New Report Says Universal Orlando’s Attendance is Rebounding, But Disney World’s Attendance Still Lags

H/T Orlando Sentinel – Gabrielle Russon

According to an analyst report published by Deutsche Bank yesterday, Universal Orlando’s theme parks are seeing an “uplift in admissions” especially on Saturdays when attendance is down 64% from 2019 crowds, the best figures since the parks reopened.

However, Disney World’s theme parks are operating at 80% less than last year, Deutsche Bank research analysts Bryan Kraft and Benjamin Soff said. The analysts looked at proprietary geolocation data to make their estimates.

The attendance figure appeared to represent Disney World as well Disney’s other international parks, which are now open. ”At present, Epcot and Animal Kingdom are outperforming Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios,” Kraft and Soff’s report said.

Universal Orlando theme parks reopened on the 5^th June, weeks ahead of Disney World, which waited until mid-July to reopen their theme parks. By then, the reopening of Disney World theme parks came during a surge of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.

However earlier this week, an health official for Orange County revealed that the death rate is finally dropping. The same can be said for the virus, which has also been on a declining trend for the past couple of weeks.

The rise in COVID-19 cases made visitors hesitant to travel during the pandemic Walt Disney Company CEO (Disney CEO) Bob Chapek revealed this month.

The Disney CEO acknowledged that 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 because of the pandemic.

The decline in COVID-19 cases could help Disney World’s attendance, the Deutsche Bank reported 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.”

H/T Orlando Sentinel