Disney offers park attendees free tickets on their birthdays

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Amid the country’s gathering financial woes, the Walt Disney Co. today announced a new promotion to spur domestic theme park attendance next year: a freebie ticket to parkgoers on their birthdays.

Jay Rasulo, chairman of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, held an event in New York to announce that visitors will receive one free ticket to Walt Disney World or Disneyland on their birthday in 2009 (be sure to bring a valid ID and proof of date of birth).

The promotion, which begins in January, is designed to capitalize on a trend travel researcher Ypartnership dubbed the ‘celebration vacation.’ In a national survey of 4,600 adults who traveled in the past year, nearly three-quarters said they take trips to commemorate life’s milestones, such as a wedding or anniversary, graduation, quinceañeras, a bar or bat mitzvah or retirement.

These travelers say they tend to spend more on these vacations, stay longer and include more people in their plans, said Ypartnership Chief Executive Peter C. Yesawich, who said the research was not funded by Disney.

Disney was quick to seize on the trend and turn it into an occasion to visit the parks.

‘It really wasn’t motivated by economic trends,’ Rasulo said, noting that the campaign has been nearly two years in development. ‘Of course, the underlying strategy behind everything we do is to have people come visit us.’

The business impetus for the campaign is considerably more serious than the balloons and monogrammed mouse ears might suggest.

Disney reported lower attendance at Disney World for its June quarter, compared with last year, in part because the Easter holiday fell earlier than is typical this year. Spending at Disneyland was also off 2%. Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs sought to assure investors in July that the domestic resorts are resisting the downward tug of the economy, noting that fall bookings were ‘virtually on par’ with last year and that the December quarter was ‘modestly ahead.’

Nonetheless, Bernstein Research analyst Michael Nathanson forecasts a 2% decline in park attendance in 2009, with a 7% drop in operating income that will not be offset by increased pricing. ‘So far, parks have been very resilient,’ he said, but Disney World is still vulnerable to a reduction in the number of flights to Orlando.

Hotel industry analyst PKF Hospitality Research predicts the nation’s hotels will face a drop in decline that’s worse than the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, tied to a reduction in the number of domestic flights. The Los Angeles consulting group said occupancy rates in Anaheim are off 3.8% this year, compared with 2007.

Park promotions, such as the ‘Year of a Million Dreams’ (which lasted 18 months) and the 50th anniversary celebration commemorating the opening of Disneyland, have been effective at boosting attendance -- even when Disney has no major new attractions to lure visitors, said Christian Aaen, a principal at Economics Research Associates, an entertainment and tourism consultant.

‘Without any kind of major new market attraction,’ Aaen said, ‘It’s a way to create enthusiasm in the market.’

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times