking money out of their own pockets, forcing two parks to serve the same purpose as one.

Instead, Disneyland has to work harder to turn locals (APs and non-APs alike) into short-term tourists. More development of DTD, including special events in the off-season. More development of DCA so that it's more than a half-day park (at best). The AP program is a good way to do this, since you have all sorts of direct marketing, discounts for the property hotels, etc. These are basically people who already have a subscription to the resort, and you want them to keep renewing to keep that revenue flowing. (Something like 600,000 APs at a minimum of $100 a pop translates to $60 million, every year.) Yeah, as Martha would say, it's a good thing, and you want to do enough to keep those APs, especially since more park visits mean more opportunities to come spend. And if you can get a local AP to feel that there's a good reason to spend on a night at GCH, hey, they're now tourists too.

The burden of WDW is often to get someone to travel to Florida to enjoy the resort. DLR has less of a burden in that regard, because California is already a tourist destination. So you aim for the people who are already coming, and those who are already in the local area, and you make sure there's just too much to see and do in one day.

[TDLFAN]

very true TDLfan

how does TDL handle things?

arn't they mostly localized to Japan/Tokyo?

While the majority of guests at TDR are locals from the Tokyo area or fans from across Japan, there is a great number of chinese guests, as well as other visitors from Asian countries, plus a small percentage of Australians, and westeners in the military based in Japan. Plus those fanatics like me!!!
I have always felt quite welcomed and appreciated at TDR. Never has bad a bad experience there (knocks on wood!!)

[DarylF]

I'm curious what traveling distance most annual pass holders have to the park? Am I correct in stating that about 600,000 AP are out there? How many times a year do they go (on average) to the park? 600,000 is a small fraction of 12 million annual visitors. Even among you passionate AP Mice Chatters, I'll estimate about 12 of you are daily guests. How many So. Cal guests purchase daily admissions vs. AP? Travel agents really push the Multi-Day tickets, but I'm thinking an annual pass is cheaper for off-season travel. Overall, I think Disneyland does well in terms of catering to both Locals and Tourists. Locals, I'm sure, know to avoid the park in Tourist season. It's called the Circle of Life.

[wolfy]

You'd be surprised how many AP holders go all the time. I personally go about 2 times a week. Was there tonight, met a lot of out of area tourists, but saw an awful lot of passholders there too!