Euro Disneyland & Beyond Tokyo Case Analysis

Case Analysis-

Euro Disneyland

& Beyond Tokyo

CCM Assignment 1

By Group 6 :

Manjula Manjunath Puranik - 77

Mohd. Umair Khan - 83

Naina Gupta - 88

Neha Ahuja - 91

Rohit Sahasranaman - 117

Case Analysis- Euro Disneyland & Beyond Tokyo

Group 6

Table of contents

S.NO Topic Page no

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

2 BUSINESS LANDSCAPE 3

3 INDUSTRY LEVEL ANALYSIS 4

4 HOFSTEDE‟S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS 5

5 TROMPENAAR‟S ANALYSIS OF US AND FRANCE 9

6 KEY CHANGE DRIVERS 11

7 MISTAKES MADE BY DISNEY 12

8 LESSONS LEARNED AND IMPLEMENTATION 13

9 CULTURAL CHALLENGES FACED BY DISNEY IN ASIA AND

THEIR DIFFERENCE FROM THOSE IN EUROPE

14

10 CULTURAL VARIABLES INFLUENCING THE LOCATION CHOICE

OF THEME PARKS AROUND THE WORLD

16

11 LOCATION RECOMMENDED FOR DISNEY‟S NEXT THEME PARK

IN ASIA

16


Group 6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this case, we will present to you how Disney built Euro Disney in France and what were the issues due

to cultural differences. In the 80‟s, Disney wanted to build another theme park after the ones in the US

and Japan. They wanted to go to Europe. They hesitated between Spain and France and for geographical

and political reasons; they finally chose a little town near Paris in France called Marne-la-Vallée. That

was the most important investment from a foreign private company in France at that time. Despite the fact

that they created more than 15000 jobs, Disney did not receive a good welcome from the French society

due to bad cultural management. They didn‟t consider the differences between France and US or France

and other countries of Europe. This case has given us the opportunity to highlight the cultural and

management differences between USA and France.

BUSINESS LANDSCAPE

The 80‟s in France was the end of an economical prosperous period called the Glorious 30 (from 50‟s to

80‟s). The economy was growing at a slow pace at that time.

New France, President François Mitterrand, elected in 1981 for 7 years started a new economic policy

based on privatisation of public companies and allowed foreign companies to invest in France to create

employment and growth. When Disney negotiated with Spain and France in 84 and 85, the French PM,

Laurent Fabius was a socialist, but when they signed a letter of intent with France, the government had

changed and it had a conservative PM called Jacques Chirac. At that time, the Euro Disney project was a

great opportunity for politicians to create jobs and bring dynamism around Paris so they could stop their

ideological fights between socialists and conservatives to work together and win the negotiation against

the Spanish proposition.

But there is another aspect of the landscape. At that time, USA and USSR were in a war since 30 years

and France being a part of the OTAN was hence in the USA camp. But in France, the Communist party is

a strong political party and they had a lot of influence on the French community. Communists protested

strongly against Euro Disney project arguing that they refuse the “American way of life” and they don‟t

want their children to become only consumers. It was a political position against USA and they protested

against the French government‟s present to the American imperialism.

On the other side, conservatives were protesting against this project with Le Figaro newspaper because

they thought that France had a great cultural and historical patrimony and they didn‟t need the USA to

bring their pop culture focused on consumption and money making. They also refused this expression of

the American soft power.


Group 6

Americans tried to adapt to these considerations. They also adapted the Disney Tomorrowland with

themes from the French literature like Jules Verne and Leonardo da Vinci to make the French and

Europeans feel their culture as part of

the Euro Disney.

But some part of the Disneyland DNA

was difficult to adapt to French labour

law and people in France were not ready

for all the sacrifices for a job and Disney

discovered that with their strict

appearance code.

In France, work and private life are separated and an employer could not interfere in employee‟s life. But

for Disney, one of the factors of their success was that the employees have to incarnate the “American

way of life”. But for a part of the French and most of the French syndicates this was interference in

people‟s private lives. So CGT, CFDT, FO and CFTC the four main syndicates in France protested

against this offence to labours.

What was not easy to understand for foreigners (and almost Americans) who wanted to invest in France

was that a part of the population was not only business focused. There were a lot of ideological debates

between socialists and conservatives. Communists and a lot of labourers refused the capitalism system

and they were more focused on labours rights.

This business landscape made France a place not so easy for huge investments like Euro Disney. But it‟s

now one of the most visited places in Europe.

INDUSTRY LEVEL ANALYSIS

Disney negotiated with the French authorities concerning the infrastructures to access Marne-la-Vallée

and also the possibility to buy a large land to setup the huge park and resort.

French governments (Fabius and Chirac) accepted and decided to invest with the Ile-de-France region

more than 650 million € of infrastructures for:

- The new metro line (RER A) which links Paris to Marne-la-Vallée (and Euro Disney)

- A new TGV train-station to link Euro Disney to Eurostar (from England), and TGV from Paris,

the East part of France and Germany, Belgium, etc.

- Link Euro Disney to the highway A4, A104 and A86 for a better access to the airports


Group 6

French government also gave the opportunity for Euro Disney to buy lands for a really cheap price

because that was considered as farming land and even allowed them to resell it for higher price to

construct building.

Disney bought 2000 hectares of farming land that the French government had bought from farmers. So

the little city of Marne-la-Vallée passed from an agricultural city to a European tourism centre. With the

help of Disney, a new commercial centre called Val Europe where tourists and also people living around

the place can shop.

Euro Disney employed around 15000 people directly but the activity created even more jobs and the park

welcome 15 millions of tourists each year.

HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS

Some main cultural differences between United States and France using Hofstede’s four cultural

dimensions are as follows:

1. Power Distance:

Hofstede defines Power Distance as the

extent to which the less powerful

members of institutions and organizations

within a country expect and accept that

power is distributed unequally. This

represents inequality (more versus less),

but defined from below, not from above.

It suggests that a society‟s level of

inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. This dimension does not measure the

level of distribution of power in a given culture, but analyzes the way people feel about it. Low scores of

power distance means that a culture expect and accept that power relations are democratic and that the

members are seen as equals. High scores of power distance means that the less powerful members of

society accept their conditions and the existence of formal hierarchical position.

From the graph above it can be seen that United States has a comparatively low Power Distance score of

40 compared to the high Power Distance score of 68 for France.


Group 6

France: France is a society in which a fair degree of inequality is accepted. Children are raised to be

emotionally dependent first on their parents, then on their teachers and later on this dependency transfers

on to their superiors. Many comparative studies have shown that French companies have normally one or

two hierarchical levels more than comparable companies in Germany and the UK. Superiors have

privileges and are often inaccessible. CEO‟s of big companies are called Mr. PDG meaning President

Director General. Hence it can be concluded that French organizations usually have a tall organizational

structure (pyramidal) and a centralized decision making with narrow span of control.

U. S. A.: The American premise of “liberty and justice for all” is evidenced by an explicit emphasis on

equal rights in all aspects of American society and government. Within American organizations,

hierarchy is established for convenience, superiors are accessible and managers rely on individual

employees and teams for their expertise. Both managers and employees expect to be consulted and

information is shared frequently. At the same time, communication is informal, direct and participative to

a degree.

Some instances of Power distance play between the French and the US in the case are as follows:

1) In the case, it‟s mentioned that the U.S expatriates held the top positions and that Disney

Company maintained the management control of Euro Disney with a 49% stake in the project.

This would obviously agitate the French people who normally prefer to hold the reins.

2) It is also mentioned that the French farmers were protesting against Euro Disney because under

the terms of the contract the French Government would expropriate the necessary land and sell it

without profit to Euro Disneyland Development Company. The local officials though sympathetic

towards the farmers‟ position were unwilling to do anything to jeopardize the deal thus portraying

high power distance.

2. Uncertainty Avoidance:

Uncertainty avoidance deals with a society‟s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It indicates to what

extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured

situations. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown

situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score.

France has strong uncertainty avoidance score of 86 compared to the low Uncertainty Avoidance score of

46.


Group 6

France: The French don‟t like surprises. Structure and planning are required. Before meetings and

negotiations they like to receive all necessary information. There is also a need for emotional safety

valves as a high score on Uncertainty Avoidance and the combination of high Power Distance strengthen

each other. The French are very talkative and giving someone the sharp edge of one‟s tongue happens

often. There is a strong need for laws, rules and regulations to structure life. This, however, doesn‟t mean

that most Frenchmen will try to follow all these rules. Given the high score on Power Distance, which

means that power holders have privileges, power holders don‟t necessarily feel obliged to follow all those

rules which are meant to control the people in the street.

U.S.A: The perceived context in which Americans find themselves will impact their behavior more than

if the culture would have either scored higher or lower. Thus, this cultural pattern reflects itself as

follows:

There is a fair degree of acceptance for new ideas, innovative products and a willingness to try

something new or different, whether it pertains to technology, business practices or

food. Americans tend to be more tolerant of ideas or opinions from anyone and allow the

freedom of expression. At the same time, Americans do not require a lot of rules and are less

emotionally expressive than higher-scoring cultures.

At the same time, 9/11 has created a lot of fear in the American society culminating in the efforts

of government to monitor everybody through the NSA and other security organizations.

Some instances of uncertainty avoidance between the US and the French are as follows:

1) French government survey indicated that half a million might turn up with 90,000 cars on the

inaugural day of the Euro Disneyland and therefore, the French radio warned traffic to avoid this

area. This shows that the French Government are uncertainty avoiders and they tried to take

control of the situational dilemma which can probably arise.

2) French are risk avoiders, so they would rather visit Disneyland in America („Europeans visit

Disneyworld in Florida as part of an American experience‟). This is due to the high uncertainty

associated with the new „Euro Disneyland‟ as well as their being used to and habitual to visiting

Disneyworld in Florida.

3) When the management created rules about acceptable clothing, hairstyles, jewelry etc. the French

being a highly individualistic nation took offence as they saw these sudden new rules as going

against their habitual individualistic nature thus creating uncertainty.


Group 6

3. Individualism:

People from individualistic cultures tend to think only of themselves as individuals and as “I” distinctive

from other people whereas in Collectivistic cultures have a great emphasize on groups and think more in

terms of “we”. Harmony and loyalty within a company is very important and should always be

maintained and confrontation should be avoided.

With the score of 91 US is one of the most individualistic cultures in the world, whereas it is 71 for

France.

In the American culture it is characterized by individualism. An employee looks after one‟s self and his or

her immediate family. In the more collective French culture, what is best for the group is emphasized.

French were particularly annoyed about Americans enforcing their rules and culture, which went against

their culture and customs. EuroDisney, has a strict appearance code, it was demanded by the top

managers of American that the dress code in Euro Disneyland should be super-short hair and they also

“banned beards and moustaches”. The kind of dressing styles were emphasized on “family values” of

American. Individualistic French had to be molded into the squeaky clean Disney image. In contrast, a lot

of French people who love expressing individuality did not work for the park. For example, Stephane

Baudet a trumpet player, who was twenty-eight years old from Paris, refused to audition for a job in a

Disney Brass and when he learned he would have to cut his ponytail hairstyle.

4. Masculinity:

The Masculinity and Femininity dimension describes how cultures differentiate on not between gender

roles. Masculine cultures tend to be ambitious and need to excel. Feminine cultures consider quality of

life and helping others to be very important.

With the score of just 43 which is lower than the world‟s average of 50, France is a feminine culture

whereas United States is a masculine culture and its score is 62 which is quite higher than France. In fact,

french “work to live” and not the other way around. France is not motivated by competition or desire for

success and has a leisured work ethics, whereas the United States is extremely competitive and has a drive

for success with an intense work ethics. In the Euro Disney case, US did not even think of the impact on

the French culture, highlighting their predominant characteristic of their masculine culture, wanting to

prevail on others. Disney paid too much attention to profit.


Group 6

TROMPENAAR’S ANALYSIS OF US AND FRANCE IN EURO DISNEYLAND CASE:

Trompenaar analysis is used to compare the cultural aspects between countries and within organizations.

Trompenaar uses the following dimensions to compare US and France:

1. Universalism versus Particularism:

According to Trompenaars‟s relationship orientations on cultural dimensions USA shows high

universalism and France comes in between universalism and particularism. But in this case USA has

shown both universalism and particularism. It showed high universalism in instances like where

there was an alcohol ban in the park despite the attitude among the French that wine with a meal is a

God-given right and also they were so strict about the rules and dress codes of employees that they

gave a handbook of detailed rules of acceptable clothing, hairstyles, jewelry etc.

It showed particularism only in case of food where the recipes were adapted for European tastes for

eg. Tex-Mex recipes were toned down as Europeans don‟t prefer spicy food.

2. Individualism versus Communitarianism:

According to Trompenaars‟s relationship orientations on cultural dimensions and in this case also

USA shows high individualism and France shows high communitarianism. USA showed high

individualism when they made French people sign the letter of intent where it was mentioned that any

disputes arising from the contract would be settled not in French courts but by a special panel of

international panel of arbitrators and France showed high communitarianism as they mentioned a

clause in the contract which required Disney to respect and utilize French culture in its themes.

French also showed communitarianism when many people stayed back at home on reading the

warnings of chaos on the roads because of heavy traffic on opening day of Disneyland.

3. Neutral versus Emotional

According to Trompenaars‟s relationship orientations on cultural dimensions USA and France both

comes in between neutral and emotional but in this case USA showed emotional characteristics like

when the company launched an aggressive community relations program to calm the fears of

politicians, farmers, villagers, and even bankers that the project would bring traffic congestion, noise,

pollution and other problems to the countryside. They tried to establish good relations with the public

in France by offering them free trips to Disneyland in Florida and 400 children were invited to the

birthday party for Mickey Mouse which was very rare in France. “The French aren‟t used to this kind

of public relations-it was unbelievable”. But even France people responded in a positive sense and the

goodwill efforts helped dissipate initial objections to the project.


Group 6

4. Specific versus Diffuse

According to Trompenaars‟s relationship orientations on cultural dimensions USA shows high

specific characteristics and France shows moderate specific characteristics but in this case France has

shown high diffuse characteristics. Different cultures have different definitions of personal space, and

English visitors found the French reluctant to stand in a queue too close to each other. French people

were not that friendly which is clear from the instance where Disney system was encountering trouble

keeping smiles on the faces of the staff, who sometimes took on the demeanor of subway ticket

clerks.

Note: In the above figure, the characteristics in red are common to both the countries, in green are

predominant in USA and in blue are predominant in France.

5. Achievement versus Ascription

According to Trompenaars‟s relationship orientations on cultural dimensions USA is highly

achievement oriented and France comes in between achievement and ascription. In this case also

USA has shown highly achievement oriented characteristics in the instance where they looked for

workers who were German, English, Italian, Spanish, or other nationalities and who had good

communication skills and were outgoing and liked being around people. This shows they didn‟t care

from which culture they were hiring workers they wanted the task to be achieved properly. Whereas,

French people showed ascription characteristics in the instance where they protested the building of

Euro Disneyland knowing that it would create employment and was called as “the deal of the

century”, still they made protest signs on roads like “Disney go home”, “Stop the massacre” and

“don‟t gnaw away our national wealth”.


Group 6

6. Time orientation:

Both USA and France followed sequential approaches i.e. while building the Euro Disneyland they

did it in two preplanned phases. Both the countries faced problems to bring the project in motion but

they did not deviate from their preplanned activities. For instance, both the countries faced some

hurdles like protests; low customer-turnout etc. during the pre-opening party but this did not deter

them to follow their plan of action of promoting the venture.

KEY CHANGE DRIVERS

Some of the key change drivers underlying the issues faced by Disney are as follows:

1) After Walt Disney‟s death, the company came under the tyrannical rule of E. Cordon Walker who

acted as the CEO from 1976-1983. Walker was quick to ridicule underlings in public and

impervious to any point of view but his own. He made decisions according to what he thought

Walt Disney would have done. Making wholesome family movies that Walt Disney would have

wanted formed a key article of Walker‟s creed. As a result of this instead of innovating and

experimenting with creativity and modern art and cinema, the studio producers ground out thin

stream of tired formulaic movies that fewer and fewer customers paid to see. This led the

company to go into virtual suspended animation with the last hit movie being in 1969. This can

considered as an internal change driver.

2) E. Cordon walker was succeeded by Ronald W. Miller in 1983. Ronald Miller‟s brief reign was a

model of decentralization and delegation and he even managed to produce the hit film splash.

However the reluctance of freelance Hollywood talent to accommodate Disney‟s narrow range

and stingy compensation meant that Ronald Miler‟s sound instincts didn‟t bear fruit. Ronald

Miller was known to be a person who listens but does not act. Hence as a result of too many box

office bombs, there was a steady erosion of profits, revenues from the theme parks were also

levelling off and Disney‟s stock slid. This can also be considered to be an internal change driver.

3) In 1984, Roy Disney resigned from the board of directors which led to the company being

dismantled, raided, greenmailed and sued. However it also led to the formation of a new top

management. Michael Eisner was appointed CEO, Frank Wells became president; Jeffrey

Katzenberg from Paramount Pictures took over Disney‟s movie & television studios. This is an

internal change driver.

4) On March 24, 1987, Michael Eisner and Jackques Chirac, the French prime minister signed a

contract for opening of Disney theme park at Marne-la-Vallee. As soon as the contract was signed

individuals and businesses began scurrying to somehow financially benefit from the opening.


Group 6

Euro Disneyland was expected to generate up to 28000 jobs providing a measure of relief to an

area that had suffered a 10 %+ unemployment rate for the previous year. It was also expected to

revive the construction industry and the real estate market which had been hit by France‟s

economic problem the previous year and also attract investors to the depressed outskirts of Paris.

IBM, Banque National de Paris and other factories were already being set up in the area as a

result. This is an external change driver.

5) Disney faced protests from French communists and intellectuals as they felt that Disney was

stifling individualism and transforming children into consumers. They also faced protests from

French farmers in the area as the contract stipulated that the French Government expropriate the

necessary land and sell it without profit to Euro Disneyland Development Company thus causing

the French Farmers to lose their livelihood as well as incur losses. Disney also faced protests

from the communist dominated labor federation, the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT),

which were fighting hard to stop the passage of a bill which would give managers the right to

establish flexible hours for their workers. This is an external change driver.

6) Disney had issued a handbook of rules on acceptable clothing, hairstyles, jewelry etc. As soon as

the book was issued, Disney was criticized for being insensitive to the French culture,

individualism and privacy. French Labor Unions and CGT started protesting against these rules

when Disneyland opened its casting center.

7) The work on Euro Disneyland ground to a halt when the French Government changed hands in

1986 as the negotiator appointed by the conservative government negated much of the work done

by the socialist predecessor. The legalistic approach taken by American government bogged

down talks and at the same time the right wing groups fought hard for greater local cultural

context.

MISTAKES MADE BY DISNEY

Operational Errors: Disney committed a basic mistake by assuming that Europeans also were similar to

the Americans. Infact there were a lot of differences which came back to bite Disney. For example

Mondays in America are light working days and Fridays are heavy. Disney assumed it to be the same in

Europe also. In fact it was just the opposite. Thus staff allocation problems cropped up. Also it provided a

small bus parking area where not all buses could park. Insufficient restroom facilities were provided for

the bus drivers.

Employees: Disney‟s theme parks always have cast members who dress up in costumes and perform

different shows. Especially cast members dressed up as their popular characters: Mickey Mouse, Goofy,


Group 6

Minnie Mouse. This was as good as hiring members for a big movie. But they did not anticipate the

difficulties they would face. It was quite the task making these employees keep the “Disney smile”

plastered on their faces all day. Another major issue was the implementation of the Disney look, a set of

regulations that Disney required of all its staff members to adhere to. It defined down to the detail, the

size of earrings, fingernails, hair color, prohibiting facial hair. The Europeans thought that this was a step

against their expression of individualism. Thus Disney lost out on a lot of performers who would have

wanted to be a part of the family had these rules not been there.

Cultural assumptions: French visitors at Disney were shocked to see that no wine was served inside the

park. The Europeans were accustomed to having wine with their lunch or dinners. This was in keeping

with the idea that the park was a family environment and hence Disney did not allow sale of any alcohol

in the park. Another issue that cropped up was that the Europeans ate lunch ate a particular time. Hence

all the restaurants used to get crowded and there were waiting times. The Americans did not eat at a

particular time. The Europeans loved big breakfasts and wanted to try American breakfasts, but Disney

served European breakfasts. Another problem that was plaguing Disney was that the French refused to

stand in queues peacefully which caused problems for other visitors in the park.

LESSONS LEARNT AND IMPLEMENTATION:

Disney should have followed some basic steps before it undertook such a massive project of setting up a

theme park of such epic proportions. Disney tried to bulldoze its theme park and anticipated the

Europeans would welcome them with open arms and big pockets. Had they taken a basic step of

conducting a market research, then they would have had an easier process in setting up the theme park.

1. A thorough market research and analysis: A primary step any company should undertake before

entering into any new market. Disney was blinded by its success of its theme park in America that it

assumed that Europeans would also be the same. Disney did not take cultural issues into account, the

differences in Americans and Europeans. A thorough market research would have helped them

understand what their potential customers‟ want, their behavioral patterns to which Disney could have

catered.

2. Staffing: Disney should have known previously that Europeans are highly individualistic. They should

have tweaked their Disney look for the theme park. They should not have insisted on having the same

values as in their American staff. A very good way to have approached this would have been to have all

French and European managers on the ground as well as the top management. These managers would


Group 6

have more experience and basic know how in dealing with staff, investors, media, suppliers. Decisions

should have been taken on French soil and not in America.

3. Compromise: Lastly Disney should have realized early on that the way to the French people‟s heart is

through their culture. Compromising on some instances like the appearance codes, alcohol ban, labor

issues, management control etc. early on would have gone a long way in ensuring a success for Disney in

France. Cultural differences need to be addressed and not just be assumed that the foreign country will adopt

domestic views. The way Europeans took holidays, bought souvenirs, took transport and ate, all affected Euro

Disney‟s performance as what was implemented was wrongly assumed and therefore resulted in bad turn outs,

because Europeans would rather continue doing what they were used to. Despite Disney adopting some European

attractions at Euro Disney, they were wrong to assume that Europeans wanted American things, resulting in the

Europeans feeling that the American management system was bold and insensitive. Therefore, it is essential to be

sensitive and considerate of the Europeans needs.

CULTURAL CHALLENGES POSED BY DISNEY IN ASIA AND THEIR DIFFERENCE FROM

THOSE FACED IN EUROPE:

The Asian market with its large population and still developing theme park industry poses a very

attractive location to Disney for building its future ventures. This belief has been further aided by its

success in Tokyo with Tokyo Disneyland. And although Hong Kong Disneyland has been comparatively

less successful than estimated, Walt Disney Co. believes that building another theme park in Asia won‟t

cannibalize its sales in the other two theme parks in Asia but rather bring them new customers. However,

Disney‟s faces some cultural challenges in Asia listed as below:

Language Barriers: The Chinese predominantly speak Mandarin and Cantonese and a large part

of the population still doesn‟t speak English. To deal with this challenge, Disney announced that

Hong Kong Disneyland will be trilingual with English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Changes in layout: Many Disney characters are specifically popular with Asian tourists as

compared to others, as the Asian Children have grown up watching these Cartoon characters on

television. In order to attract these tourists it was decided that the Hong Kong Disneyland park

would include a fantasy garden for taking pictures with these Disney Characters

Weather: Asian weather is generally very humid and rainy. Hence Hong Kong Disneyland was

built with more covered and rainproof spaces to accommodate the „drizzly‟ climate.

Food preferences: In order to appeal to the cultural sensibility of the locals, the menus at Hong

Kong Disneyland were altered to include the local favourites. However this backfired as the


Group 6

decision to serve shark fin soup, a local favourite, greatly angered environmentalists and the park

ultimately had to remove the dish from its menu.

Festivals, celebrations and events: Lack of knowledge about the Chinese festivals and

celebrations cost Disney as park executives failed to plan for the large influx of visitors around

the Chinese New Year in early 2006, forcing them to turn away numerous patrons who had valid

tickets thus angering many customers.

The differences in cultural challenges faced in Europe are as listed below:

Language barriers: In order to accommodate the multilingual tourists visiting Euro Disneyland

French and English were the official languages in the park and multilingual guides were available

to help Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian visitors.

Changes in Layout: Many changes in layout were made to accommodate the cultural preferences

of the French people. Because research indicated that Europeans loved prohibition Era,

Mainstreet USA was based on America in the 1920s and it was made more Victorian than

Midwestern. Disney Tomorrowland was replaced by Discoverland based on themes of Jules

Verne and Leonardo Da Vinci. Visionarium exhibit was added which was a 360 degree movie

about French culture. Disneyland‟s castle is based on Germany‟s Neuschwanstein & Disney

world‟s is based on a Loire Valley chateau, Euro Disney‟s Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois

Dormant, i.e. sleeping Beauty‟s castle is cartoonlike with stained glass windows built by English

craftspeople & depicting Disney characters.

Weather: European weather is generally cold and rainy. The park had 35 fireplaces to provide

shelter to people during rains.

Food preferences: Most restaurants sold American food however many recipes were adapted for

European tastes. Europeans don‟t care much for spicy food so Tex-Mex recipes were toned down.

A special coffee blend was developed which would have universal appeal. However Euro

Disneyland had an alcohol ban despite the French attitude that wine with a meal is a God given

right and this backfired.

Other: Besides the differences in cultural challenges mentioned above, Euro Disneyland also had

an appearance code for uniform, hairstyles, jewelry which went against the French culture of

individualism and hence led to many protests among the labor unions. The French were also

reluctant to play the game of queuing as they believed that God hadn‟t meant them to queue. Also

to avoid uncertainty, even after the opening of Euro Disneyland, many Europeans still preferred

visiting the Disneyland in Florida.


Group 6

CULTURAL VARIABLES INFLUENCING THE LOCATION CHOICE OF THEME PARKS

AROUND THE WORLD

Cultural variables such as language, food, different festivals, easy transportation and time influence the

location of theme parks. Every Disneyland has its own features and also combines with local culture so

that they fulfill tourists‟ needs. Organizers have to consider the people‟s language and other cultural

influences. For example in Hong Kong Disneyland languages like English, Cantonese, and Mandarin

were spoken where as in Euro Disneyland languages like German, English, Spanish, and Italian were

spoken. The variables also influence the design and arrangement of the theme park. Organizers have to

consider elements such as gender and time factor. The cultural variables will define the kind of characters

that can be in the theme parks. For instance, children in America and Asia have different favorite cartoon

characters. The location of the characters in and around theme parks is a major priority for children. There

are different festivals in different disneylands like Hong Kong‟s Disney also displays different kind of

theme parks to match the local festivals such as the Chinese New Year celebration so that tourists can feel

the special Chinese atmosphere in Disneyland because all of the theme parks were decorated with many

of decorations which are the symbol of Chinese New Year and Halloween is celebrated in America. There

are lot of cultural challenges, climatic challenges which influences the location choice of theme parks

around the world upto a large extend. For instance, there are more covered and rainproof spaces to

accommodate the drizzly climate in Hong Kong Disneyland. The Wal Disney company rejected

Singapore as their next location for Disneyland becaure of limited attractions, hot weather, and high ticket

prices.

LOCATION RECOMMENDED FOR DISNEY’S NEXT THEME PARK IN ASIA

Disney should explore an opportunity to setup the theme park in India. Indians love experiencing other

cultures. Indians tend to have family holidays in America or Hong Kong. They plan a trip to visit the

theme park as their children want to meet Mickey Mouse. Disney could bring Mickey to India. Also the

current political situation seems ripe for such a huge investment. The government would be very helpful

in providing resources. With a huge population, there will be no dearth of employment applications. And

Disney could get a positive branding as a provider of jobs too.

Indians celebrate a lot of festivals round the year. Disney could very well exploit that also.

Euro Disneyland & Beyond Tokyo Case Analysis

Documents

Transcript of Euro Disneyland & Beyond Tokyo Case Analysis