Income for Disney's resorts unit sank 25 percent, to $1.4 billion, for the company's 2009 fiscal year.
The health of the parks and resorts unit is crucial to Disney's overall performance.
Disney VR Studios, the company's video game unit, customized software, while the parks and resorts unit handled the heavy lifting of design and construction.
Disney has been spending heavily on its parks and resorts unit, which is heavily dependent on new offerings to lure return visitors and justify steadily increasing ticket prices.
Or when Gap reached outside the fashion industry in late September and hired Paul Pressler, who had run Disney's theme parks and resorts unit, as its chief executive.
For the most recent quarter, Disney's parks and resorts unit — closely watched as an informal barometer of discretionary spending in the broader economy — showed an 18 percent increase in operating income, to $497 million.
The privately held Bourne Leisure, which runs parks throughout Britain, said it would pay $650 millionn up front and an additional $50 millionn in two years if Rank's Butlin's resorts unit meets profit targets.
Analysts have mixed opinions on the impact of the economy on Disney, particularly the parks and resorts unit, which delivers more than 20percentt of the company's annual operating profit.
Disney's parks and resorts unit posted operating income of $566 million, a gain of 24% from a year earlier.
Ferraro, a 16-year Disney veteran, most recently served as executive vice president of global marketing, sales and travel operations for the company's parks and resorts unit.
