Quote:
Originally Posted by emtpej  Dave,
I guess with the success of the special events in the parks, they don't think a 'party' area is as important, anymore...
Do you think this part of an over-all strategy to be more appealing to locals / short distance travelers?
A week-end press conference get less attention, but they also get more air time to tell their side of things, as opposed to sound bites? |
EJ, you may very well be right on a variety of counts. Between EMH and the special, hard-ticketed events, the money from those operations undoubtedly eclipses anything they could do at PI.
PI/Downtown has always been part of the local/short-distance strategy, which has since been honed with their experience at Anaheim's Downtown Disney. It occurs to me that they may have learned that locals may come back more often for shopping and dining, or are more likely to spend money somewhere that they can't keep themselves entertained with a well-used AP.
Press conference timing? You're right about the benefits of that, especially for organizations that have a tougher time getting media attention and/or want extra air time. The trade-off is in audience numbers. That's not a bad trade-off if you're the local children's zoo - that's classic "soft news," which even if it could draw a local news team might not attract them all, and which could count on being the first story bumped if there's a major pileup on I-4, or a spectacular brush fire. When you're Disney and it's Orlando, you can pretty well demand as much airtime as you need, any day of the week. Changes of this sort at Disney top-line business/economic/employment news in the Orlando area.