by George Root

Created on: April 13, 2009

At its very core an amusement park is a business that is run by intelligent business people. An amusement park that has been around for a while knows the cyclical nature of their business, and they can adapt to changes in the economy, as they need to. However, this most recent recession is an exception to the rule and we are starting to see more amusement parks reacting to the shifting economy in the hopes of riding this financial storm out to the very end.

A good business plans for a bad economy, and a good business also allows itself the flexibility to make changes to their business plan when drastic changes happen to the world economy.
In a global recession such as this, there is no one particular amusement park that has an advantage over any other as the entire world is feeling the ill effects of this financial crisis.
People still want entertainment and they are still willing to pay to go to an amusement park, the difference is that the amusement parks need to offer more value in order for them to capture enough of a crowd to stay in business.

Some of the larger amusement parks have a slight upper hand in creating revenue because they have existing movie, merchandise, and television revenue that they can rely on to help add to the coffers. The amusement parks that gain the most are the ones that also release movies, as movie box office sales have been higher this year than in previous years.
People want entertainment in an recession, they just do not want to pay a great deal for it and a movie is still a great escape for a couple of hours regardless of the price of admission.

Amusement parks with on-site lodging are putting together packages that offer value above and beyond the packages they used to offer. Many of the on-site lodging packages are starting to include a food plan that could save the customer a great deal of money over buying meals as they go. Customers that are reserving longer stays are also finding that their rates drop dramatically for an extended vacation. It is the amusement park's way of offering increased value for people that intend to stay longer.

The amusement park industry is not recession proof, and the parks that cannot offer lodging bundles or cannot add to their revenue through other means are finding it difficult to survive. It is always sad when an amusement park closes, but business is business and in a tough economy only the truly strong will survive.

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