The Tokyo Disney park is the Disney property that has seen the most new attractions over the last few years. There are a couple of reasons for that, of course. The park itself is still very young and, therefore, still has plenty of room to grow. Something that the Anaheim park has struggled with for years. Also, a local development company operates it alongside Disney. This allows for the easier approval of expansions to the park, especially since the Disney company is not paying the whole bill. In spite of these new attractions that have wowed fans the world over, Tokyo Disney is expecting lower attendance numbers. That doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense!
Tokyo Disney has had a decent post-COVID recovery in attendance numbers. Ironically, its worst year was not 2020 but 2021, when the resort saw only 7 million people walk through its gates all year. 2020, on the other hand, saw about 29 million people enter the park. That’s the number that experts are projecting for 2025 as the slow but steady COVID recovery climbs back closer to 2019 numbers. In 2019, Tokyo Disney saw a record 32.6 million guests walk through the park.
The main reason why guest numbers aren’t climbing is actually that the Oriental Land company that runs the resort doesn’t want them to. Their main focus over the last few years has been improving guest experiences at the park. One of the ways that they’ve been doing that is by reducing the daily capacity by at least 20%. Simply put, they’re purposely selling fewer tickets at the gates to ensure that the guests that do enter the park don’t have to endure overly long wait times. Also, they’re hoping to avoid overcrowding. As the resort continues to expand, the capacity is naturally going to extend with it. Through 2025, though, the Oriental Land Company does not foresee that the resort will break its record number of guests per year that was set in 2019.
They can do this at the resort because they are still making a profit—at least when taking into account operational costs, not necessarily the around 2 billion dollars that were spent on the most recent expansions. Tokyo Disney is actually not the only Disney park abroad that’s been dealing with guest capacity issues lately. Disneyland Paris recently put up sold-out signs and turned people back at the gate.
Are ticket prices on the rise at Tokyo Disney because of the limited capacity? Many people are headed to Japan this summer due to the low value of the local currency, the Yen. While that may help reduce costs in other parts of your vacation, this doesn’t necessarily mean Disney is going to be cheaper. Currently, prices for one-day tickets can go for around 150 dollars. That’s higher than what you may be able to find at the Magic Kingdom. If you take into account, though, that you’ll likely encounter fewer people and more innovative rides, a trip to Tokyo Disney may very well be worth it!
