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Credit: Inside The MagicAccording to a report from The Business Journals, Walt Disney World has faced significant financial challenges due to hurricanes. Experts estimate the total loss at over half a billion dollars.
The Walt Disney Company, including each Disney Park in the United States, sees the financial impact of this near-billion-dollar loss.
Disney Has Lost Over Half a Billion Dollars: Hurricanes To Blame
Most recently, Hurricane Milton forced the closure of Walt Disney World’s theme parks from Wednesday evening through Thursday, with the parks set to reopen on Friday, October 11. This marks yet another instance of weather-related closures for the theme park giant, which first shut down for an entire day in 1999 due to Hurricane Floyd.
Dennis Speigel, CEO of Cincinnati-based consulting firm International Theme Park Services, has tracked Disney’s hurricane-related losses for the past 25 years.
He estimates that Disney loses approximately $45 million each day its parks remain closed. “It takes a while to stretch the rope back up because it becomes a winding road of issues to deal with,” Speigel explained. “There’s a lot to consider. Lost ticket sales revenue is just part of it. All the related hospitality earnings drop.” When adjusting for inflation, Speigel’s analysis shows Disney’s cumulative losses from hurricane-related closures have exceeded $547 million.
Beyond ticket sales, the impact extends to Disney’s entire ecosystem, including its hotels, restaurants, and other guest services. Goldman Sachs further estimates that Walt Disney World’s attendance could dip by 6% this quarter due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Milton, resulting in a projected financial loss between $150 million and $200 million. However, the accuracy of such figures remains difficult to verify.
What This Means for the House of Mouse Moving Forward
John Gerner, Managing Director at Leisure Business Advisors, cautioned against making financial decisions solely based on these estimates. “There are so many unknowns,” Gerner said. “Theme parks often aggregate totals by category, not by location, which makes it nearly impossible to get exact numbers.” The uncertainty of these figures is compounded by the complexity of weather-related impacts.
“Even Disney might not know for sure exactly how much they’ve lost, and projecting what they will lose this week isn’t an exact science,” Gerner added. In the past, hurricanes were not seen as major threats to Disney’s Florida operations, Speigel noted.
“Walt Disney came to Florida because it had such good weather. Hurricanes weren’t much of a factor back then. It used to be that in the theme park sector, we used weather as an excuse if something went wrong with revenue, but now, it’s not a joke.”
Weather is now a top concern when calculating profit and loss for theme parks. “It’s one of the five most important intensities we look at,” Speigel said. Looking ahead, Disney will likely have to adapt its operations in response to increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. As hurricanes and other extreme weather events become more frequent, Disney’s ability to bounce back quickly will be key to mitigating losses.
This may involve reevaluating disaster preparedness strategies, enhancing communication with guests during severe weather, and possibly revising long-term business models to account for the growing threat of natural disasters.
Moving forward, Disney World’s approach to weather-related closures will play a significant role in how the company navigates its financial future in Florida. With climate change expected to bring more frequent and intense storms, the theme park giant will need to prioritize weather resilience and operational flexibility.