Economist Shares Optimism About The Disney Theme Parks Opening
Will Disney World re-open this Summer or won’t it? That is the million-dollar question! While some experts have predicted that the parks in California and Florida won’t reopen until next year, a new, more hopeful prediction has surfaced.
The University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith recently gave an interview with Fox 35 where he talked a bit about when he felt the theme parks would once again welcome crowds. While Snaith said he doesn’t expect things to get back to normal soon, he doesn’t believe the theme parks will stay closed throughout the Summer months.
Snaith told Fox 35 that one of the biggest obstacles will be consumer confidence, “I think that the biggest obstacle is will people be afraid to stand in a line with a bunch of people, will they be afraid to get on a crowded plane?” Snaith added, “Frankly, there aren’t going to be a lot of people flying into Central Florida from outside the region or outside the country for a while.”
He went on to say that this is why Disney must exercise extreme caution when it comes to any opening plan should there not be sufficient demand, “Now you’re losing an enormous amount of money because you recalled all those employees, you restocked all your kitchens, fired up all your operations, and you still have no income. Now you’re losing a lot more money than if you kept everyone furloughed and kept the parks closed.”
However, despite that somewhat dire possibility, Snaith appears cautiously optimistic about the prospect of the parks re-opening and soon. He told Fox that he believes that Walt Disney World’s reopening is likely just a few months away. “I’d be shocked if they remained shut through the summer, to me that would be devastating both to the region’s economy and for the company. I think what we know and continue to learn, doesn’t warrant that kind of dramatic lockdown,” said Snaith.
However, Snaith does tend to agree with the suggestion that a re-opening of Walt Disney World Resort with over 29 hotels, four theme parks, 2 water parks and a downtown shopping district would need to be phased. Snaith believes that “they’ll open up but there will be some limitation to how many people are in the parks, how many people are in restaurants at a time.”
You can check out the entire Fox News report here:
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Source: Fox 35