Disneyland,
which has been closed for a year, will reopen in late April.
Bob Chapek,
the chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., announced the time frame Tuesday at
the company’s annual shareholder meeting but did not give a specific date.
اضافة اعلان
California
officials announced Friday that theme parks in the state could reopen on a
limited basis as soon as April 1. Eligibility, however, will depend on
coronavirus transmission statistics in individual counties.
For
instance, theme parks in counties where the virus threat remains the most
severe (in the purple tier under the state’s system) must remain closed. But
parks in areas where the threat of infection has eased somewhat (red tier) will
be allowed to reopen at 15 percent capacity. Even less threat (orange tier)
will allow for 25 percent capacity, ultimately rising to 35 percent for the
lowest threat (yellow).
California
will restrict attendance to in-state visitors. Regulators will also restrict
indoor dining. Some indoor rides may be required to remain closed.
Disneyland
is in Orange County, which is in the purple tier. But if coronavirus cases
continue to decline in Southern California at the current pace, the county
could fall within the orange tier by late April. The Walt Disney Co. said last
year that reopening a park at less than 25 percent capacity would not make
economic sense.
Before the
pandemic, roughly 32,000 people worked at the 197ha Disneyland Resort, which
includes two separately ticketed theme parks, three Disney-owned hotels and an
outdoor shopping mall. Some furloughed employees have already returned; the
Downtown Disney retail district, for instance, reopened over the summer. Chapek
said that roughly 10,000 additional furloughed employees would be called back
for the April limited reopening of rides and hotels.
By the time
Disneyland reopens, it will be the last of the company’s six theme park resorts
to come back online. (The others are in Orlando, Florida; Paris; Hong Kong;
Tokyo; and Shanghai.) Chapek said the still-closed Disney Cruise Line may have “limited”
sailings by the fall.
In other
shareholder meeting news, Disney disclosed that its streaming service, Disney+,
now has more than 100 million paying subscribers worldwide. And Robert A. Iger,
who passed the chief executive baton to Chapek last year and transitioned to an
executive chairman role, reiterated his intention to leave the company at the
end of December.