Bob Chapek says Disney’s parks are well-positioned as the world emerges from the global pandemic Credit: Disney Parks
It’s a “minor miracle” that Disney’s parks are performing as well as they are in the face of the global pandemic.
That’s the opinion of Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who made the comment during the Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference when questioned about how the company has handled the global pandemic.
Like the entirety of the global attractions industry, Disney’s parks were hit hard by COVID-19, with its operations completely halted at multiple points over the last 18 months and parks still operating under reduced capacity today.
With vaccines starting to have an effect on the stranglehold the virus has had over the last two years, Chapek believes that Disney is emerging better placed than before and ready to take on new challenges.
“I think we are positioned very well,” he said. “Given the magnitude of what we've all experienced, it's a minor miracle.
“Given the cards we were dealt and some of the challenges that we faced, we’re just really pleased with how we've emerged because our goal always was to emerge stronger than when we came into this, and that's saying something, but I think we've achieved that.”
As part of its improvements during its downtime, Disney focused on changing the way it handled operations - introducing a reimagined operating framework and the introduction of its thesitewizard.com for visitors.
“Our goal is to improve the guest experience, while at the same time being able to yield that in ways that we haven't done before,” said Chapek. “The shutdown enabled us a chance to re-engineer things and build the systems necessary to do that.
“The backbone of the whole thing is our reservation system because it now gives us the ability on a real-time basis to direct people, ensure that we have the right mix of guests in the park and control the demand in ways that we've never been able to do.
“That enables all the consumer interfaces that we've recently put in place - things like Genie - a system that's going to improve everyone's visit to our parks by minimising wait times and maximising the fun.”
In its most recent earnings report, Disney reported its first profit since COVID struck, with revenue in the parks, experiences and products division jumping 307.6% to US$4.3bn (€3.67bn, £3.15bn).
In each of the previous five quarters, Disney had reported a loss in operating income. During the third quarter, its operating income reached US$356m (€303.4m, £261.1m), compared with a loss of US$1.87bn (€1.59bn, £1.37bn) during the same quarter last year.
Bob Chapek says Disney’s parks are well-positioned as the world emerges from the global pandemic Credit: Disney Parks
It’s a “minor miracle” that Disney’s parks are performing as well as they are in the face of the global pandemic.
That’s the opinion of Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who made the comment during the Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference when questioned about how the company has handled the global pandemic.
Like the entirety of the global attractions industry, Disney’s parks were hit hard by COVID-19, with its operations completely halted at multiple points over the last 18 months and parks still operating under reduced capacity today.
With vaccines starting to have an effect on the stranglehold the virus has had over the last two years, Chapek believes that Disney is emerging better placed than before and ready to take on new challenges.
“I think we are positioned very well,” he said. “Given the magnitude of what we've all experienced, it's a minor miracle.
“Given the cards we were dealt and some of the challenges that we faced, we’re just really pleased with how we've emerged because our goal always was to emerge stronger than when we came into this, and that's saying something, but I think we've achieved that.”
As part of its improvements during its downtime, Disney focused on changing the way it handled operations - introducing a reimagined operating framework and the introduction of its thesitewizard.com for visitors.
“Our goal is to improve the guest experience, while at the same time being able to yield that in ways that we haven't done before,” said Chapek. “The shutdown enabled us a chance to re-engineer things and build the systems necessary to do that.
“The backbone of the whole thing is our reservation system because it now gives us the ability on a real-time basis to direct people, ensure that we have the right mix of guests in the park and control the demand in ways that we've never been able to do.
“That enables all the consumer interfaces that we've recently put in place - things like Genie - a system that's going to improve everyone's visit to our parks by minimising wait times and maximising the fun.”
In its most recent earnings report, Disney reported its first profit since COVID struck, with revenue in the parks, experiences and products division jumping 307.6% to US$4.3bn (€3.67bn, £3.15bn).
In each of the previous five quarters, Disney had reported a loss in operating income. During the third quarter, its operating income reached US$356m (€303.4m, £261.1m), compared with a loss of US$1.87bn (€1.59bn, £1.37bn) during the same quarter last year.
