Americans Shunning Amusement Parks

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday September 25, 2001 12:05 PM EDT

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Mickey Mouse is hurting, too. Mirroring the current plight of America's hotels, airlines and pleasure cruises, destination theme parks such as Universal Studios and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, have seen the number of customers decline sharply since the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. landmarks. "Any sort of destination resort requiring an airplane flight is hurting," amusement-park industry analyst Paul Kim told Reuters. "Occupancy, attendance have fallen . . . like going off a cliff." In Orlando, parks, hotels, restaurants and other business dependent upon crowds lured to the area by the attractions are reporting high rates of cancellations and low usage, at least in part because of the unprecedented two-day grounding of all U.S. passenger flights. Walt Disney World, central Florida's biggest employer, last week put in place a hiring freeze and reduced some workers' hours because of fewer visitors. "It was bad, scary bad," said Bill Coan of Itec, a theme-park consulting and design firm in Orlando. "It was very, very impressive to see the attendance fall so much." Over the weekend, business at Orlando's theme parks picked up a bit, say experts and news reports. But attendance still remained below even the routine modest levels for a post-summer period when U.S. schoolchildren return to classes.