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To take a look at how Disney is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, look no further than Shanghai, where the entertainment giant has organized a limited reopening of the Shanghai Disney Resort.
Adults, children, and seniors wear masks as they wander between staff and security guards carrying non-contact thermometers and hand sanitizers.
As some countries raise orders to stay home, investors and park fans watch Walt Disney reinvent the “happiest place on earth” for a coronavirus-altered world.
Disney gets a third of its revenue from parks, experiences and products.
According to experts, the nature of high-volume, high-volume, child-centered parks, and Disney’s need to avoid harm to a brand synonymous with safety and families, will make reopening difficult.
Disney’s ability to reopen its parks in Asia, USA. USA And France will also be a powerful signal on how the world can return to normal by dealing with Covid-19.
“This is the biggest challenge the industry has ever faced,” said Phil Hettema, founder of The Hettema Group, which designs theme park attractions and other experiences.
Disney, which has not announced any plans to reopen the parks, declined to comment.
Chief Executive Bob Iger recently said that checking guests’ temperatures could become routine at Disney Park entrances.
Other plans under consideration, according to an informed source on Disney’s thinking, include attractions like the Space Mountain roller coaster that could stagger guests on each “rocket” to force social alienation.
Guests could be notified via the app or other technology when they can go on a walk or in a restaurant to remove the lines.
Staff members and guests may be required to wear masks. But in true Disney fashion, the employee masks would be fun, not scary, the source said.
This week, Disney began selling face masks featuring Mickey Mouse, Baby Yoda and other characters online, saying that up to $ 1 million in profits would go to charity.
The masks, which are now commonly used across China, are everywhere in the business district just outside of Shanghai Disney, where workers disinfect a playground for children ages 5 to 12 at noon and 3 p.m.
Temperature controls are required under local regulations, according to the Shanghai Disney website.
Business and political leaders in Florida, home of Walt Disney World, have come up with ideas such as limiting capacity at all theme parks during an initial phase of reopening.
The question health experts and financial analysts are asking is whether any of these measures will be enough to protect Disney’s employees, guests, or results.
Social distancing could come at a high price.
In April, UBS downgraded its Disney rating and lowered its division’s profit estimates to $ 500 million in fiscal 2020 and just $ 200 million in 2021 compared to $ 6.8 billion in 2019.
According to the firm, Disney parks must operate with approximately 50% of their capacity to be profitable.
Investors will see a more complete impact of the coronavirus when Disney releases its second-quarter results on May 5.
Comcast said this week that if its Universal Studios parks remain closed for the entire second quarter, the company will suffer earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and loss of amortization of approximately $ 500 million.
Financial analysts have forecast that Disney’s reopening dates run from June through January 1.
Governors will set the tone in California and Florida, where Iger and Walt Disney World Resort President Josh D’Amaro sit on state reopening teams. The rest is up to Disney.
Although Disney and other large venues face an unprecedented challenge to protect guests from an easy-to-transmit airborne virus, experts and a former executive pointed to his expertise in crowd management.
More than 157 million people visited Disney parks in 2018, according to the Thematic Entertainment Association.
“If anyone can figure it out, Disney will,” said Dave Schmitt, founder of MR-ProFun, a theme park consultant.
Safeguards have limits. Temperature controls will not catch everyone infected, and most vaccines are not 100% effective, said Dr. Megan Murray, a professor of global health at Harvard Medical School.
Still, a vaccine would provide some peace of mind for park visitors, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll conducted April 15-21.
While a fifth of respondents said they would attend an amusement, theme or water park each time they reopened, about 30% would go if a vaccine was available. The survey, which surveyed 4,429 American adults, noted that a vaccine may not be available for more than a year.
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