Some of you are forgetting that Houston is smack dab in the middle of the country. It is easier for people in the Midwest/Central U.S. to fly down to Houston than going to the coasts.
Yeah but Houston isn't located near or on the way to South Florida, which has been the primary East Coast beach vacation spot for almost a century. This particular rumor has been around for about as long as I have been alive. Should tell you something.
Oh, I have no faith in the rumor. I'm not suggesting this is going to happen. I'm arguing with the logic Baqui is mentioning. Orlando is a destination not because of beaches in Florida....DisneyWorld IS the attraction. Disney believes if they build it, that's enough. They're right.
BINGO!! Funny enough that I am perfect example of that this week. My wife, son and I got a free week stay at a place right on the beach in Daytona Beach. What have we done for fun (other than the beach of course)? We have been driving back and forth to Orlando to go to the parks. If we are that close to Disney and Universal, why not take advantag of it.
And Disney sets up hotels to be one big "bubble" resort. You stay on Disney property...in a Disney themed hotel...using Disney transportation...visiting Disney parks. That was Walt's vision. For the overwhelming majority of the people who visit there, it's not a "stop-over" to a vacation elsewhere. It is the vacation.
Guess it's fun to eschew the rumor, but the fundamental truth is that if not now then at some point the US population can support another Disney park. What other good options are there?
Good question. I'll say this...they're not going to a place that has ice or snow in the winter. Even places like Arkansas don't have the climate they want during the winter months for a park. I do agree that, with parks on the west coast and east coast, the next park woudl be more centrally located. Right now, it seems Disney isn't interested in another park. They've made that pretty clear, actually. I would be surprised if it happened even in the next 10 years. But cheap land in Texas...and the climate...I think that's the most likely choice.
Despite the troubles they've had internationally, I think they'll open Disneyland India or Disneyland China first before putting yet another Disney park in the U.S.
There should be obvious reasons as to why not put it there. First, Texas is a state of 24 million and the fastest growing state in the nation. Therefore, there is already a huge population base, something the states you named don't have. Second, if placed in Houston, there is already a monster airport, and a smaller that compliments the larger one. Houston was recently named the 9th most visited U.S. city as well (#1 in Texas). Our infrastructure is pretty good, too, and we are expanding commuter rail and light rail, which will make travel between the hotels and parks a lot easier (Orlando doesn't even have that).
They opened Hong Kong Disney in early '06, so their Asian expansion is probably done for the time being.
Cheap land is all over the Midwest. That said, Dallas/Ft. Worth would be more attractive, since the DART will extend to the aiport by then, connecting major hubs in the city. Moreover, San Antonio already has a few destinations such as the crappy Riverwalk and Sea World. Austin probably doesn't want Disney. Chicago would seem like an okay destination to me, although the winters can be rough. Make no mistake, Orlando is an awful city, but that doesn't mean that Disney should expand to Houston because it's not as bad as Orlando.
Let's not kid ourselves and make Austin out to be some oasis in the dessert. Austin is a real city with real city needs, and there is no way in hell they would turn down a Disney park.
Can someone tell me why there is a single Houston Rocket fan that is against this? Anything that benefits Houston in terms of population and income in turn benefits the Rockets.
Disney built it there because it was in what was probably the most heavily domestic-tourist frequented state in the country. At the time it was built in the 60'a, a huge proportion of the east coast (which was a substantilally larger part of the population then) associated Florida with vacationland, spring training,Cape Canaverel, etc. - remember this is pre- Scarface or Miami Vice or CSI. There's a reason why it is in Florida and not, say in South Carolina or Georgia closer to I-95. Houston and Texas are not the same. People from Minnesota or Chicago don't flock down to Houston or anywhere in Texas for that matter for vacation. The same criteria for putting it in Houston exist for almost every geographically southern city from Mississippi to Las Vegas, every town from Baton Rouge to Branson to Flagstaff can make the "not too cold in the winter, centrally located" claim.
You're killing me. I'm not saying Disney SHOULD move to the Houston area. i'm certainly not saying they will. in fact, i'm saying there is very little thought at disney about opening up a new park in the States, right now. There is no way they're putting a Disney park in Chicago or anywhere north of Arkansas. The winter months won't allow for it. they're not moving to an urban spot in the US. they care about airports...but they're not gonna be concerned with DART. they're not building a park in the city of dallas, or even in the suburbs. when we talk about Katy, here...we're really talking about Brookshire or Belleville. they want cheaper, less developed land, generally. Houston would provide nothing more than the airport, frankly. somewhere outside of san antonio would certainly make sense from a lot of different perspectives. but disney doesn't move places because of things like seaworld and the river walk. they move places and things like seaworld move there to feed off their excess.
i hear what you're saying...i don't think they care. when they build a park, people show up. it creates attraction and buzz around itself. and again...i'm not saying houston is about to land disneyworld because it's cold everywhere else. i'm saying they're not going to build a park in the midwest because it's too cold in the winter months. the biggest reason it's in orlando was it was cheap swampland. disney didn't envision that his parks would be a stopover for a family vacationing elsewhere...he saw it as the place people would go to....and maybe people would spill over elsewhere afterwards. that's exactly what's happened.
No not really. Like I said earlier, Forbes just put out a list of the top 30 most visited cities, and Houston was #9 (first in Texas). Many people from those cold weather cities move here, so who is to say that they would not visit Houston? You can't use the same criteria. Houston is a city with no major theme park (until Earth Quest Adventures and that new indoor ski-resort are built here). With Disney, that would add so much more to Houston's tourist economy. No other city in the South is a major player except for Dallas-Fort Worth (Dallas can't stand alone by itself). Houston can easily create a good tourism industry. Dallas has done a pretty good job of making a tourism industry out of nothing. They also pull a lot of the Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana tourists who might otherwise come here more often. If we want to play in that arena, maybe we should follow their lead more. That all said, I think we do pretty well without pandering to tourists. The amenities of our city serve locals in very high urban style. I always enjoy city living in Houston more than I do in Dallas. Dallas plays on the scenographic far more successfully than we do. We seem to capture the true urban personality of a city this size more successfully than they do. We do this at the expense of a "pure" tourism industry. If we put out the effort, we might have one on top of the huge non-traditional visitor draw we have now. I'm just not completely convinced we'd like our city as much if we did.
Guerilla -- i don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying. but even if Disney chooses to build a park here in Texas....at best it would be NEAR houston. not IN houston. that's why i think comparing these big cities for this discussion is worthless. they'll be reasonably close to an airport...and that's about it.
