While reporting its 4th quarter and full year financial results for fiscal year 2019, The Walt Disney Company identified Disney Vacation Club as one of the stronger performers.
It has been many years since The Walt Disney Company provided any specific details on the performance of Disney Vacation Club, instead grouping numbers under the large umbrella of "Parks, Experiences and Products." However, in reporting its financial resutls for the 4th quarter of fiscal 2019, Disney identified DVC as a well-performing unit.
For the quarter ended September 28, 2019, revenue for the Parks division rose 8% to $6.7 billion. Operating income increased 17% over the same period in 2018 to $1.4 billion. In its financial report, Disney attributed the improvement to "...increases from merchandise licensing, Disneyland Resort and Disney Vacation Club."
Additional details were provided later in the report:
The increase in operating income at Disney Vacation Club was due to higher sales at Disney’s Riviera Resort in the current quarter, which included a timing benefit from the adoption of new revenue recognition accounting guidance (see page 6), compared to sales of Copper Creek Villas & Cabins in the prior-year quarter.
Our own sales numbers confirm higher sales in the period of July to September 2019 vs the same period in 2018. Unofficial tracking performed by DVCNews reflects sales of 525,384 points in this 3-month period of 2019 compared to 471,792 points in 2018, an increase of more than 11%.
These numbers do no reflect sales at Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas.
Average selling prices have likely increased, with the base rate for actively-selling properties climbing from $182 per point in 2018 to $188 in 2019. Disney has also increased rates on the older "sold out" properties.
The numbers also benefitted--to some extent--to the adoption of ASC 606 which impacts the timing of revenue recognition on Disney Vacation Club sales.
Overall attendance and hotel occupancy were up modestly year-over-year at Walt Disney World despite the impact of Hurricane Dorian. Higher operating costs, largely attributable to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, were offset by increased guest spending prompted by the higher costs for tickets, food & beverage and merchandise.
Meanwhile Disneyland Resort saw a decline in attendance coupled by an increase in operating costs. However these factors were overcome by price increases and higher guest spending.
Revenues for The Walt Disney Company rose from $14.3 billion to $19.1 billion year-over-year. Meanwhile, net income from operations for the quarter declined from $2.32 billion in 2018 to $785 million in 2019. The decrease in profits was largely attributed to costs associated with absorbing Twenty-First Century Fox and costs associated with ESPN+ and launch of the Disney+ streaming platform.
The full fiscal year reflects a revenue increase of 17% from $59.4 billion in 2018 to $69.5 billion in 2019. Net operating profits declined 17% from $12.6 billion to $10.4 billion.
