Disneyland Paris Europe’s Number One Tourist Destination

Disneyland Paris is Europe’s leading tourist destination, with more than 215 million visits since opening in 1992 and over 15 million visits alone in 2009.
Disneyland Paris is also the top tour operator in France in terms of numbers of clients and employs about 50,000 people including around 14,500 of its Disney ‘Cast Members’ working onsite.
The attraction is also astonishingly popular with visitors from the UK. Outside France the largest numbers of visitors to the Euro Disney attraction come from the UK.
With such a track record no wonder Euro Disney, the company behind Disneyland Paris, has announced record profits, partly boosted by the on-going popularity of its Disneyland Paris holidays.
For the nine months ending June 30, 2010 the company has announced third quarter resort revenues increasing to €323 million, reflecting higher guest spending, hotel occupancy and attendance.
Philippe Gas, Chief Executive Officer of Euro Disney SAS, explains:
“We are encouraged by the improvement in our third quarter revenues, as our resort revenues grew by five per cent versus the prior year.
“This revenue increase was driven primarily by higher guest spending as well as an increase in our hotel occupancy and parks attendance.
“In addition, our third quarter revenues also benefitted from a significant real estate transaction in Val d’Europe. Our total year-to-date revenues are now up three per cent over the prior year.”
Paris Disneyland has recently opened three new attractions in its Toy Story Playland, themed to bring the successful Disney/Pixar Toy Story film series to life.
Bringing Disney stories to its theme parks through iconic attractions like these, including entertainment, character experiences and American style customer service from its colourful Cast Members is a hallmark of the Disneyland experience both in Florida, USA and at its European equivalent.
Toy Story Playland premiered on August 17, 2010, at the Walt Disney Studios Park starring characters from the animated Toy Story films.
Toy Story Playland includes three all-new attractions: Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, simulating a parachute drop, with Andy’s Green Army Men; Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin1, a racetrack attraction and RC Racer, a 25-metre half-pipe race circuit.
As well as French and UK holidaymakers the Paris theme park resort is also popular with Spanish and Dutch visitors.
In 2009 48 per cent of guests to Disneyland Paris were from France, 14 per cent from the UK, 14 per cent from Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), eight per cent from Spain, four per cent from Italy, three per cent from Germany and nine per cent from the rest of the world.
Disneyland Paris comprises two theme parks and 53 attractions, half an hour away from Paris in a 30,000 square metre entertainment complex. Along with a myriad of dining, entertainment and shopping facilities there are seven themed hotels, with approximately 5,800 rooms.
As well as leisure guests and a big family customer base, the resort is also a main business destination for Paris, holding the fifth largest convention facility in France and hosting about a thousand business events each year.