Services And The Industry

Service Industry in Context - Euro Disney

Introduction

This assignment aims to define service industries and classify the key elements of Euro Disney by discussing competitors, product and service offering, characteristics, drawbacks and recommendations.

Part A

Euro Disney is a branch of the Walt Disney group and opened in April 1992 to join the Disney trend and fellow Disney theme parks in America and Tokyo. Disney land opened in 1955 on an 80 acre site in the suburban town of Anaheim. Euro Disney is located just outside of Paris in Northern France. It is stated in the Euro Disney case study:

"Walt Disney dreamed in the 1950s of a new type of entertainment" (Euro Disney - an American in Paris, Christopher H. Lovelock)

Walt Disney died in 1966 and it was a remarkable achievement that the Disney company continued to progress. In 1971 the second Disney land opened in Florida and it was named, Walt Disney World.

The Euro Disney site is equivalent in area to one fifth of the city of Paris. In the first year of operation Euro Disney attracted 11 million visitors with 12.000 employees. Euro Disney compromises many different sectors from Main Street, USA, Frontier land, Fantasy land, Adventure land and Discovery land.

Service Industry Sector

Euro Disney operates within multiple service industry sectors. The first sector that it operated within is recreational and hospitality service sector. This consists of elements such as the attractions that Euro Disney has, for example Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Central Plaza, Golf Euro Disney and Big Thunder Mountain. This also includes the shows, rides, tours and excursions offered whilst visiting Euro Disney. The hospitality aspect of the service industry compromises the six Euro Disney hotels with a total of 5,200 rooms, camp Davy Crockett with 414 cabins and 181 campsites and restaurants available within the park.

The second sector that Euro Disney operates within is retail/wholesale. This includes all the shops that sell merchandise, souvenirs, t-shirts, cups, key rings and food etc, for example: Main street USA consists of many shopping arcades and these elements enable Euro Disney to fall into the retail/wholesale service sector as well as recreational and hospitality.

Main Competitors

Euro Disney is faced with a vast amount of competition both form national and international theme parks as France is home to some 25 other theme parks. Many of the competition that Euro Disney is faced with are small parks around Europe. The main competitors for Euro Disney are:

* Parc Asterix

* Big Bang Schtroumpfs

* Futurescope

Parc Asterix

This theme park is located just north of Paris and opened in 1989 and was based on a famous French comic book character and his fellow characters. This theme park is more and educational based form of entertainment as it's is situated within a small village in Brittany during Roman times and the stories concerned with the roman happenings.

Parc Asterix compromises rides and attractions that relate to French culture and history, for example: a giant carousel and the national 7, this is a designation of Frances most famous highway. With tours in antique automobiles through streets and French countryside, Parc Asterix is truly a French theme park.

Big Bang Schtroumpfs

This theme park opened in Moselle just by the French - German border in 1988 at a cost of FFr 720 million. This park was then sold on in 1991 to Walibi for FFr 50 million.

Walibi already operated within eight other theme/ amusement parks in Europe and attracted around 4.3 million visitors between them. The ticket price for this theme park is only 40 per cent that of Euro Disney.

Futurescope

This theme park is well known for its financial success. A large, newly developed amusement park located on the outskirts of Poitiers, which is south west of Paris. This theme park focuses on new technology from 360 degrees cinema, theatres and flying carpet simulations. It is believed that Futurescope's financial success is due to the high technology used and provided to the customers. This theme park has a good mode of marketing strategies as their mailings are to schools, colleges, committees and retirement clubs. This aids them to avoid mass media situations.

Part B

This section looks at the types of product/service that is offered to visitors within Euro Disney. There are two types of product/service that Euro Disney provides. Tangible and Intangible. Tangible are the physical products that you can buy and take away, the products that can arouse your senses by touching and feeling the actual product itself. Intangible is the experience that is received by the customer through a product or service. Euro Disney goes to extreme lengths in order to enhance the customer experience. Below is a list of these types:

Tangible

* Merchandise - key chains, photo frames, cups, pictures, t-shirts, ornaments etc

* Souvenirs - after ride photos, postcards, leaflets etc

* Food - stands and stalls, restaurants, after ride sweet shops etc.

Intangible

* Rides - big thunder mountain, aerosmith rollercoaster

* Shows - Alice in wonderland on ice, sleeping beauty's castle etc

* Attractions - Central Plaza, Disney Castle and Golf Euro Disney etc

* Accommodation - Hotel room colours, complimentary items offered etc

Part C

This section of the assignment focuses on the characteristics that Euro Disney operates in. These characteristics are key elements in fully understanding the structure of the organisation. These characteristics are as follows:

* Intangibility

* Inseparability