Disney World And The Successful Evolution Of A Disney Park Theme Resort
The concept of a Disney park theme for the relatively quiet town of Orlando, FL should have brought about a great deal of excitement when it was first announced. After all, the Disney park theme that was established in California was a monstrous success and was drawing millions of people buying millions of dollars of tickets year after year. Surely such success would duplicate itself in Florida. Well, as time has proven, the success did not only repeat itself, but the success of Walt Disney World Orlando significantly exceeded the success of Disney Land California and there is a credible argument that can be made that the Orlando Disney park theme is the “A” attraction while Anaheim’s Disney Land is the “B” show.
As previously mentioned, many pundits had predicted that a Disney park theme in Florida would be a colossal bomb. After all, there already was an established theme park in California. Why would anyone take a chance visiting a start up in Florida? Additionally, most Florida tourism was based on the coastal regions. The inland area where Disney World was being planned for was mostly orange groves and hardly the epicenter of the Florida tourism business. Yet, Walt Disney pressed on with his plans for a southern Disney park theme resort.
Disney believed that he there was great potential to sell tickets to people interested in a Disney park theme, but were unable to travel west. Ignoring the advice of critics, Disney forged ahead with his plans. Sadly, Walt Disney died 4 years before Disney World opened its doors to the public and he never saw the massive success it would draw. Then again, Walt Disney probably would not have found its success to be such a huge surprise as he knew he had a winner on his hands from day one.
