‘The cultural barbarism of EuroDisney’
1. After Disney's golden step towards Japan, the first years in Europe weren't that good. A combination of factors contributed to a disastrous start Paris. The biggest factor contributing to the poor performance on the long run was the failing cultural adaptation. Disney build, promoted and communicated EuroDisney as a piece of marvelous America in Europe. Everything about the park was American and cultural differences between America and Europe were completely neglected. This resulted not only in negative experiences by customers itself, but also in a heavy load of criticism from the intellectual segment of France, which traditionally didn't have good relations with 'Americanism'.
Besides the cultural problems, a lot of secondary factors contributed to the poor start. First of all, the price to enter the park and especially staying at the hotels, was too high in the European mindset. A nightly stay at a hotel at EuroDisney was priced 110 to 380 dollar, prices compared to a very good hotel in the center of Paris. Customers weren't willing to spend this amount of money.
Another factor was the type of vacations Europeans normally have. Instead of going on a lot of short trips, Europeans take a major break in July or August. The park was promoted as a place to stay a whole vacation, but since the Europeans spend more time on a vacation than three days, this conflicted with the European behavior. While staying at the park, the amount of days spent at EuroDisney was also disappointing: instead of the estimated three days Europeans just stayed two days, resulting in less revenues from hotels, restaurants and souvenirs. The general amount of money spent a day by an European customer was also l ...