Disney’s Attendance Down 80% From 2019 While EPCOT & Animal Kingdom Outperform Other Parks

2020 has not been an easy year for anyone, including the tourism industry. A new research analysts reports Disney theme parks are operating at 80% less than last year with EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom outperforming Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

As shared by the OrlandoSentinel, Disney theme parks are operating at 80% less than last year, said Deutsche research analysts Bryan Kraft and Benjamin Soff, who looked at proprietary geolocation data to make their estimates. The attendance figure appeared to represent Disney World as well as Disney’s other international parks that are open.

“At present, Epcot and Animal Kingdom are outperforming Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios,” their note said.

The earlier rise in COVID-19 cases made tourists hesitant to travel during the pandemic, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said this month. Chapek acknowledged Disney World had a higher than expected number of reservation cancellations when he spoke during a quarterly earnings call that showed Disney theme parks took a $2 billion hit from the pandemic.

 

The decline in cases could help Disney’s attendance, the Deutsche note pointed out. “Given this ongoing improvement in Universal’s attendance and declining new daily COVID cases in Florida, we believe that Disney World will also soon see some benefit,” it said.

Source: OrlandoSentinel