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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

JammyH

Hyper Poster
I would say by this point its looking increasingly likely so sadly. However Movie Park Germany (27th March), Europa Park, Heide Park (both 28th March) and Phantasialand (4th April) have yet to announce anything.

Although Holiday Park have delayed opening, Skyline Park have postponed until 03.04 and Berlin Legoland Discovery Centre until 19.04.

Rulantica tickets are currently still available to purchase from 28th March onwards.
NRW are supposedly putting bans on gatherings over 50 after Berlin implemented these measures, so can’t see Phantasialand or Movie Park opening on the scheduled date.

Europa park is a difficult one to judge, obviously they are coordinating with the authorities as we speak, but the closure of rulantica makes the season being pushed back all the more likely.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Hansa Park have delayed opening until 20th April at the earliest but acknowledge depending on how the situation it could be longer.

Annnnnnd there's my trip cancelled. Nice to have the confirmation tbh


I wonder if some parks (specifically German ones) are waiting for their local authorities to enforce closures as some sort of financial / insurance thing? Does anyone realistically expect any of the German parks to be open at this stage? And same with British parks: how long do we realistically expect it will be before they temporarily close? At this stage it's just an inevitability in my eyes.
 

Nitefly

Hyper Poster
It is terrible for the themepark industry but not exclusively. Just look whats going on with the likes of British Airways - they are really in deep ****.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
When do we think that the tourism industry will recover from this? In a year or less? Or are we talking multiple years, or maybe even decades in a worst case scenario?

Out of interest, do we think that the fallout from this will see major projects cancelled? For example, could we see Universal cancel Epic Universe? Or SeaWorld cancel its absolute wave of investment?
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Fantissima at Phantasialand has just been cancelled and that's an event with 300 people... Their season opening will definitely be delayed.

There goes my trip this week :( cancelled.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Germany are largely closing their borders with France, Austria and Switzerland. So for Europa Park down in that corner of the country that's nearly half of the workforce locked out of Germany...


EDIT: Not yet a no from Heide Park but they've released a statement saying they are in talks with the authorities about when to open for their 2020 season.
 
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JammyH

Hyper Poster
Just heard Phantasialand are phoning up all guests who have bookings to inform them that the hotels, park and all events will be cancelled indefinitely.
 

cookie

Giga Poster
Parks and Resorts Scandinavia (owners of Gröna Lund, Kålmorden, Skara Sommarland and Furuvik) seem to be indicating that they could delay their season openings in April should the ban on large gatherings persist until then.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Just heard Phantasialand are phoning up all guests who have bookings to inform them that the hotels, park and all events will be cancelled indefinitely.
Supposedly this comes after a ruling by Stadt Brühl/local authorities today. But no official confirmation yet though.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Incase anyone was interested, I’ve complied a list of all the parks which have currently closed their doors.

UK:
Warner Brothers Studio Tour UK
Billy Bates funfair tour

USA:
Six flags parks (magic mountain, over texas, fiesta Texas, over Georgia, St. Louis, Great America, Discovery kingdom)
Disney parks
Universal Orlando
Knotts Berry Farm
Carrowinds
Dollywood (delayed opening)
Seaworld parks/Busch Gardens
Legoland Florida & California Resort
Kings Dominion (delayed opening)
Silver Dollar City
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Asia:
All OCT parks (15 in total including Happy Valley)
Chimelong parks (3)
Fantawild parks (17)
Sunac parks (14)
Universal studios japan
Ferrari world Abu Dhabi
All Dubai parks and resorts parks
IMG worlds of adventure
Disney Parks
Magic planet

Europe:
Portaventura (delayed opening)
Efteling
Toverland
Parque Warner Madrid (delayed opening)
Parque de atracciones Madrid (delayed opening)
Tayto park (delayed opening)
Gardaland/ all Italian parks
Gardaland sea life aquarium
Fraispertuis-City (delayed opening)
Rulantica wasserwelt (Europa Park)
Slagharen
44 German funfair/festival events
Disney parks
Hansa park (until at least 20. April- delayed opening)
Holiday Park (delayed opening)
Skyline Park (delayed opening)
Legoland Discovery centre Berlin
Phantasialand resort (closed for an indefinite amount of time from season start)
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
NRW region of Germany (Cologne, Bonn, Dusseldorf, etc.) has announced a closure of all leisure/free time activity locations until 19th April. Most certainly this will include Phantasialand and Movie Park Germany - would be expecting both parks are working on their press releases now.
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Incase anyone was interested, I’ve complied a list of all the parks which have currently closed their doors.

UK:
Warner Brothers Studio Tour UK
Billy Bates funfair tour

USA:
Six flags parks (magic mountain, over texas, fiesta Texas, over Georgia, St. Louis, Great America, Discovery kingdom)
Disney parks
Universal Orlando
Knotts Berry Farm
Carrowinds
Dollywood (delayed opening)
Seaworld parks/Busch Gardens
Legoland Florida & California Resort
Kings Dominion (delayed opening)
Silver Dollar City
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Asia:
All OCT parks (15 in total including Happy Valley)
Chimelong parks (3)
Fantawild parks (17)
Sunac parks (14)
Universal studios japan
Ferrari world Abu Dhabi
All Dubai parks and resorts parks
IMG worlds of adventure
Disney Parks
Magic planet

Europe:
Portaventura (delayed opening)
Efteling
Toverland
Parque Warner Madrid (delayed opening)
Parque de atracciones Madrid (delayed opening)
Tayto park (delayed opening)
Gardaland/ all Italian parks
Gardaland sea life aquarium
Fraispertuis-City (delayed opening)
Rulantica wasserwelt (Europa Park)
Slagharen
44 German funfair/festival events
Disney parks
Hansa park (until at least 20. April- delayed opening)
Holiday Park (delayed opening)
Skyline Park (delayed opening)
Legoland Discovery centre Berlin
Phantasialand resort (closed for an indefinite amount of time from season start)
Nice to see that someone has been reading the updates on our homepage. ;)
 

Matthew Fair

Mega Poster
USA:
Six flags parks (magic mountain, over texas, fiesta Texas, over Georgia, St. Louis, Great America, Discovery kingdom)
Disney parks
Universal Orlando
Knotts Berry Farm
Carrowinds
Dollywood (delayed opening)
Seaworld parks/Busch Gardens
Legoland Florida & California Resort
Kings Dominion (delayed opening)
Silver Dollar City
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
USH is also shut
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
When do we think that the tourism industry will recover from this? In a year or less? Or are we talking multiple years, or maybe even decades in a worst case scenario?
Multiple years, for sure. The lockdown could last through the summer, at which point seasonal parks wouldn't even bother to hire and train temporary workers for the remaining weeks of the season.

Long story short, what determines how quickly a country could let the epidemic burn through it is how many intensive care hospital beds it has. For most of the developed world, that's around 100-200 per million inhabitants. Assume only 1% of those infected need intensive care, that means around 10-20,000 people per million can carry the virus at any given time to avoid disaster. That's 1-2 % of the population. Assume that everyone takes two weeks to get through the illness, and that the epidemic burns out when 70% of the population has had the illness and become immune. That gives 35-70 weeks before this blows over. Any faster, and you'd get more people requiring intensive care than the healthcare system can deliver at the same time, and the governments out there will pull all the stops to prevent that from happening.

By then, effective treatments or even vaccines might be available, but it'll take a long time to roll it out to all who need it. So I'd expect the tourism industry to be locked down for at least a year across most of the world. 2020 will probably be a write-off for most parks out there. Time will tell if everybody has the financial capacity to open next year, and what the public apetite for large gatherings will be by then. If we're really lucky, attendance might be back to 2019 levels in 2022 or 2023.
 

Llama Drama

Roller Poster
Kings Island's social media have been pretty dormant the last few days - no statement yet on COVID-19.

Something tells me the park - along with a certain anticipated coaster - is not going to open as planned. ?
 
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