amusement park industry in a major way. There was a decrease in time and money spent onleisure activities as well as travel. However, by 2010 consumer spending and income levels hadbegun to increase again. The expansion of jobs has led to an increase in disposable income.While time spent on leisure activities is forecasted to decrease in the near future from 5.28 hoursper day in 2014 to 5.
26 hours per day in 2019 (IBIS, 2015), the amusement park industry is notlikely to feel this effect, with a predicted revenue increase rate of 1.8% annually to $16.8 by2019 (IBIS, 2015).
Additionally, industry employment is said to have risen 2.3% annually in thefive years leading up to 2014 (IBIS, 2015).As a result of the industry’s growth, many big names in theme parks such as the WaltDisney Company have invested large sums to improve their amusement parks. Disney invested$2.4 billion in its domestic theme parks between 2009 and 2013, while Universal Parks andResorts likewise spent $1.
2 billion to improve its domestic offerings (IBIS, 2015). Improvementsand expansions in Disney can be expected for the next several few years according to ChairmanThomas O. Staggs (Ting, 2012). In 2012, Disney revamped its California Adventure amusementpark, and added a 12 acre themed “Cars Land” (Ting, 2012). In May 2014, another reaction tothe improving industry health was the rise in ticket prices at Disney World’s Magic Kingdomand Disneyland’s California Adventure. One day ticket prices rose to $96 for patrons 10 years or
