Strategic decisions help Europe discover Disney park's 'magic'
By Lark Borden
Gannett News Service
MARNE-LA-VALLEE, France — It has been 10 years since Mickey Mouse set up his European Disney homestead in what appeared to be any rodent's field of dreams — 30 miles east of central Paris in the capital of Brie cheese production.
Success for what was then called Euro Disney seemed not just inevitable, but automatic.
But the theme park's well-known pre-opening tremors, including the usual headline-grabbing French resistance among the country's culture police, turned into a mild earthquake.
On opening day in April 1992, truckers — in solidarity with the area's farmers — blockaded roads leading to the park. A generator to the complex was sabotaged. Communist party activists and libertarians joined farmers in protesting the opening, an American cultural invasion and the encroachment of development on rich agricultural land.
Still, its biggest dilemma was opening a pricey theme park during Europe's prolonged post-Persian Gulf War recession.
But Disney turned the mousetrap into a Cinderella story and Mickey's chateau in suburban Paris now attracts about 12 million customers per year.
A new captain at the helm, the advent of service by the under-the-English-Channel high-speed Eurostar train service, three name changes, restructuring of prices, changes in policy regarding serving alcoholic beverages and relaxing the employee dress code and other concessions have quietly resulted in the theme park complex becoming the No. 1 destination resort for European vacationers and day-trippers.
And, on its 10th anniversary, a second theme park opened to stellar reviews, even from the fickle French. As the Walt Disney Studios park opened, only a handful of protesters briefly showed up, this time objecting as much to McDonald's as Disney and their issue was wages, not encroachment.
The "magic" didn't happen without Disney having to do some soul-searching.
"Ten years ago, we didn't understand the right balance between what was Disney culture and what was really the multicultural basis of the park," says Jay Rasulo, CEO of Euro Disney S.A., the Disney-European partnership that runs the resort.
"We thought at that point that Disney will overcome all," he says.
"For instance, as it was Disney culture not to serve wine in the Magic Kingdom, so, too, we figured that we are not going to serve wine or beer here. This was assuming that all the people know this is Disney so they're just not going to want to have beer with their sauerkraut or wine with their lunch. In fact, what we found was that our guests come to Disney but this Disney is in Europe and in Europe they do expect to find wine, even in a theme park. They want things that are familiar.
"Let's face it, we have become a lot more knowledgeable about our clients and the multicultural aspects of our guests."
But these strategic changes were not all bows to Disney's host nation. When it came to serving wine, it was the Spanish and Italians whose demands also were answered. And beer, considered a breakfast food group in some neighboring countries, was a must for Germans, Belgians, British, Dutch and Danes.
Disney chief Michael Eisner told Gannett News Service that still, "the park is really a Disney park first and foremost. Things have only modestly changed.
"What has changed is that time has made it (the park) a part of the French landscape where 10 years ago the French may have looked at it as a foreign invasion."
