Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, originally Walt Disney Attractions, is one of four major business segments of The Walt Disney Company. It is responsible for the conception, building, and managing of the company's theme parks and vacation resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises. It was founded in 1971 after the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, joining the original Disneyland in California. In 2009, the company's theme parks hosted approximately 119.1 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company, ahead of the secondmost visited, British rival Merlin Entertainments.
The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is Thomas O. Staggs, formerly the senior executive vice president and CFO. Staggs reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.