As Disney pledges to enact $5.5 billion in cost-saving measures, Disney Parks Chairperson Josh D’Amaro said his department will also be making cuts, but will not eliminate frontline positions as part of it.
“What I will not do is cut any labor from the frontline,” D’Amaro said. “I want to make sure that our frontline castmembers continue to service our guests and create that true Disney difference, but there are opportunities for us to continue to look at using technology in a more progressive way to save costs, to simplify the guest experience and save costs along the way.”
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Speaking at an investor conference Monday, D’Amaro also touched on the news that Disney will not be building a new campus in Lake Nova, Florida, reiterating that this was due to new leadership and changing business conditions. He added that the “political situation” in Florida has not yet impacted the parks’ business results.
The executive said that eliminating plans for the campus has also not impacted the $17 billion CEO Bob Iger has said Disney will spend in Florida over the next 10 years.
That $17 billion investment will include transforming EPCOT, a new Star Tours attraction and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
“We’re thinking pretty aggressively about where we can take things in Florida,” he said.
On the news that Disney will be shutting down its Star Wars-themed Galactic Starcruiser hotel in September, D’Amaro called it a “pretty stunning asset” and one that received high ratings from guests.
“We did decide that despite the fact that this was a never-before-seen type of experience, and I think it’s raised the bar from a creativity perspective on where we can go next, we thought it was time to sunset this beginning in September,” he said.
As for whether Disney may be interested in creating smaller parks in the same vein as Universal, D’Amaro demurred.
“I think, you know, it must be interesting for them. For us, we think that focusing on our core assets is where we should be spending most of our opportunity,” he said.
