An epic battle with an all British cast (HP vs BP) is about to begin on June 18, 2010. Can the immense buzz and rush of visitors to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando rescue Florida tourism from the clutches of the BP oil spill?
Clik here to view.
Forbidden Journey - Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Orlando
But Harry Potter is not alone in the battle to save Florida, because the Gulf Coast is about to get a huge boost from a federal aid package to be announced this week. Before we get to that, a little bit more about Harry Potter. The 7 Harry Potter books have sold 400 million copies, and the six movies have hauled in $5.4 billion, with one more (in 2 parts) to come.
Cost of WWHP theme park - $265 million base cost. Include additional enhancements to other sections, and the cost goes up to $380 million. Factor in the ad blitz ($3m Superbowl ad alone) and other marketing costs, and the final cost is within range of half a billion dollars.
Forecast - The biggest boost is expected to come from the UK, which was supplanted by Canada last year as Orlando’s top international market. Before the Potter Effect became apparent, the Orlando/Orange County CVB had a forecast of 817,000 visitors from the UK for 2010. The CVB now says it is seeing trends of WWHP pushing up the tourism numbers.
The end of the recession, the rave reviews of the Park and its interactive shopping experiences, the perfect summer launch, and the upcoming November release of Part 1 of the last Potter movie all point towards a blockbuster opening year for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
The biggest indicator that the Potter wave is going to be huge comes from the fact that Universal’s competitors – WDW and Seaworld, are gearing up for an influx of thousands of Potter fans who don’t usually visit Orlando. It wouldn’t be too far off-base to expect the number of UK visitors Orlando gets to climb up to between 850,000 and 875,000 this year and head towards the 2008 level (959,000) by 2011.
BP oilspill impact on Florida - Sean Snaith, director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness, has come up with a study which shows that Florida stands to lose 195,000 jobs and $10.9 billion in revenue due to the oil spill.
The figures are based on a scenario where Florida’s Gulf Coast tourism tanks by 50%. If you take a very optimistic view of the oilspill impact and assume only a 10% dip in tourism, Florida still loses 39,000 jobs and $2.2 billion in tourism revenue.
Gulf Coast Bailout - BP has already paid out $70 million to the Gulf Coast states for tourism promotion alone, with $25m going to Florida. But how many tourists and how much revenue $25m worth of tourism promotion brings back remains an open question.
What will help, though, is the Obama Administration’s impending announcement of federal aid in the form of a Gulf Coast recovery package, and their insistence that BP establish an escrow account with a huge reserve to settle claims. This is cold hard cash that will help tourism providers survive until the oil spill is cleaned up and the tourists come back.
Taken together, Harry Potter, the federal bailout and BP compensation claims will more than adequately fill the gaping hole in VisitFlorida’s annual numbers.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
