Theme Park Rivals Must Compete With Mickey : Europeans Responding to Disney Challenge
A battle is looming in the playgrounds of Europe. Mickey Mouse is squaring off against Asterix the Gaul, Madame Tussaud and the men from Walibi.
Despite the unlikely cast of characters, this is no cartoon. From Paris to London, Brussels to Cologne, it is a very real fight for the billions of dollars spent in Europe each year on leisure.
The battle will be fought in theme parks, some loosely built around a cartoon character, with all the thrills of a fair on a vast scale.
Disneyland launched the genre in Southern California more than 30 years ago and its rivals, future and present, are looking to cash in on an affluent and mobile market when the English Channel rail tunnel linking Britain and continental Europe opens in 1992.
The biggest new project by far is EuroDisneyland, a $7-billion, 5,000-acre venture with Mickey Mouse as its heraldic emblem to be built on the outskirts of Paris. It is scheduled to open in 1992.
Its organizers hope to attract 11 million visitors in its first year. “I believe this park will be sold out from day one,” Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael D. Eisner said recently. “The problem’s not going to be attracting new people. The problem is going to be having it big enough.”
In addition, MCA Inc., the entertainment giant that owns Universal Studios, has expressed interest in developing a park in Europe.
“The Europeans will have to stand up to the Americans, or they just won’t do very well,” said a spokesman for Warburg Securities in London.
Variations on theme parks have been around Europe for years. Phantasialand in Bruehl, West Germany, attracts 2.2 million visitors a year, many from Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
Museums and exhibitions still attract crowds and money. Madame Tussaud’s London museum of historical waxworks, for instance, pulled in 2.4 million visitors in 1987, making it the biggest British leisure attraction.
But Madame Tussaud’s is small in scale. The bigger, park-scale venue is where the European barons of leisure are taking on the threat of Mickey Mouse, even in his adopted French back yard.
Albert Uderzo recently opened the 390-acre Asterix Park north of Paris inspired by a Gallic comic strip hero. The park was brought alive by a subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC of Britain and a 20-company consortium which put up $134 million.
“I went on a visit to Disneyland with my family eight years ago and we thought: We’re no more stupid than the rest, why can’t we do the same thing (in France),” Uderzo said.
Fairground Update
Asterix Park’s fairground origins have received a heavy brush of period paint: Bumper cars become Roman chariots, a raft ride is changed to a trip down the underworld River Styx. Entrance costs $20 for adults, $15 for children.
“We have got three years to prepare and improve. We hope when Disneyland opens that we’ll be able to stand the shock, although we know it’s still going to be a very severe one,” said an Asterix Park spokesman, Emmanuel Mougon.
There are 37 leisure parks in Britain and more are planned. Alton Towers in central England greeted 2.3 million visitors last year.
Britain’s tourist industry has a problem, though. Britons heading for the continent far outnumber those crossing the other way. Some 4.6 million people from West Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium traveled to Britain in 1986, while British traffic the other way was 8.1 million.
The British Tourist Board recognizes the threat. “By the 1990s, the massive Eurodisney will be open. Because of the time required to build and open new enterprises, planning must start now to ensure that our attractions satisfy both domestic and international demand,” a spokesman said.
The Disney park and Asterix Park are obvious attractions for such cross-channel tourism. So, too, are those offered by Belgium’s Walibi Group. It is developing a theme park near Grenoble, France, called Walibi Rhone Alpes and already has a 138-acre park in central Belgium that attracted 1.4 million visitors last year. Its investment there was $12 million and will rise to $17.7 million this year.
Interests in Other Parks
Walibi has interests in several other parks and is looking forward to 1992. “I think the channel tunnel will strongly increase the number of British tourists,” said Eddy Meeus, Walibi chairman.
Whether theme parks will capture the imagination of European tourists remains to be seen.
“The French have not yet got the habit of going to theme parks,” said Mougon of Asterix Park. “They need to be trained, to learn about parks where you come and spend the whole day.”
But according to the Warburg Securities spokesman, European theme parks will not necessarily lose out even if Disney makes the transition successfully to Europe.
“Most of them have welcomed the investment that’s been made by Disney. It’s bringing a U.S. concept over here and Disney has shown itself to be the best manager of it. If it can make theme parks successful and popular over here, that will be good for everyone,” he said.
A common characteristic of the home-grown European park is that it is small compared to Disney, and Asterix Park’s Uderzo thinks small is beautiful--and profitable.
“Asterix represents the triumph of the small guy against the bully, the weak against the powerful, the individual against the establishment. Whether it’s in France, Germany or England, everybody can identify with that,” he said.
