Contrary to Wall Street's expectations, the global economic downtown has impacted Disney Co.'s quarterly results, harder and faster than expected. Experiencing a sharp decline in hotel bookings and low revenue returns from network advertising, Disney's shares slid 9%, recovering a little after executives stimulated bookings by announcing hotel discounts, during the first half of 2009.

While, Disney's theme parks, film and broadcasting businesses are managing to weather the worsening credit market conditions, a noticeable deterioration in the economic environment is beginning to become visible, since the mid-September occurrence of the banking crisis.

A tougher marketplace has caused Disney's U. S. theme parks and resorts to suffer from higher labour and fuel costs. Disney executives stated that the theme park attendance has dropped by 1%, for the current quarter, while bookings for the fiscal 2009's first two quarters of fiscal 2009 is down 'a little under 10%' compared to last year. Further, Disney shares fell 4.7% to $21.73 from Thursday's closing down of 5.9% at $22.81.

However, on an upbeat note, Disney's chief executive expresses confidence in the ability of his company ability to weather a declining economy.