It’s hard to imagine what Central Florida was before the arrival of the Walt Disney World Resort. The sprawling apartment complexes, shopping districts, and massive eight-lane roads were nothing but orange groves and swamps.
Disney World and the other theme park resorts in the area have turned a desolate area into the third-fastest growing metro area in America, and it’s just getting started. The Orlando area is expected to become one of the United States’ 50 largest cities by 2030, surpassing traditionally large cities like Cleveland, New Orleans, and Minneapolis.
During its fight with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, The Walt Disney Company argued that it had a $40.3 billion yearly impact on the region. However, new findings from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) suggest that Disney’s calculations may be way off.
The IAAPA examined tax data from 2023, the latest available year, and found that all amusement parks, zoos, and museums in the state generated $3.8 billion in tax revenue.
The state saw 116 million visitors in 2023, and the IAAPA estimates that the entire theme park industry generated $30 billion for the state and supported 164,000 jobs. That’s a far cry from the $40 billion that Disney World claims that it alone generated yearly for the state.
Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of the IAAPA said:
When you talk about attractions, you immediately think, Disney World, SeaWorld, you know, Universal, the big parks. Water parks, zoos, museums, Science Center, all of those who are actually there to entertain families every day, in and out.
When Disney World calculated its impact on Central Florida, it included ancillary businesses that benefited from being close to the Walt Disney World Resort. These included hotels, restaurants, and other facilities catering to the area’s tourism industry.
Using the IAAPA’s numbers, it is difficult to imagine the Walt Disney World Resort accounting for $40 billion in revenue for the area. However, it is also impossible to fully understand how much Disney World’s business is worth to Central Florida in terms of its current value and what it has historically meant to the area.
Wahl and the IAAPA fully expect theme park revenue to increase in 2025 with the opening of Epic Universe. He said:
Everybody in the world wants to be like Orlando, because Orlando is seen as a tourism hub, as a destination for attraction visits, for family visits. Wherever I go, in my role as CEO of the global association, everybody says, you know, we want to be the next Orlando.
And I think that caters to the importance and to the reputation of Orlando as a global tourism hub for families. We are economically very strong and help economies to grow, create labor and all those aspects. And I think that is something which is very close to our heart.
Despite what appears to be Disney’s overcalculation, the importance of its presence in Central Florida cannot be overstated.
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