The Oriental Land Company says operating profit most likely up ten percent on the year.
Oriental Land’s group operating profit is set to be in the region of around 25 billion yen ($224 million) for the April-June quarter. Seasonal events and attractions such as the popular Pirates of the Caribbean show are drawing in more visitors.
Sales are thought to have grown 3 percent to around 110 billion yen. Tokyo DisneySea’s 15-year anniversary celebration raised the park’s profile in the last fiscal year. Visitors came back for multiple visits. Ticket prices were maintained at the same level this year, following three previous years of price hikes.
A busy schedule of seasonal events also attracted visitors. The new Easter parade at Tokyo Disneyland proved highly popular. Oriental Land boosted merchandise sales at these events by offering an array of related products.
The Nemo & Friends SeaRider opened at DisneySea in May. The attraction, which features characters from the Finding Nemo franchise is highly popular among families. Oriental Land has also installed roofs over the waiting areas for rides, making the experience more pleasant for visitors.
Despite the expected strong first-quarter results, Oriental Land is likely to maintain its forecast for the fiscal year through March 2018 when it releases earnings. Customer traffic tends to fluctuate with the weather so the summer and autumn account for much of the company’s profits.
Oriental Land expects sales to fall 2 percent to 469.3 billion yen and operating profit to drop 11 percent to 100.1 billion yen.
However attendance at events is solid. Although costs are climbing as Oriental Land readies itself to roll out big attractions starting in 2019, there is plenty of room for earnings to beat expectations this fiscal year.
Results for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2018 for Oriental Land Company can be viewed here.
Image courtesy of Tokyo Disneyland.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Tokyo-Market/Oriental-Land-takes-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-ride-to-higher-profit
