Word: parkes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...feed them. I've played some of the most violent video games, but I don't have the urge to make killing a reality. Like many other young people across this world, I have common sense and the ability to think and choose for myself. ADAM ROBINSON, 20 College Park...
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...
Disney alone has built at least one park every decade since the Magic Kingdom appeared in 1971. Last year the company not only opened the gates to Animal Kingdom (reported cost: $800 million) but also launched the Disney Magic ($350 million), its first cruise ship in Florida. A second ship, the Disney Wonder, is on its way. Analysts see so little economic rationale for these expenditures that they've begun to label the ships "Tragic" and "Blunder." Disney's stock price has been taking on water. Yet the company still has enough land in central Florida to add three more...
Determined to loosen Disney's choke hold on area tourism, Seagram's Universal division bought an additional 1,900 acres in the area late last year. That's enough for two more parks. Anheuser-Busch's Sea World, the third big player in central Florida, is adding a splashy new park in which visitors will be able to swim with the residents. That interactive attraction is scheduled to open next year...
This building boom is happening just when consumer demand for theme parks is 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...