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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

UK Government: Keep Calm & Carry On.

In fact the experts next to Boris Johnson claimed banning large events will have no effect at all on the spread of viruses. Quite astonishing these statements and I don't really believe them. They talk about wanting to reduce the number of cases but at the moment in reality are just leaving it up to people themselves to self isolate ("if they have a cough").
Bizarre considering actions from other countries.

Reasons they claim we shouldn't act now is we need to build herd immunity.
At what cost?

I don't buy it.
 
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Which is a terrible reason since that's not how herd immunity works. Nobody's immune to COVID-19 when there are no vaccines yet.
I really don't get it. I listened to that entire statement. It was as if these "experts" were a couple of lawyers instead of people who have actually been inside a hospital for an extended amount of time to see what the hell is going on.

French president speaking later. I suspect it is only a matter of time before Disneyland Paris closes. They are already giving people free holiday changes.
 
UK Government: Keep Calm & Carry On.

In fact the experts next to Boris Johnson claimed banning large events will have no effect at all on the spread of viruses. Quite astonishing these statements and I don't really believe them. They talk about wanting to reduce the number of cases but at the moment in reality are just leaving it up to people themselves to self isolate ("if they have a cough").
Bizarre considering actions from other countries.

Reasons they claim we shouldn't act now is we need to build herd immunity.
At what cost?

I don't buy it.


1. That's not how Herd Immunity works, as it relies on a good percentage of the population being vaccinated. There is no working/proven vaccine for COVID-19 yet.

2. As it stands the UK is one of the least affected countries with confirmed COVID-19 cases. That could all change but knee jerk reactions don't seem to have worked in France or Italy. In some cases, like closing schools, it made it far worse as children infected with COVID-19 were then looked after by their elderly grandparents.

3. Most experts agree that the way the UK is handling it is actually very good. Questions remain over how good the NHS could cope with a large influx of patients but the control/delay methods seem to be working.
 
The situation is deteriorating by the minute stateside, or so it seems. Events, sports, public gatherings of all kinds are shutting down and suspending operations. I think amusement parks' only saving grace is that they are outside where the heat and sunlight supposedly hinders the spread of the virus, but despite this I wouldn't be surprised to see parks close down for a bit.

Luckily, it sounds like officials at the Department of Health and Human Services are predicting that we'll begin to see improvement in May...but as Poke has pointed out, the economic effects will likely linger for months.
 
Which experts?

Beyond telling elderly people not to book a cruise and stay at home when you have a cough how are we handling it?

These ones: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-governments-coronavirus-action-plan/

I'm really not a fan of this government, but they are giving people useful and sensible information whilst planning about what happens next. They are actually listening to experts and following their advice, a rarity. No misinformation, no information bombardment, no scare tactics. But they are also pushing the seriousness of it, and not down playing it like some countries.
 
These ones: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-governments-coronavirus-action-plan/

I'm really not a fan of this government, but they are giving people useful and sensible information whilst planning about what happens next. They are actually listening to experts and following their advice, a rarity. No misinformation, no information bombardment, no scare tactics. But they are also pushing the seriousness of it, and not down playing it like some countries.
Hope they're right.
 
These ones: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-governments-coronavirus-action-plan/

I'm really not a fan of this government, but they are giving people useful and sensible information whilst planning about what happens next. They are actually listening to experts and following their advice, a rarity. No misinformation, no information bombardment, no scare tactics. But they are also pushing the seriousness of it, and not down playing it like some countries.
True. Just a shame the tories couldn't keep things so honest during the election isn't it really.

But as for this COVID19 pandemic, Thorpe and Chessington could use a good wipe down so I'm not complaining tbh?
 
UK Government: Keep Calm & Carry On.

In fact the experts next to Boris Johnson claimed banning large events will have no effect at all on the spread of viruses. Quite astonishing these statements and I don't really believe them. They talk about wanting to reduce the number of cases but at the moment in reality are just leaving it up to people themselves to self isolate ("if they have a cough").
Bizarre considering actions from other countries.

Reasons they claim we shouldn't act now is we need to build herd immunity.
At what cost?

I don't buy it.

I'm not entirely sure this is the appropriate place to discuss this, but oh well...


The way viruses spread is a very complex science. When it boils down to it, the way this sort of virus (respiratory) spreads if when an infected person exhales some of the virus, and a healthy person breaths it in. But the amount of a virus a person exhales varies drastically, and the amount of a virus a person needs to inhale varies from person-to-person (for some people, inhaling just one tiny agent could cause them to be infected, for others, it could be more). And viruses can die.

With the, albeit limited, research we have about coronavirus, it appears that 1 infected person can infect a further 2 or 3 people. Those 2 or 3 new people cannot immediately infect new people straightaway, however. If, as the experts predict, there are in fact 100,000 people in the UK infected (many of whom will be fine and showing no symptoms), that means about 1 in 700 people in the UK has the virus. At a large event of, say, 10,000 people, that would mean there are 14 people who have the virus, and they could potentially infect a further 42 people.

The thing is, those 14 people who have the virus could easily come into contact with plenty of other people in their daily live. Equally, they could spread the virus onto surfaces, where it can linger for several hours, and someone else can pick it up. The way it works out is that the chances of those 14 people out of that 10,000 infecting a further 42 isn't much greater when you put them into a large event. It does sound rather implausible, but there's scientific evidence to back that up.

The big thing to take from what Boris Johnson and the experts were saying is the human reaction to all of this. This is a long haul thing. Short of locking everyone in their homes for 2-4 weeks, there's nothing the country can do to rid the UK of coronavirus. And even then, it'll still be around the rest of the world. It's all about timing. If you start cancelling events and closing schools now, it sounds good, but what happens if instead of having to do it for 2 weeks, you have to do it for 4 weeks? Or 6 weeks? Or you have to do it all again in 2 months' time? People will get tired of having it do it.

The big issue is trying to differentiate this from other, similar, illnesses, such as flu and even the common cold. That's why things like 'isolate if you have a cough' are happening. You may not have the coronavirus, but it takes pressure off the NHS in case you do, since most cases can be dealt with with good self care (like the flu). Then, the cases that need the help of doctors can have that attention.


I should say I'm no expert when it comes to viruses. And I'm not a conservative supporter. I have no idea if what the UK government and experts have decided to do is the best thing to do. There's things which were said which I don't like the sound of. However, if you listened to the statements from the experts (and not read what media are saying out of context), their action plan at the moment sounds somewhat reasonable.
 
I decided to look a little further into the finances of this, by checking the stock price of some big theme park operators. Of course, my Google-fu is far from advanced, but I could get the curves for a few large chains, and, well, it's not looking good.

The current price is listed below the name of the stock. I decided to highlight February 19 in the graphs, because that seems to have been the day before everything went south for most of them. Please excuse the gratuitous Norwegian, I think the graphs still make sense for English-speakers:

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Six Flags in particular seems to be hit extremely hard. Its stock has more than halved in less than a month, and it was bad already before. SeaWorld is even worse off, having its stock value reduced to a third in the same time span.

Posting Disney separately because it's a BIG company, but I guess the numbers say something about the expectations for the theme park division too:
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Also, for those who were wondering:
  • Merlin Entertainments was taken off the exchange when Blackstone bought it, so it doesn't have a share price at the moment.
  • Same goes for Parques Reunidos as they were bought by that holdings company.
  • I couldn't find any of the big Chinese chains, so I assume they aren't listed.
But yeah, Six Flags is in a bad shape. It was tumbling downwards well before the pandemic, and this might be the death blow. I doubt their parks would be torn down if the company goes under, though. Most likely, they'll all be bought and probably also retain their name. At the moment, SeaWorld seems to be headed the same way, unfortunately.
 
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The outcome of the cobra meeting today was shocking.. apparently we are in the “delay” phase yet we are doing nothing to stop the spread of the virus... we are just going to sit back and watch people die as the NHS only has 55 respiratory beds for an entire population and the NHS are currently only testing 1500 people a day for the virus.

When you see other countries such as Germany and France banning events over 1000 people, poland and Slovakia shutting down schools, cinemas etc and taking temperature checks on the way in and out of the country, scotland and Ireland taking action, why the hell are england sitting back and doing nothing. I personally think it shows a massive lack of direction and evidences the health officials have no clue what they are doing.

I think it is inevitable now that the UK will go on lockdown in a couple of weeks time, our cases will escalate to far worse than Italy and the government will have to make a hasty decision to lock down the entire country. I actually think our cases and deaths could end up being some of the worst worldwide. It just angers me because our government are being reactive rather than proactive, which is what got Italy into the state they are in, so why can’t we be proactive like some other countries to reduce the impact of the virus.
 
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I’m not sure that a coaster forum is really the best place to discuss the political response to the pandemic. I accept it’ll have an impact on theme parks - people won’t bother visiting if they feel at risk - so more than happy to discuss that, but please leave the politics out of it.

I have no doubt we’ll soon be seeing posts from parks showing cleaners in gloves and masks enthusiastically spraying lapbars with bleach, and photos highlighting their “hygiene stations” with hand gel. Parks need to be prepared. The last thing they need is some social media outrage because somebody didn’t fill the soap dispenser.
 
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