Could Disney’s $60-billion investment be hinting at a fifth Orlando park?
By Bob Hazen
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ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — Disney says it plans to invest $60 billion into its theme parks around the world.
This comes after the company’s top executives told investors that fewer people have been coming to Disney World this year than at the same time last year.
The company wouldn’t say what those billions of dollars would mean for Disney World in Orlando, but the CEO didn’t deny that some of it could go toward building a fifth theme park in Central Florida.
“We’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said.
Iger, talking with investors on the 1st quarter earnings call, said most of the $60 billion they plan to plow into theme parks and the cruise line will be spread out around the world.
“You can pretty much conclude they’ll be all over,” Iger said.
Executives said the theme park division overall had a record quarter, with 10% higher operating income year over year. In terms of Disney World, the Central Florida parks actually declined.
The company chalks it up to inflation and higher wages in addition to lower attendance when compared to the big numbers they saw for the park’s 50th-anniversary celebration a year ago.
However, they said they expect the new investments to pay off.
Some have been speculating that Disney is looking to build a fifth theme park in Orlando. The company even included a future major theme park in the controversial developer agreement it signed with the Reedy Creek Improvement District before Gov. Ron DeSantis’ people took it over.
Iger was specifically asked about the fifth gate idea on the call and sidestepped, saying anything one way or the other.
“We’ve got a menu of things that we’ll basically start opening in ’25, and there will be a cadence every year of additional investment and increased capacity,” Iger said.
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