Originally Posted By Mr X Honestly I think the OLC is just fine with that, too. The parks are, let's be honest, NOT geared towards the needs of a large international contingent like WDW, Paris, or even Anaheim is (Hong Kong is very Chinese, but since English is common there it, too, is a lot more accessible in many ways than the Japan resort), and I think they'd just as soon keep it that way. Of course, if their numbers suddenly plummeted due to Japanese folks suddenly staying away in droves (hard to imagine!), they'd probably have a different attitude towards international customers. But for now? They really couldn't care less. We've all heard the complaints about how near impossible it is to book a room, make dining reservations, or generally handle ANYTHING from outside the country without great effort and expense (phone charges, anyway), and that's not the sort of thing that tends to make people interested in coming. Again too, as I wrote earlier, Japan itself is pretty darned far down the list of "tourist destinations" so Disney or no, it's not as though there is a whole lot of enthusiasm from the international tourism crowds to even set foot in the country (not so for Paris, don't know about HK but I imagine it's seen as more "Western Friendly" due to ties even still to England).
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara Granted the numbers below, culled from an Internet website are from 1998, but they're probably not radically different now: Top Tourist Destinations Dateline: 05/08/99 The World Tourism Organization (WTO) recently released their data for the world's top tourist destinations for 1998. Below is a list of the twenty top countries that received tourists for more than one day, along with the number of visitors for 1998. 1. France - 70,000,000 2. Spain - 47,743,000 3. United States - 47,127,000 4. Italy - 34,829,000 5. United Kingdom - 25,475,000 6. China - 24,000,000 7. Mexico - 19,300,000 8. Poland - 18,820,000 9. Canada - 18,659,000 10. Austria - 17,282,000 11. Germany - 16,504,000 12. Czech Republic - 16,325,000 13. Russia - 15,810,000 14. Hungary - 14,660,000 15. Portugal - 11,800,000 16. Greece - 11,077,000 17. Switzerland - 11,025,00 18. Hong Kong* - 9,600,000 19. Turkey - 9,200,000 20. Thailand - 7,720,000
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara In 2005, according to another Internet website, Tokyo was the 51st most visited city in the world (pretty low on the list): London 1 15,640 Bangkok 2 10,350 Paris 3 9,700 Singapore 4 9,502 Hong Kong 5 8,139 New York City 6 6,219 Dubai 7 6,120 Rome 8 6,033 Seoul 9 4,920 Barcelona 10 4,695 Dublin 11 4,469 Bahrain 12 4,418 Shanghai 13 4,315 Toronto 14 4,160 Kuala Lumpur 15 4,125 Istanbul 16 3,994 Madrid 17 3,921 Amsterdam 18 3,901 Mecca 19 3,800 Prague 20 3,702 Moscow 21 3,695 Beijing 22 3,593 Vienna 23 3,339 Taipei 24 3,280 St.Petersburg 25 3,200 Cancun 26 3,074 Macau 27 3,072 Venice 28 2,927 Warsaw 29 2,925 Mexico 30 2,823 Los Angeles 31 2,513 Guangzhou 32 2,512 Benidorm 33 2,457 Berlin 34 2,309 Rio De Janeiro 35 2,185 Budapest 36 2,043 San Francisco 37 1,993 Orlando 38 1,993 Miami 39 1,972 Munich 40 1,925 Shenzen 41 1,904 Milan 42 1,902 Sydney 43 1,852 Oahu/Honolulu 44 1,733 Cairo 45 1,720 Florence 46 1,715 Lisbon 47 1,715 Las Vegas 48 1,647 Hangzhou 49 1,562 Marrakesh 50 1,500 Tokyo 51 1,467
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "The Walt Disney Company, if it's not already as obvious as it can be, has no interest in driving people to a park it merely receives a royalty on when it can drive people to a park it owns." I never thought otherwise.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones My point is that it's unfortunate seeing so many people waste their money on a trip to Disney World when they could visit a Disney theme park the way it's supposed to be done. I would trade three Disney World trips for one Tokyo Disney trip anytime.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow, I'm shocked that China is so high on the first list and Las Vegas is so low on the second!
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara Most people who you believe to be wasting their money on a trip to Walt Disney World don't agree with you that their money is wasted, and families with four people who go to Walt Disney World and pay about $200 or less per person for a plane ticket or drive (and those two categories account for many folks) would NEVER consider spending over $4000 on plane tickets to go to the Tokyo Disney Resort. And they're also used to paying as little as $75 a night to stay in a Disney Hotel, not the minimum $400 a night it's going to cost to stay at a Disney Hotel at the Tokyo Resort. You don't understand their mindset, or their economic situation (or what they are willing to spend on a Disney vacation), and you certainly don't seem to understand (or want to believe) that most of the people who go to Walt Disney World LOVE IT and go back repeatedly. They don't want to go to California, much less Japan.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "and you certainly don't seem to understand (or want to believe) that most of the people who go to Walt Disney World LOVE IT and go back repeatedly." Oh, I understand it. I just think it's unfortunate. And not all of these visitors are staying at the value resort. They are setting themselves up in the Grand Floridian or the Contemporary Hotel, and those ain't cheap. There are also a lot of people going to WDW, and Disneyland, who endlessly bitch about it, but are happy to keep forking over the cash. TDR is like the Mecca of Disney theme parks. If you've got the means, visit it at least once. And Lord knows a lot of these Disney fans on both coasts spend enough money on Disney crap to spring for plane tickets to Tokyo...
Originally Posted By MagicalNezumi Also, for many people who visit their closest Resort like WDW or DLR, once a year of anything Disney is better than nothing. So for those occasional but long-stay visitors, those Parks are good enough for them. If they are getting entertained and satisfying their Disney fix at WDW, then I say good for them. It's not like the average visitor here in the Tokyo boards who have visited all the other Disney Resorts around the world and can more easily compare which one is "better" or "gives a richer experience." -- MagicalNezumi
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "Also, for many people who visit their closest Resort like WDW or DLR, once a year of anything Disney is better than nothing." But the alternative is not nothing. The alternative is foregoing this year's WDW trip and next year's WDW trip and going to TDR. Keep in mind, if you've been to WDW or DLR once, twice, thrice or more, your marginal enjoyment each subsequent trip decreases. However, taking your first trip to TDR is probably way more special than your sixth trip to Disneyland or Disney World. So I whole-heartedly encourage people to save up for a trip to TDR. And don't forget to see Tokyo while you're there, if you can pull yourself away from the parks
Originally Posted By MagicalNezumi First of all Spokker, I agree that people should save up and try to visit Tokyo and the Parks here at least once! Some of us are just lucky to live around here. Hehehe. The thing is that even though their marginal enjoyment may decrease, It's something that they know beforehand that is familiar and enjoyable for their spending cash. For many families or groups, going to a foreign land to spend a lot of money on something they might or might not enjoy could be a bigger and unnecessary risk. Especially if it is to see something they may already know back home. Such as: "Why am I going to go to Japan to see Mickey speak in a language I don't understand when I can see him speak English here?" -- MagicalNezumi
Originally Posted By Mr X ***But the alternative is not nothing. The alternative is foregoing this year's WDW trip and next year's WDW trip and going to TDR.*** For many, giving up a year is a great sacrifice in order to spend MUCH more money just to go to "some other Disneyland". That's pretty much how most people see it, I'd say. People don't really even bother going to California as someone already mentioned, they just go back to WDW year after year. You would hardly expect folks who haven't ever even bothered checking out Anaheim to fly all the way to Asia.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< It's not like the average visitor here in the Tokyo boards who have visited all the other Disney Resorts around the world and can more easily compare which one is "better" or "gives a richer experience." >>> People just need to learn how to freeload better.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< "The Walt Disney Company, if it's not already as obvious as it can be, has no interest in driving people to a park it merely receives a royalty on when it can drive people to a park it owns." I never thought otherwise. >>> Nor have I. For some reason, Mara seems intent on interpreting something that's not there so that he can oppose it.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Yeah - the way he reacted it was like Spok pissed on his chips or something. Calm down, Mara mate! It's all good and we only post with such passion about the TDR because we love it so much. I think some people's problem is with(what many of us consider)the Disney Rubes that go back year after year to Orlando but want to come on here and bitch and whinge about it every single time, as well. The ones I hold in the greatest contempt are the people planning their third WDW holiday for that year, complain about it beforehand and then finish by saying, "Oh I guess I'll NEVER be able to afford to visit the wonderful TDR." Spoiled bloody Americans.
Originally Posted By leemac <<The Imagineers didn't make a peep about Tokyo. That couldn't have been a coincidence.>> Actually it is. All of the five resorts, DCL and all of the outside-the-berm stuff were considered for the exhibit. The problem is that there isn't much going on at TDR. The current slate is limited to Toy Story Midway Mania and the Cinderella Castle Walk-thru - and the models for both are in Tokyo. Carting those models around is not cheap. So it wasn't a deliberate attempt to not highlight TDR or DLRP but there was little value in trying to show their plans. Mystic Manor does leverage off of the storyline for TDS' Tower of Terror - but Mystic's monkey is of far greater importance. The attraction has an excellent show script by one of the best writers that WDI has - Rob Coltrin.
Originally Posted By Mr X SO, Lee, are we going to see Mystic Manor in DisneySea sometime in the future?
Originally Posted By leemac I doubt it. There is a plan to get more family-friendly attractions into the park but I don't envisage Mystic Manor joining the ranks at TDS. But you never say never....
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< So it wasn't a deliberate attempt to not highlight TDR or DLRP >>> I certainly didn't get the sense that there was. Since the notion that some think there was seems partly to come from what I had said, let me once again state that I don't think there was any attempt to favor or disfavor any particular resort during the Expo. In fact, all of my comments were intended to say exactly the opposite: I've never seen a more even-handed and neutral handling of the various Parks & Resorts assets than what was presented at the Expo.
