Orlando Sentinel Columnist Mike Thomas thinks Disney is putting the squeeze on its rival parks with its new pricing structure. He’s right. Until travel costs and economic worries are quashed don’t expect the numbers of visitors to Orlando to grow much (50 million plus a year is the current number, which is still a significant sum). Disney is doing its best to make sure most of those visitors never leave its resorts and parks so it can capture all their tourist dollars.
Just thinking about the whole travel issue for Orlando for a minute. Let’s assume that the cost of travel issue is resolved by reducing our dependancy on fossil fuels through the development and use of alternate fuels. This will have the affect of driving up the cost of gas and thereby raising the cost of airplane tickets. How do most of those 50 million visitors get to Orlando, by flying. Disney, and Orlando, might better serve their long term interests by supporting an east coast bullet train from Miami to Orlando to Atlanta for starters. This would provide Orlando with easy access to two large metropoltan areas that would continue to provide the tourists that practically live on Disneyland’s doorstep.
See also this story at the Sentinel on the confusion of the new ticket options.