Euro Disney says it will cut ticket prices for entry to its loss-generating theme park outside Paris from April and added that the number of visitors drawn to its Magic Kingdom had risen this year.
The news sent its shares, battered by two years of company losses and poor attendance figures, soaring by 7 percent on the Paris bourse before falling back slightly Wednesday.Euro Disney said it would cut prices in the high season, running from April to Oct. 1, to $36 for an adult from between $41.50 to $46 now.
Visitors would pay less to see Mickey Mouse and his friends in the cold winter months, which have prompted Euro Disney's critics to say it was sited in the wrong continent.
The low-season price starting on Oct. 2 would fall to $27.70 from $32.30 to $41.50 at present, the company said in a statement.
Chairman Philippe Bourguignon said the price cuts were "a limited risk on the downside and represent a significant potential gain."
He told Reuters the company was on track to break even in its 1995-1996 financial year after losing $332 million in 1993-94.
The price reductions were possible only because the company had carried out an "internal revolution" in its work practices and had completed a financial restructuring, he said.
Bourguignon said the company had broken a vicious circle of high prices that had been dictated by an unwieldy organization and payments on $3.9 billion of bank debt.
Bourguignon said the number of visitors had increased in the first quarter of its financial year, which began in October, compared with a year ago and he expected the price cuts to attract yet more visitors.
Separately, Bourguignon also said Euro Disney had signed a deal with Ferinel, part of the luxury goods group LVMH Moet Henn- essy Louis Vuitton, to develop housing at the theme park.
Euro Disney has also started talks with a cinema operator to build a 12-screen cinema complex at the theme park for visitors and local people. The complex is expected to open in 1996.
Euro Disney, controlled by the Walt Disney Co, narrowed losses for the financial year to Sept. 30, 1994, to $332 million after last year's $978 million deficit.
The number of people visiting the park fell about 10 percent to 8.8 million in 1993-94.