In short, these hotels seem to have been designed for adult-children rather than actual children. And there’s a reason for that. A 2022 Ofcom report found that “kids gravitate to dramatic, short-form videos on social media” – their heroes are more likely to be Mr Beast and Unspeakable than Captain America or Cinderella. My own 11-year-old is baffled by anyone with a Disney fixation. “What kind of adult would wear Lilo and Stitch pyjamas?” she asked, bemused, on a trip to Primark.
An older crowd, however, is holding tight to its childhood dreams of princesses and superheroes. A 2022 report by the market research company NPD Group found that, while sales of toys to European kids were declining, business was booming for ‘kidults’ (those aged 12 or over).
Meanwhile in the cinema, Marvel Cinematic Universe films are the highest earners of all time, grossing almost $30 billion (£24 billion). And, during the recent opening weekend of The Marvels, 30 per cent of the cinema audience was aged 25-34 – old enough to be parents themselves. Younger children can’t even officially watch these films: The Marvels is rated 12A.
With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why Disney might be hoping to attract a more mature crowd to its hotels (in age terms at least), though whether the strategy works remains to be seen. The brand thought it had come up with a winning formula when it created Galactic Star Cruiser, a Star Wars-themed experiential hotel, back in 2021.
