Word: orlandos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...children at a northern airport where they're heading, and they don't say Orlando; they say, with an almost desperate glow, "Disney." Walt and his successors turned Central Florida swampland into the country's top resort destination and, for decades, have virtually monopolized it. Now Edgar Bronfman's besieged company has spent five years and $2.5 billion (on top of a previous billion or so for its Universal Studios Florida, or U.S.F., park, which opened in 1990) to get Orlando-bound kids to think "Universal." Though visitors have been filtering in since March, this week marks the official opening...
DIED. GEORGETTE SMITH, 42, shooting victim; of gunshot wounds sustained in March; after being removed from life support; in Orlando, Fla. Smith's mother, Shirley Egan, 68, had already been charged with attempted murder for the shooting and now may face a murder charge. Egan allegedly shot her daughter after overhearing her talk about moving Egan to a nursing home...
...will prices. The typical family spends about five days and more than $1,000 in Orlando's parks. It's nearly impossible to see everything. As a result, every park is feverishly baiting tourists away from rivals. If you've ever had to spend an ungodly amount of money to wait two hours for a six-minute ride, this may be your chance to get even...
Welcome to Troubleland. Orlando, the mecca of mega theme parks, may have too much of a great thing. With seven large parks on the ground and more on the way, industry analysts are issuing dire warnings: "Orlando is now a zero-sum game," says Curt Alexander, an analyst with Media Group Research. "There will be bloodletting of biblical proportions." The theme-park glut promises bargains for consumers but a brutal shakeout that could pound the earnings of park owners Disney, Seagram (Universal) and Anheuser-Busch (Busch Gardens, Sea World...
...softening. Attendance at the three older Disney parks dropped about 10% last year, according to Amusement Business, a trade magazine. The number of visitors at Universal Studios Florida and Sea World was flat in 1998, at 8.9 million and 4.9 million, respectively. The economic slump overseas slashed tourism to Orlando. But experts wonder whether the whole theme-park business is maturing, as the children of U.S. baby boomers get older and hence reduce the number of repeat trips. "I just don't think it makes a lot of sense to build more theme parks in Orlando," says Alan Gould...