Disney CEO Bob Iger says that theme park demand is softening from peak post-COVID travel

12 days ago in "The Walt Disney Company"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Gallery / 2 Photos
Bob Iger

Posted: Tuesday May 7, 2024 8:55am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

During today's earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger discussed recent trends in park attendance and financial performance.

Disney EO Bob Iger commented on attendance softening at the parks from peak-post COVID spike

Iger noted a shift towards normalization following the peak post-COVID attendance, although the parks division still achieved a 10% growth this quarter. Iger pointed out that future bookings remain robust, indicating potential for continued strong growth.

Looking ahead, Iger mentioned that despite some one-time expenses in the third quarter, adjusted operating income (OI) is expected to show solid growth—mid to high single digits in Q3 and double digits in Q4.

Iger told investors, "We still see in the bookings we look ahead towards indicate healthy growth in the business. So we still certainly feel good about the opportunities for continued strong growth." He continued, "I feel like the parks business is still doing very very well. We've got the best in the business in terms of product. People still have a strong desire to basically go on vacation and come to see us."

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Lilofan7 hours ago

Liked the swim up bars in non Disney resorts but who knows if that will come to WDW resorts. That's a fun and lively bar.

bwr82713 hours ago

I was referencing recent post in this thread that said Disney doesn’t have all the rooms made available yet and releases more of them in waves to create a sense of demand.

Sirwalterraleigh20 hours ago

There shouldn’t be “waves” of rooms…doesn’t make sense Waves of promos? Maybe

bwr82720 hours ago

Does anyone know when “waves” of rooms are made available? I had hoped to book Pop Century for early December but nothing available currently. Booked All-Star Music instead.

fgmnt1 day ago

Tangentially, offlining floors or buildings at POFQ for maintenance and rehab might be technically true in that someone is going into one room every day to change a lightbulb, but those Bay Lake Tower units will be as available as possible with soft good refreshes delayed in the macro and expedited in the micro.

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

…as long as they’re wet 🍷🍻🥃

pixargal1 day ago

There are some fun bars on property!

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

Rooms are not a profit center. Just as upfront dvc sales aren’t either You will see tons of people say the opposite…but that’s not why it was designed. It was just to lock in people with regularity to show up and purchase disposable goods at high margin. Merch in particular. It’s worked. They’ve made 10 of billions of real earnings off dvc. The trade off is they don’t get as much of a per day return on them. But a fool with 20 years of dvc and half their family there and a clear path to the bar is not something TWDC ever regretted

pixargal1 day ago

Yes, that is what I was originally curious about. How many of us, Disney loyalists, who, many years ago booked hotels, but now use points to stay instead, has made an impact on resort bookings? Have they robbed Peter to pay Paul? The resorts became the best part of a Disney vacation and I hope they return many of the resort offerings so that they can lure back "the whales".

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

Only between exits 62 and 77 on I-4 Shills in name tags are renowned for that

Trauma1 day ago

Whoever was spouting that nonsense got it wrong. Shocking.

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

Very few declared dvc rooms are booked on a cash basis - relatively speaking. So it’s not really worth considering “occupancy rates” with them. It works both ways…if occupancy is “low”, dvc is often still pretty solid and they aren’t a ghost town. The oppo is if they are struggling to fill rooms and rates dip…those are the potential “whales” that Bob and Bob both claimed couldn’t resist the place. evidence to the contrary

pixargal1 day ago

This is interesting, it appears then that they go hand in hand. I would have guessed the opposite. Is this analysis DVC rooms booked with points or cash?