Disneyland Paris free essay sample

However, the expectation of a successful first Disney theme park in Europe was just a dream. There were barely 50,000 visitors on the opening days while it was expected 500,000 visitors (Hill, 2000). Euro Disney failed to attract local visitors due to some factors that also contributed poor performance during its first year operation. Enforcement or ethnocentrism tendency of American culture to be followed in the park which were resulting in controversies, little knowledge of local culture, and Global recession at the end of 1980s and intense competitions were the main factors of Euro Disney’s poor performance. Euro Disney completely copied American Culture to Europe due to an unexpected success of Tokyo Disneyland which also did the same (Lainsbury, 2000). They thought that French could easily accept American culture as what the Japanese did. However, French are really proud of their culture, such as language, history, and country (Euromonitor International 2012). They have their own lovable cartoon characters. Without the mixture of France’s and America’s cartoon characters, Euro Disney failed to attract local people. Followed by the policy of Euro Disney, any alcoholic beverages were not allowed within the park. This was again a proof that Disney did not respect the local culture. French is the biggest consumers of wine, so that a meal without wine is out of mind. It leaded to controversies and debates which Ariane Mnouchkine, a Parisian stage director mentioned it as cultural Chernobyl (Chu La Vallee, 2002). The American culture enforcement also affected its employee’s policies. One of the main problems was the American managers requiring all meeting onducted in English (Hill, 2000). As have mentioned before, French are really proud of their culture including their language. The enforcement in using English in every meeting that attended by the majority of French were just unthinkable. The appearance of the employees was also strictly limited with the American standard. This was considered as a violation towards individual liberty which is illegal under the French Law. As a result, emplo yees’ satisfaction and the quality of work decreased tremendously. Disney was not knowledgeable about the local culture, thus, everything was based on the wrong assumption which affected the constructions, designs, and park management. The restaurant was downsized as the Disney executives received wrong information that Europeans does not take breakfast. As a result, 350-seat restaurant could not accommodate 2,500 people, the waiting line was terrible, and the guests’ satisfaction decreased badly. Besides that, wrong assumption also affected the park staffing schedule. A general assumption of Monday will be light day for visitors while Friday the heavy one was not applied for the French. Wrong assumption caused oversupply of employees on Monday and shortage of employees on Friday and the final result was unhappy and unsatisfied guests. The naming of the Euro Disney contributed to the poor performances of it. Lack of local culture knowledge was the biggest cause. Disney’s CEO, Michael Isner mentioned that †As Americans, the term Euro means glamorous or exciting, but for Europeans, it associated with business, currency, and commerce† (Synder, 2002). One of the factors that out of Disney’s control was the global recession in the end of 1980s. During a recession time, job losses and unemployment is very high (Merriam-Webster, 2011). People tend to cut their spending. They would prioritize for necessary things such as food, utilities, and other for a daily living. Secondary things such as leisure and traveling would not be in the list of the people’s spending. Beside, during its first year operation, Euro Disney could not compete with its competitors such as Parc Asterix which had undergone a major renovation, the Olympics in Barcelona, and the world’s fair in Seville. As a conclusion, all of these factors are foreseeable by Disney. Lack of knowledge of the local culture and the American ethnocentric tendency make the foreseeable things covered with the mist. Global recession, wrong pre-assumption, and Unknowledgeable of local culture are controllable things that can be managed well. For example, during the global recession, Disney can introduce affordable packages which may attract people on visiting Euro Disney. The wrong pre-assumption that affect the construction design can be overcome by building a fast and temporary facilities while waiting for the permanent building is being built. Hiring local French advisor is one of the solutions to the lack of local culture knowledge. Yet, The intense competition that came from the Olympics, world fair, and landmark’s event are foreseeable but it’s hard to be controlled as such Olympics is just happening once in 4years and other events might happens once a year. People are more interested to visit those events rather than Euro Disney that can be visited anytime. The countries that we think would be good for the best next Disney land location are Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jakarta in Indonesia. The reason of the preferences between 2 cities in Asia continent will be explained further below. The UAE is located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula which occupies a position of immense strategic importance (Euromonitor International 2012). It is one of the leading tourist destinations in the Middle East. Dubai, one of the most advance cities in the UAE, is covered with world-class hotels, beach resorts, nightclubs and bars, as well the shopping centres. Thus, Dubai is one of the popular destination for tourism. Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation, is located strategically in South East Asia which is one of the tourism destination as it has many potential tourism attractions (Euromonitor International, 2012). Jakarta, the capital city, is the gate of foreign visitors to enter Indonesia. It offers shopping tourism and historical tourism as well theme parks, such as: Ocean Park Water Adventure, Dunia Fantasi Ancol, etc.