Disney parks chief outlines investment strategy with superfans at the forefront

It’s not every day that a live audience goes wild for an animatronic Yeti.

However, the audience there disney’s D23 Expo is more than just an old crowd, its die-hard fans are at the heart of Disney’s strategic park investments, which are planned to be approximately $60 billion over 10 years.

“We are bringing the yeti back to life,” says chairman Thomas Mazloum. disney The experience was unveiled to 12,000 Disney Parks fans Saturday night during the division’s showcase in Anaheim, California.

The resurrection he was referring to is located within the Expedition Everest attraction at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Since 2006, the yeti in this vehicle has been stationary. At the time this figure was announced, it was the largest and most complex audio-animatronic Walt Disney Imagineering had ever built. However, it broke after just a few months.

Its position in the finished vehicle made it difficult to modify, so the Imagineers set the car to “B mode” and used strobe light effects to create the illusion of movement. Since then, this broken animatronic has become affectionately known as the “Disco Yeti.” My second life is now beginning.

Mazloum, who took over as park director after Josh D’Amaro was named Disney’s CEO, on Saturday announced to some of Disney’s most ardent fans the restoration of the Yeti, the return of fan-favorite characters Dreamfinder and Figment to Epcot, Florida, and a complete renovation of Tomorrowland, California.

The deal signals where the company plans to focus its blockbuster Disney Experience division, which includes theme parks, cruise lines and consumer goods sales. As Disney expands its reach, it will need to rely on its most loyal visitors and biggest spenders to counter macroeconomic uncertainty and challenging travel trends.

“It may not sound like a big deal, but things like the Yeti or Figment or seriously talking about Tomorrowland means a lot to people because people grew up watching these stories,” Mazloum told CNBC.

“They are small and immediate, but meaningful,” he added.

For Mazloum, the focus of his tenure as head of Disney Experiences will be to balance the company’s massive expansion plans (new land and area overhauls based on popular intellectual property) aimed at attracting less frequent out-of-state and international visitors with more targeted updates and upgrades desired by annual passholders and more regular attendees.

“Our job is to listen carefully and find ways to reconcile different needs and desires,” he said.

“The easiest way to frame it is that we’re really focused on putting our fans, our consumers, our guests at the center of our decision-making,” he said.

Mazloum said these efforts are already bearing fruit, highlighting the company’s recent fiscal third-quarter earnings report in which its Experiences division recorded nearly $10 billion in revenue, up 10% from the same period last year and a new quarterly record.

“We believe we did the right thing from the beginning and it paid off. That really puts our fans at the center of our focus,” he said. “That’s why we’re doing so well in Florida, even though other companies are reporting different results. The reason we’re doing so well here in California is because we’ve listened carefully and truly responded to the right consumers at the right time.”

Last month, rival Comcast reported delays in theme park attendance, particularly in Orlando, Florida. Still, Disney saw a 3% increase in domestic park attendance and a 4% increase in guest spending.

The company attributed the high attendance to its Cool Kids Summer promotion, which offers kid-centered character meet-and-greets, dance parties, air-conditioned hangouts, and free water park admission for Disney resort guests on their check-in day.

Disney recently revamped and reimagined park attractions, including Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Muppets-themed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Next up will be renovations to the merry-go-round, scheduled for completion in late spring 2027, and the opening of the Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis Land, also scheduled for 2027.

Meanwhile, Disney continues to work on an expansion of Avengers Campus, a new Villain’s Land, a retheming of Frontierland featuring the Cars franchise, and a new Tropical America’s Land, among other long-term projects.

Disney’s IP portfolio has been the foundation of its theme parks since the first location opened, and its library of content has only grown in recent decades. The company has a wealth of stories and characters that it can leverage to captivate park patrons.

While these new lands and re-themed attractions are designed for all future Disney park visitors, these additions primarily serve as beacons for those who don’t often visit the company’s resorts and parks. These give out-of-state and international guests a new reason to book a trip.

“There’s a very high percentage of people who go to Shanghai Disneyland just to go to Zootopialand,” CEO Bob Iger said at the time during the company’s first-quarter earnings call in February.

Equally important are the guests who visit Disney’s parks more frequently. These attendees have the strongest emotional attachment to the park and have more purchase opportunities when it comes to merchandise and benefits.

These park users enjoy the newly expanded marquee, but it’s not the only factor in visiting the park. Those who visit annually or several times a year have a deep passion for the live shows, character meet-and-greets, holiday specials, seasonal festivals and parades, and nightly spectacles these parks offer.

On Saturday, Disney announced the return of two fan-favorite nighttime spectacles: Disneyland’s “Remember Dreams Come True” fireworks show and California Adventure’s original “World of Color.” The “Magic Happens” parade will also return at Disneyland.

“This series of new announcements shows that Disney is listening to what fans want,” said Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com. “The reaction in the room was cheers and thunderous applause. People felt like Disney was listening to what they wanted.”