Attendance Doubles at California Adventure

Walt Disney Co.’s 5-month-old California Adventure theme park has doubled its daily turnout in recent weeks using discounts and a revived attraction to boost lagging attendance, a park executive said.

Last month, Disney began offering discounts for Southern California residents to the Anaheim theme park. And this week, Disney began the annual summer performances of the “Electrical Parade” of Disney characters through California Adventure.

The promotions come after a weakening U.S. economy hurt attendance at Disney’s parks in Anaheim and Orlando, Fla., analysts have said. The lower theme park attendance is expected to contribute to a decline in profit for Burbank-based Disney in the fiscal quarter ended June 30.

Cynthia Harriss, president of Disneyland Resort, said she’s “optimistic” that the current volume of traffic will hold up through the summer, based on the number of calls that Disney’s travel business is receiving.