Disney is weighing dynamic ticket pricing for its US parks
Disney wants to optimize the airline pricing model for its parks before bringing it to Disney World or Disneyland in the US.
The happiest place on Earth might soon get a bit pricier on days that are particularly happy.
At a Wells Fargo tech summit on Wednesday, Disney said it’s been working on creating flexible pricing that can be changed in real time, like Uber’s surge pricing, at its US parks, and customers may see the change in years to come.
“We’re actually investing in creating dynamic pricing. We’re doing it in Paris right now. We’ve been doing it for about a year. It’s off to a very good start, but we’re really going to make sure we optimize it before we bring it into the domestic parks. So that’s probably something that you won’t see this year, but you may see in the subsequent years,” said Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, who added that the company already does the model at its hotels to some degree.
Johnston said he doesn’t like to think about dynamic ticket pricing as the same as the airline pricing model — probably because airline ticket pricing isn’t exactly beloved by consumers — though he acknowledges it’s similar. According to him, Disney is taking its time incorporating the pricing change to avoid negative feedback, though he says the company hasn’t seen any in Paris.
In its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, released last week, Disney reported $10 billion in operating income for its Entertainment division, which includes parks. Disney’s domestic parks profit grew 9% to $920 million on the quarter, despite domestic attendance falling 1%. To put it another way, the company continues its mastery of wringing more out of less.
