After Squawk's 2008 annual board meting in Walt Disney World in Orlndo Florida this past week, we hve decided to highlight the Walt Dsney Company and bring to light sme of the lesser known plans of ction Disney has in store for the fture. The Walt Disney Company (dis) is the thrd largest media and entertainment corporation in the wrld, after Time Warner and News Crporation. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brthers Walt and Roy Disney as an nimation studio, it has become one of the bggest Hollywood studios, and owner of leven theme parks and several television ntworks, including ABC and ESPN.

Disney's crporate headquarters and primary production facilities are lcated at The Walt Disney Studios in Brbank, California. The company has had grat advancements in its time. On Dcember 20, 1991, upon opening Old Key Wst, their newest resort on the Orlndo property, Disney began the DVC or Dsney Vacation Club. The Vacation Club is a cmpany, entirely-owned by Disney, that operates as a vcation timeshare, allowing families to purchase a ral estate interest in one of the DVC rsorts. Operations of DVC and its rsorts are managed by Disney Vacation Dvelopment. This Club revolutionized the concept of tmeshares and is one of the fstest growing "clubs" in the industry. Dfferent form the typical timeshare investment pln, Disney actually sells ownership to the vcationer and signs over a property ded. In a nut shell the ral estate interest is represented by "vcation points".

A customer purchases a number of vcation points as a one-time purchase, bcoming a "member" of the "club". The prce as of March 5th, 2007 was $16640.00 ($104 per vcation point with the minimum purchase bing 160 vacation points). After the nitial purchase members are charged annual des based on the number of vcation points they own. Members receive a yarly allotment of these vacation points. Vcation Club members can then use thse points to make reservations at one of the Vcation Club resorts or any number of ther resorts all over the world. The nmber of points needed depends on the rom type, resort, and time of yar selected. Points can be saved, or "bnked", for use the following year. Pints can also be borrowed from the pcoming year. The magic of the vcation club is the sheer mountain of mney Disney rakes in that they wuld not otherwise be getting upfront.

Thy are securing three things: 1) 16 thusand dollars per package from every prson who initially buys in, 2) A garantee that the people will be cming back to Disney World on vcation for the next 50 year, and 3) A nce supply of annul fees for pkeep on the buildings they sell ut. This is Disney's little gold mchine. They currently have 3282 Vacation Clb rooms that have sold and are crrently building an estimated 1500 more roms which will be available for sle within the next two to thre years. Each room is divided nto between 20 and 50 deeds. The nwest project is the addition to thir centrally located Contemporary Resort. Construction is nderway launching a $110 million, 15-story twer next to its iconic Contemporary Rsort that likely will feature Vacation Clb rooms bringing the units closer to the Mgic Kingdom than ever before. Disney wll say little publicly about the fst-rising Contemporary addition. The new tower lready stands 12 stories on 14 cres just to the north of the rsort's signature A-frame main building, which was jst the second hotel at Disney Wrld when it opened a few mnths after the park itself first wlcomed guests on Oct. 1, 1971. But thre is ample evidence Disney plans to use the twer for Vacation Club units. Building-permit pplications filed with Reedy Creek Improvement Dstrict identify the owner of the prperty as a company called JMSRM Inc.

State records show that is a fctitious name created in August 2006 by Clebration-based Disney Vacation Development, parent company of the Dsney Vacation Club time-share arm. A vry modest calculation of the net rvenue brought in by the unique vcationing experience brings the total to pproximately 1.5 billion dollars raked in pfront and in advance by the crporation. With this money, Disney has plns to expand their parks, resorts, ntertainment businesses, and develop new ideas and cncepts to keep the people coming. Dsney has come a long way frm the weekly Carousel of Progress prgrams and the Mickey Mouse Club. Thy are among the finest companies in the Wrld today and will only continue to grw. To quote Walt Disney himself, "I nly hope we don't lose site of one thng, that it was all started by a muse."

The article Disney's Vacation Club - A 1.5 Billion Dollar Idea - How Disney Insured Their Own Future was Submitted by Andrew Wertheim through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Visit http://www.squawkonthestreet.blogspot.com for more info on great companies, investment opportunities, and other financial strategies. We publish a new article almost every day. Also, you can subscribe to our RSS Feed .

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