Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
When The Magic Closes: Examining How Disney Fans Coped With Theme Park And Resort Closures Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cody Havard, Carissa A. Baker, Daniel L. Wann, Rick Grieve
When The Magic Closes: Examining How Disney Fans Coped With Theme Park And Resort Closures Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cody Havard, Carissa A. Baker, Daniel L. Wann, Rick Grieve
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
This essay discusses a qualitative investigation we conducted with fans of the Disney parks and resorts during the summer of 2020 regarding the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, 22 people responded to open-ended questions from an online survey to discuss their views of the closures and planned reopenings of the Disney parks and resorts amid the early days of the pandemic. Using social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978) and the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), we discuss how fans react to and cope with the temporary loss of a favorite activity and how companies in the themed entertainment …
Covid-19 And Immersion: Physical, Virtual, And Home Spaces, Scott Lukas
Covid-19 And Immersion: Physical, Virtual, And Home Spaces, Scott Lukas
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
This article considers the dramatic adaptations that have occurred in themed immersive spaces as they have dealt with the challenging dynamics of COVID-19. As COVID-19 has been a respiratory disease, it has impacted the operations of theme parks, casinos, cruise ships, and other immersive spaces, especially as such spaces have relied, traditionally, on physical forms of entertainment and immersion. The writing begins with a consideration of the COVID-19 challenges noted in the theme park and cruise ship industries. OceanMedallionTM and MyMagic+ technologies are considered for their possible positive role in addressing the operational dynamics during the pandemic. Issues of guest …
Brighter But Not Clearer: Entertainment-Dependent Destinations Dealing With Long Covid, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Frederic Dimanche
Brighter But Not Clearer: Entertainment-Dependent Destinations Dealing With Long Covid, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Frederic Dimanche
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored a range of very different possible outcomes for destinations that rely heavily on their entertainment sector (Dubois & Dimanche, 2021). Several months later, this article seeks to revisit those outcomes, while also highlighting the ongoing recovery efforts and evolving strategies of entertainment-dependent destinations (EDDs). To do so, we reconnected with the panel of respondents from various destinations (i.e., Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans etc.) to take stock of both new challenges and opportunities, as well as emerging factors impacting their respective markets. Our results show that while EDDs are facing a …
Theme Parks, Staycation Practices, And Covid-19: Opportunities And Uncertainties, Salvador Anton Clavé
Theme Parks, Staycation Practices, And Covid-19: Opportunities And Uncertainties, Salvador Anton Clavé
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
The effects of COVID-19 on the market transformation of the theme park industry has been significant in the short term because of travel restrictions. Challenges, impacts, responses, and strategies might vary from one region to another and even from one theme park to another. However, it can be assumed that domestic travel will continue to have an effect on the theme park industry during the months to come and likely beyond the pandemic. In this context, the “staycation” is becoming a booming trend in the leisure, entertainment, and tourism industry, creating new, current, and future unexpected economic winners and losers. …
The “Politics Of Inclusion/Exclusion” In Times Of The Pandemic, Florian Freitag
The “Politics Of Inclusion/Exclusion” In Times Of The Pandemic, Florian Freitag
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
As commercial enterprises that depend on attracting a maximum number of visitors in order to be economically successful, theme parks have generally been careful to avoid unpleasant, sensitive, or controversial themes (or aspects of a theme) that might offend or alienate potential customers. Due to official regulations concerning e.g. the wearing of masks in waiting lines and during rides, however, the pandemic cannot simply be “excluded” from the parks and remains constantly visually present, thus seriously undermining the companies’ efforts to keep the park grounds rigidly separated from the rest of the world. Particular operational decisions by some theme park …
“It Takes People To Make The Dream A Reality”: Disney’S Hr Strategy In Response To Covid-19, Jaime L. Williams, Allison A. Toth
“It Takes People To Make The Dream A Reality”: Disney’S Hr Strategy In Response To Covid-19, Jaime L. Williams, Allison A. Toth
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
From January 2020 to the beginning of fall 2021, theme parks around the world have been required to engage in abnormal, abrupt, and major shifts in operations caused by the ongoing global pandemic (COVID-19). Through the process of sensemaking, this paper will focus on the human resources related decisions made by The Walt Disney Company in an effort to better understand the organization’s responses to changes in the external environment and the resulting outcomes during the pandemic. The overall management of Cast Members in the United States during this time period with specific focuses on the layoff and re-hiring of …
Are European Theme Parks Likely To Suffer From Long Covid?, Pieter Cornelis
Are European Theme Parks Likely To Suffer From Long Covid?, Pieter Cornelis
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
COVID-19 has had a major impact on the theme park industry. Visits to European parks were significantly lower in 2020 than the year before. This article discusses the short-term and long-term economic consequences of the pandemic for the theme park industry. Attitudinal loyalty, inertia effects of guest satisfaction on repeat visits, (deferred) reinvestments, and the difference between theme and amusement parks will be considered. To compensate for losses in 2020, many parks increased their visitor numbers in the 2021 season to the maximum permitted capacity, especially in the summer months. As a result, analysis of waiting times at 22 investigated …
Introduction: Theme Parks And Covid-19, Salvador Anton Clavé, Florian Freitag
Introduction: Theme Parks And Covid-19, Salvador Anton Clavé, Florian Freitag
Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies
In the tourism industry, “crises” have been conceptualized as local and temporary phenomena, interval states that may require imminent action, but that can eventually be overcome, with business simply resuming. At the moment of writing, however, it is not at all clear when or if the theme park sector can simply return to a pre-pandemic state of affairs. Even if tourism may once again attain pre-COVID numbers, it may well be through entirely new and different forms. The essays collected here provide scholarly and professional snapshots of the current (winter 2021/2022) state of the theme park industry, with special attention …