Disneyland Paris needs bailout

EURO Disney is having to be bailed out to the tune of €1 billion by its parent company due to declining visitors.

The Walt Disney Company is to foot the bill for a massive recapitalisation plan to shore up its finances, said Euro Disney – an announcement which saw its shares fall on the Paris Bourse.

Even though it remains Europe’s biggest privately-owned visitor attraction in terms of visitors, Disneyland Paris has been losing customers and money. Financial newspaper Les Echos states that this season saw numbers down around 700-800,000 on 2013 (to about 14.1-14.2million), a year which in turn saw a drop of around a million on the previous year.

The firm made net losses of more than €100 million between October last year and March this year.

The problems have raised fears of lay-offs but the company, which employs some 15,000, says this is not on the cards. One of the unions, CGT, says it hopes recent investment into a new Ratatouille attraction will boost visitors.

The poor performance is in contrast to the Puy du Fou in the Vendée, which has announced a record year, cementing its position as France’s top theme park after Disneyland Paris.

Connexion talks to the Puy du Fou in November’s issue, about their success and how they are now helping a British team establish a similar attraction in the UK.

Photo: David Jafra/Flickr