Euro Disney visitor levels falling short

EURO DISNEY said yesterday that 6 million people had visited its French theme park since it opened on 12 April. The figure makes it extremely unlikely that the park will achieve the attendance levels forecast at flotation, writes Rupert Bruce.

Paribas Capital Markets expects the target for the first 12 months' opening to be undershot by almost 20 per cent. Euro Disney forecast 11 million admissions, but Paribas believes a more realistic figure is 8.82 million.

In the first 145 days an average of 41,300 people a day visited the park. In order to meet the flotation forecast an average of 22,727 people will have to be admitted on each of the next 220 days.

Nigel Reed, an analyst at Paribas, believes that with the onset of colder weather the mainly open- air park is unlikely to attract this number of visitors.

Philippe Bourguignon, Euro Disney's president, said the theme park had not yet estimated the size of this year's loss, which would depend on attendance in the weeks ahead. No decision would be made about whether to pay a 1991-92 dividend until December, he added.

The shares fell 10p to 835p.