Line #4 GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff/ThemeParks


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2	* Ride/DisneyThemeParks:
3	** Disney in general is very, ''very'' popular in Japan. Even [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Tokyo Disneyland]], the first park to open overseas, was done in the style of the American parks (specifically, the best of both Disneyland Anaheim and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom during the time the Tokyo park was conceived), compared to the massive changes made to Disneyland Paris a decade later. Disneyland and Walt Disney World ''still'' receive a massive amount of Japanese tourists, who treat the parks as a sort of "Mecca". Hell, even Disneyland Paris received an enormous number of Japanese tourists, far more than French ones.
4	** The reverse is true as well; Tokyo Disney Resort receives a massive amount of international tourists, to the point that the vast majority of the park's signage is written in both Japanese and English, and theme park fans usually regard it as the best of all the Disney parks (especially Tokyo [=DisneySea=]). It does help that the park is not owned by Disney, but instead franchised by The Oriental Land Company, who have a "spare no expense" attitude rarely seen in the Disney-owned parks (leading to more elaborate attractions and a higher level of upkeep than the other parks). Australians and New Zealanders are some of the most common international visitors, since they don't have a Disney park of their own and Tokyo Disney Resort is the closest to them.
5	** South American people (Brazilians especially) tend to love Walt Disney World, since Florida is close enough to them that they can make the trip without having to fly overseas. It even got ads for that region on TV!
6	** Disney World's second-largest tourist demographic (after the United States) are guests from the United Kingdom. The resort's unofficial "twin city" is actually the town of Swindon, England.
7	** Duffy the Disney Bear started out as "The Disney Bear" stateside at Disney Springs' Once Upon a Toy toyshop as an OriginalCharacter and [[FollowTheLeader attempt to cash in]] on the popularity of Build-A-Bear Workshop, but didn't turn out to be the hit that Disney had hoped for. Then the Oriental Land Company (the company that owns and operates the Disney parks in Japan under license from Disney) got hold of him, gave him a redesign, a name, and a backstory, and he became a ''huge'' hit there. The lines for his meet and greet rival those for the most popular rides. This in turn led to Duffy gaining a large supporting cast[[note]]Shellie May, Gelatoni, Stella Lou, Cookie Ann (who debuted at Hong Kong Disneyland), Olu' Mel (who debuted at Aulani Resort) and [=LinaBell=] (who debuted at Shanghai Disney Resort)[[/note]]. Then, Disney had the bright idea to bring him over to the stateside parks again, and had him pretty much take over EPCOT and Disney California Adventure. Unfortunately, [[AmericansHateTingle Americans hate Duffy]] and view him as a CreatorsPet. While there are stateside fans of Duffy, they weren't enough to crowd out the overwhelming negative reaction, and by the mid-2010s all traces of Duffy were gone from the US [=shopDisney=] website and both EPCOT and California Adventure (save for the aforementioned Aulani merchandise). He still remains popular in Japan and the Hong Kong and Shanghai parks -- to quote [=YouTuber=] Disney Dan, "Duffy Bear is their [[EnsembleDarkHorse Figment]]."
8	** In the United States, ''Journey into Imagination with Figment'', the third incarnation of ''Ride/JourneyIntoImagination'', is a polarizing affair. The original ride is far more beloved, with Figment and Dreamfinder being {{Ensemble Dark Horse}}s, and the new version is seen as a poor replacement and a mediocre experience on its own merits; Dreamfinder being removed and Figment being changed to a KarmicTrickster are also contentious decisions. Japanese tourists who have visited Disney World love this incarnation of the ride, though; they have no attachment to the original version, and Japan also loves characters that are both mischievous and adorable (such as the Minions from ''Despicable Me'' and Stitch), which the new version of Figment fits to a T.
9	** Orange Bird was originally created in 1970 to promote Florida Citrus and became rather obscure in the U.S. due to being associated with the Anita Bryant orange juice boycott. It found a new life in Japan when Tokyo Disneyland brought back the character in 2004 in conjunction with Orange Day to huge success, and Orange Bird became somewhat of a mascot for Orange Day in Japan. This probably prompted a resurgence of interest for the bird back in the U.S., leading to nostalgic merchandise, a cameo in an ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' children's book, and his return to the Magic Kingdom's Sunshine Tree Terrace, which he once called home.
10	** A significant portion of Disneyland Paris's visitors are Spanish. Considering the difficulties Disney had with both the French government and the general public, many Spaniards wonder why the park wasn't built in Spain instead.
11	** French people generally have quite a thing for Westerns, which is why Frontierland in Disneyland Paris is larger than the others and has more backstory, and why their version of ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'', ''Phantom Manor'', is set there.
12	** ''Ride/{{Soarin}}'' is very popular in both Tokyo [=DisneySea=] and Shanghai Disneyland, to the point that its wait times in those parks are almost always longer than its American counterparts.
13	* There's a lot of Europeans (both western and eastern Europe) that fly across the Atlantic to visit Cedar Point in US state Ohio.
14	* Many of the visitors to Ride/UniversalStudios Florida are British tourists, which can largely be attributed to ''Ride/TheWizardingWorldOfHarryPotter''. It also drew a large amount of Japanese tourists before Universal Studios Japan's counterpart opened in 2017 -- and even then, they tend to visit Florida to see Diagon Alley.

Context GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff / ThemeParks