Tomorrowland Aims to Dig Up the Past

ANAHEIM —  The towering Astro Orbiter ride, its rockets circling planets and other celestial bodies, commands the center of attention in the newly refurbished Tomorrowland that Disneyland officially opens in May--just in time for the peak summer season.

But Tomorrowland is more than reworked rides and attractions. It’s Walt Disney Co.’s own $100-million-plus bet on the immediate future of its original theme park.

For the next three years, Disneyland’s hopes for luring more patrons hinge on the Tomorrowland face lift--which has become the park’s largest and costliest project. It will be Disneyland’s only major new attraction until its $1.4-billion California Adventure, a separate theme park, opens next door in 2001.

Competitors, meantime, won’t be letting up. The industry is expected to spend record amounts this year as amusement parks try to come up with the monster ride that will out-thrill all the others and attract the tourist bucks.

Competition for Tourist Dollar

In Southern California, the most competitive turf of all, Six Flags Magic Mountain will soon open what it calls the world’s tallest and fastest stand-up roller coaster. Over the next year, Knott’s Berry Farm will launch more new rides and shows than ever before, including the state’s largest wooden roller coaster. Universal Studios is adding a movie-themed attraction this summer. Another major attraction, the $117-million Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, opens in June.

“As people have more choices, the chances they will do a repeat visit grows less and less,” said Tim O’Brien, an Amusement Business magazine writer who has written several books on the theme park industry. “But if you can offer something different, then that’s where you bring people back.”

The park that Walt Disney built in 1955 has relied on the nostalgic appeal of attractions such as the Sleeping Beauty Castle to win over new generations. But the state’s largest tourist attraction also must tempt a public always in search of the next adrenaline surge.

For Disneyland, the revitalized Tomorrowland is the “key marketing message for 1998 and beyond,” park spokesman Tom Brocato said. “We anticipate it will be a very big draw.”

While no one doubts the new Tomorrowland will be a good draw, the question is whether it will be the huge magnet Disneyland hopes for.

The park has had smaller-scale disappointments. Last fall, for instance, the heavily promoted but much-maligned Light Magic parade went on “hiatus” for two years for retooling after the park spent $20 million on the show.

Trying to Regain Attendance Lead

Long known as North America’s most popular park, Disneyland saw its lead in attendance overtaken through much of the 1990s by Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Disneyland reasserted itself as top gun for two years when the Indiana Jones Adventure ride sent visitor numbers soaring 40% in 1995. But attendance slipped 5% last year, and the park fell a notch in the rankings.

The effort to lure more patrons, though, extends beyond the park’s rankings. Southern California also is fighting for more visitors, tourism experts said.

Battered by El Nino storms and feeling the pinch of a drop in travelers from financially beleaguered Asian countries, the region is banking on Disneyland’s promotions this year to persuade tourists to come here--instead of nearby areas like Las Vegas--and to stay longer.

“Tomorrowland couldn’t have happened at a better time,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County. “I think it’s going to have significant impact.”

Improvements Said Long Overdue

Built as one of the original sections of the park, Tomorrowland was last remodeled in the late 1960s, though a few attractions have been added since. Improvements were considered long overdue.

“The future is always the hardest themed approach to deal with because they’re old before they’re done,” said Dennis Speigel, an industry consultant based in Ohio.

Inspired by futurists like science fiction novelist Jules Verne, Disneyland executives envisioned Tomorrowland as a shrine to idealism--a retro-future combination of high-technology and nostalgia.

The job of rejuvenating the area fell to a group headed by Tony Baxter, senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering, the subsidiary that develops new projects.

Baxter wanted visitors to feel the rush he got in seeing the latest, cutting-edge gizmos at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. So within Tomorrowland, he created attractions that will try to keep pace with innovation.

Visitors will see, for instance, how emerging technology will be incorporated into their lives at Innoventions, an exhibit based on an Epcot Center model at Walt Disney World.

Featuring soon-to-be-released consumer products provided by the exhibit’s corporate sponsors, the displays will change every six months or less to attract repeat visitors. Had it been open three years ago, for example, Innoventions would have fashioned a display showing the advantages of Microsoft’s Windows 95 software.

“I’d like people to have the first look at things . . . that better their work and play environments,” Baxter said. More importantly, he hopes patrons will be drawn back by the ever-changing exhibits.

Still, Tomorrowland, with its bright, angular buildings rounded off and painted in copper and bronze tones, contains a bit of the familiar:

* Space Mountain, the indoor cosmo-themed roller coaster, and Star Tours, a simulation ride featuring characters from the “Star Wars” movie trilogy, were given new quirks.

* The adventure movie “Captain EO” will be replaced by “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.” One special effect will be a floor that moves the seats in sync with the film.

* The Astro Orbiter ride, a striking sculpture of celestial bodies, replaces the Rocket Jets with starships that patrons pilot up and down as they go ‘round and ‘round.

* The new Rocket Rods XPR will follow the PeopleMover’s path, circling the renovated area in four minutes instead of 16 minutes, claiming the title as the park’s fastest ride, at 35 mph.

Though the park is slowly restarting various attractions--Star Tours, for instance, is now open--it has scheduled its grand reopening ceremonies for May 22.

Baxter hopes Tomorrowland will be an antidote to the version of the future now playing on television and at the movies. Optimism once fueled dreams about exploring outer space when Tomorrowland was launched, but today, he says, cynicism drives sci-fi movie thrillers, painting a dark and dire future.

“It’s harder for kids today to dream about living and taking a role in a future that’s believable, not threatening,” Baxter said. “We want to create a soft environment where dreams can take flight again.”

Other Businesses Banking on Disney

Tomorrowland’s opening bolsters hopes that tourist numbers will be stronger throughout Southern California this year.

Disneyland promotions will be splashed across the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe, helping to boost tourism in general throughout Southern California.

“We anticipate a strong surge in bookings throughout the summer,” said David Palmer, assistant vice president of marketing for Alaskan Airlines, one of the largest sellers of Disneyland packages.

This week, the park and the airliner launched a Tomorrowland advertising campaign in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. By this summer, Palmer said, the carrier expects to add five more flights to its 32 daily trips into Southern California. Many passengers, he said, will be headed to Disneyland.

The Anaheim Marriott, a major base for Disneyland visitors, will increase its front desk staff by as much as 10% this summer to handle what it expects will be larger crowds pulled in by the new renovation, said Jon Lockwood, the hotel’s director of sales.

“We look at the opening of Tomorrowland as being on par, if not stronger, than when the Indiana Jones ride opened,” he said.

Pacific Coast Sightseeing-Gray Line of Anaheim will add 10% more drivers, said Daniel Ferry, the bus tour company’s operating manager. Tomorrowland’s reopening, he said, could double ridership on a transit system that shuttles passengers to major sites throughout the county.

Visitors driving to the park for the first time in a year will have to get used to detours and new parking lots as construction abounds on the roads and buildings in and around Disneyland.

But park executives don’t believe that traffic delays hinder attendance.

“We feel people will continue to come back to Disneyland because of the product and the overall guest experience that we provide,” spokesman Brocato said.

Though Tomorrowland is expected to realize its greatest gains in patrons during its first year, analysts said, it should attract new and repeat visitors beyond that.

“If Disneyland has a great year,” Ferry said, “then we will too.”

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Thinning Crowd

Disneyland attendance reached a decade-long peak in 1996 but slumped 11% last year. Attendance, in millions:

1987: 13.5

1997: 14.3

Source: Amusement Business magazine

Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times

Playing Field

Despite an attendance lag, Disneyland was still the second most popular theme park in the United States in 1997. Attendance in millions, California parks in bold (*):

1. The Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World): 17.00

2. Disneyland: 14.25*

3. EPCOT (Walt Disney World): 11.79

4. Disney-MGM Studios (Walt Disney World): 10.47

5. Universal Studios Florida: 8.90

6. Universal Studios Hollywood: 5.40*

7. Sea World of Florida: 4.90

8. Busch Gardens: 4.20

9. Sea World of California: 3.99*

10. Six Flags Great Adventure: 3.70

11. Knott’s Berry Farm: 3.65*

12. Six Flags Magic Mountain: 3.40*

Source: Amusement Business magazine ; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times