ABSTRACT
This paper examines the impacts of COVID-related capacity constraints on attendance at the Magic Kingdom theme park. Results – based on analysis of about 325,000 attraction wait times recorded between 2014 and 2020 – show that operating at 25% of the park’s capacity would lead to a 54.1-percent reduction in estimated annual attendance, whereas a constraint of 50-percent capacity would lower annual attendance by 10.6%. COVID-related capacity constraints will likely decrease the revenue generated by theme parks and reduce visitation in regions where major theme parks are located.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The Disney World employment figure of 75,000 workers is from the ‘Disney Employee Experience’ fact sheet.
2 Most years, there are numerous media accounts reporting that the Magic Kingdom reached its capacity limit on New Year’s Eve.
3 2014 to 2018 annual theme park attendance reports, published by Themed Entertainment Association, show an average of 20.3 million visitors per year to Magic Kingdom.
4 The estimated attendance figure for New Year’s Eve, which was oversampled with 1,808 observations in the data set, does not use a 5-day moving average.
5 The estimated attendance on New Year’s Eve is 102,135 guests.