Disney Takes Recession Risk by Continuing to Add More Timeshares to its Disney Vacation Club
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Still on schedule are 50 new units that will open later this year in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, along with three recently opened timeshare properties right in Disney World in central Florida. The ambitious growth in the Disney Vacation Club is coming at a time when sales at the Celebration, Florida based timeshare business fell during the last three months that ended on March 28. It is the first quarterly decline that Disney has recorded in its Disney Vacation Club timeshare arm in several years.
According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, this has added more pressure at Disney’s worldwide them park division, which has relied on its vacation club to help fuel its profit growth in recent years. The new resorts in Disney World in Florida include the Kidani Village, Treehouse Villas, and Bay Lake Towers. In Anaheim, the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is on schedule, the resort in Hawaii remains under construction and is scheduled to open in 2011. Finally, Disney has purchased 15 acres just outside Washington DC with plans to build a family resort and timeshare units.
