Latest news with #MichaelMariano
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Travel Weekly
4 days ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Disney says its California and Florida resorts drive national prosperity
Aiming to shed light on the impact of its domestic resorts on the U.S. economy, Disney commissioned a study to put a number on it. Tourism Economics found Disney's Florida and California resorts have a combined nationwide economic impact of nearly $67 billion, indicating that Disney's two domestic theme park locations "are key economic engines not only in their respective regional economies, but also in the nationwide economy," said Michael Mariano, Tourism Economics' head of economic development. Mariano and his team have studied the economic impact of Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort in recent years. Travel is an area of focus for Tourism Economics, which has worked with clients like TripAdvisor, Airbnb and the U.S. Travel Association in the past. He gave a virtual media briefing this week to share the results, which marks the first time Disney has combined total economic impact from both resorts to paint a nationwide picture of the company's impact. Mariano has analyzed the impacts of Disneyland on Southern California's economy for the last seven months, honing in on fiscal year 2024. His team previously studied the same for Disney World's impact on Florida for fiscal year 2022. Both studies employed similar methodology. That methodology includes analyzing three components, Mariano said: direct impacts, indirect impacts and induced impacts. Direct impacts are defined as all economic activity directly associated with Disney guests and visitors. For instance, that includes all sales on site, as well as spending outside of the resort, like at the airport, on transportation, and at off-property venues like hotels and restaurants. Indirect impacts, Mariano said, encompass the supply-side effect, or the goods and services Disney purchases from local providers. Induced impacts come from Disney and tourism-related employees' wage and salary spend within the regional economy. Using that methodology, Mariano found that Disneyland's economic impact in the 2024 fiscal year totaled $16.1 billion in Southern California. "Now, to put this in context, that's almost as much as American consumers spent on pizza delivery in 2024," he said. Disneyland directly and indirectly supports more than 102,000 jobs in the region, with nearly 75% of total job impact including jobs within Orange County. Disneyland is the largest employer in the county with approximately 36,000 cast members. It contributed $2.6 billion in total tax revenues. For the fiscal year 2022, Disney World generated a total economic impact of $40.3 billion within Florida, supporting 263,000 jobs. In addition to the resorts' regional impacts, Mariano said, they generated an additional $10.2 billion in economic activity throughout the rest of the country. That figure includes purchases by both resorts from suppliers and vendors. Combining that nationwide figure with regional impacts, he said, results in a total economic impact of nearly $67 billion in the U.S. "To add some color to this number, consider that the two resorts' total combined impact of $67 billion was nearly as much as U.S. consumers spent on Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Halloween combined in 2024," Mariano said. In addition to supporting 403,000 jobs across various industries and businesses in the country, he said, Disney also supported "thousands of small businesses throughout the country."
CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Disney says its theme parks generate $67 billion in annual U.S. economic impact
For decades Disney's domestic theme parks have been the growth engine for tourism, job creation and tax revenue in Southern California and Central Florida. On Thursday, the company revealed its wider impact on the U.S. — reporting a national economic impact of $67 billion each year. "Disney defines the themed entertainment business in America, and our presence is felt across the country," said Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, in a release. "Our destinations create economies far beyond the gates of our parks, and when we invest in the groundbreaking experiences that only Disney can deliver, growth follows." The new report comes from economists at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, which combined data collected about Disneyland's impact in California and Walt Disney World Resort's impact in Florida as well as additional nationwide spending spurred by the company. Disney's economic impact report arrives on the heels of its announcement of a new theme park development in Abu Dhabi and the opening of rival Universal's Epic Universe in Florida. It also follows a recent bout of scrutiny over the company's ticket prices, which some critics say have priced out potential parkgoers. The company looked at direct economic impact, including onsite spending at Disney parks as well as spending locally on things like restaurants, hotels and transportation, as well as indirect impacts like goods and services that are purchased from local businesses to support the parks. The study also took into account what it called induced impacts, meaning largely what Disney's employees spend their own paychecks on. Tourism Economics determined that Walt Disney World Resort had a $40 billion economic impact across the state of Florida in fiscal year 2022, Disneyland Resort had a $16 billion impact on Southern California in fiscal year 2023, and combined the parks amount to a $10 billion annual economic impact on the rest of the country. "With a nationwide impact of nearly $67 billion, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World are key economic engines, not only in their respective regional economies, but also in the nationwide economy," said Michael Mariano, head of economic development with Tourism Economics and Oxford Economics. The report also determined that Disney supports more than 400,000 jobs domestically, noting that 1 out of every 20 jobs in Orange County, California, and 1 out of every 8 jobs in Central Florida can be attributed to the company. "One way I often think about these studies is that we're trying to measure what would be lost in the absence of these attractions and the numerous activities associated with the attractions," Mariano said. "So one way of looking at these results is what we would lose if we didn't have Disneyland Resort within the Southern California region and Walt Disney World Resort within the state of Florida?" Disney has more expansion plans, with $30 billion in domestic capital expenditures expected through 2033. This includes the largest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom, including a revamped section of Frontierland and new land themed around Disney's villains. A new tropical Americas land is coming to Animal Kingdom, featuring attractions based on "Encanto" and the Indiana Jones franchise. And Hollywood Studios is getting a "Monsters Inc." land. Over in California, Avengers Campus at California Adventure is set to double in size and attractions based on "Coco" and "Avatar" are planned for Disneyland.
