Disney World Focuses on Indian Tourists

Entertainment major Walt Disney has launched an aggressive drive in India to take Indians beyond their acquaintance with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.

The $23-billion company is wooing Indian tourists to the 15-month-long Millennium celebrations, beginning from Oct. 1, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2001, to usher in the new Millennium it is holding at the Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, by offering them exciting incentives, including a variety of packages that can be purchased in the Indian currency.

Christopher M. Fruean, Communications Manager, Asia Pacific, Walt Disney and Shane J. Hunt, Marketing Sales Manager for Asia Pacific, during a presentation in New Delhi, unveiled a marketing plan for promoting to Indian tourists the Florida entertainment and recreation center.

It has been built on about 30,500-acre, featuring four theme parks, three water adventure parks, 27 resort hotels and 99 holes of golf on six courses, the Disney Institute, the Sports Complex and Downtown Disney, an entertainment-shopping-dining complex, and much more. The millennium celebrations will be centered at Epcot, a showplace covering 260 acres.

Announcing that “it is a celebration too big for just one night. The magic never stops building and fantasy is everywhere in the Disney World,” Fruean said in the past few years, the popularity of Disney World as a vacation destination has risen dramatically among Indian travelers ever since it opened in 1971. So much so that India is now one of Walt Disney's top 20 international markets.

“India is a growing market for us. That's why it is of significance to us. We are trying to make sure that every Indian flying to the U.S. visits Disney World as well,” Fruean told India Abroad.

Disney, he said, has been inspired by its association with India and Indian culture in many ways, including Walt Disney's most successful animated features “The Jungle Book,” which was based on Rudyard Kipling's book by the same name.

Furean told India Abroad that the company was committing resources to publicity and promotional material in India and elsewhere as never done before. Recently Disney even flew Vishal Malhotra, anchor of the Disney Hour cartoon show on the private Zee television network to film his adventures in the Disney World to spread awareness about the theme parks among Indian children.

Besides, to make the millennium celebration more spectacular and interesting for Indians, Walt Disney has decided to showcase India in the Millennium Village in an exhibit titled “India's Women and Health Management Project,” a continuing education program for women, coordinated by the Ahmedabad-based Secretariat of Health. “It was chosen by a committee of jurists called the Club of Rome, which was part of the “Expo 2000” being held in Germany,” Furean told India Abroad.

To prove its close association with India and South Asia, the company has also built something that the Indian visitor can relate to in the great American showcase: “Asia,” in Disney World's Animal Kingdom, a theme park devoted to the rainforests of India and Nepal. The park includes Kali River Rapids, white-water rafting on Chakranadi river, and the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

But Fruean rejects the idea that the attempt to showcase India might be a bit Orientalistic in depiction of India and the subcontinent. He told India Abroad that in order to make it realistic a team of Disney staffers traveled for two months in India to study and take pictures of the architecture and the wildlife, and create something similar at the Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney also hired its first-ever group of staffers, whom it calls “Cast Members,” from India in 1999, including six working at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Asia, three for the India exhibit at Epcot’s Millennium Village and one to work with the United Nations exhibit at the Village.

“The architecture has been inspired by India and South Asia. The wildlife is certainly Indian. But of course, you do not walk into a replica of Delhi or Bombay, so the question of Orientalistic depiction of the Asian culture does not arise. The focus is more on rural India. Our Indian staffers are the most effective tools for clearing such misconceptions,” Fruean asserted.

Disney will also be inviting about 2,000 children from around the world to participate in the grand millennium finale and they will help breakdown many a stereotype about different cultures, he added.

Shane Hunt said that to make Disney World a popular destination among Indians, multi-day ticket options have been made available. Passes offering unlimited access to parks are being issued for those who take up accommodation in the company resort hotels.

The company has appointed Travel Corporation of India (TCI) and Caravan Travels to market Disney World packages in the country. Walt Disney is promoting a 3-night bed and breakfast at Disney World Resort for $120 with a free pass to Disney World. Two children can go free along with two adults for $240.

B. Dinshaw, TCI Manager, told India Abroad that an Air India trip to Disney World works out to about Rs. 39,000 till Oct. 1 and that new concession fares for the Millennium packages will be soon issued. Nonresident Indians can even customizse and order their vacation package on the Internet at www.disneyworld..com. The packages, valid for 15 months beginning Oct. 1 have, however, been sold out to travel agents and tour operators.

When asked why Disney is wooing Indians to their entertainment park in the U.S. instead of making huge money by setting up shop in India and securing a wider market, Fruean said: “I'm sure it'll be wonderful. But, I am not authorised to comment on company's future plans. I am not sure of what criteria the company uses to decide on such matters, but the company does realize that there's a lot of potential in setting up a venture here.”