Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong addressed the ongoing softness in the Orlando tourism market during a fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference. The attendance pressure that surfaced at Universal Orlando during the second quarter has not let up, Armstrong said. He pointed to a mix of macroeconomic factors and a difficult comparison against Epic Universe\u2019s opening year. Here\u2019s what he had to say.<\/p>\n
Comcast CFO Addresses Continued Orlando Softness at Goldman Sachs Conference<\/p>\n
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IN THIS ARTICLE:<\/p>\n
Comcast\u2019s CFO says Orlando attendance softness has continued into the third quarter<\/p>\n
He attributes the softness to macro factors and a tough comparison against Epic Universe\u2019s opening surge<\/p>\n
International parks in Osaka and Beijing have also seen pressure for roughly three quarters<\/p>\n
Armstrong broke the softness into two segments. Macro pressure, namely gas prices and airfare, is the first, and he said it\u2019s weighing on the broader travel market. A year-over-year comparison tied to Epic Universe\u2019s debut is the second. The new park drew a wave of pent-up demand last year that lifted attendance across the entire Orlando market, and this year\u2019s numbers are now being measured against that unusually strong stretch. \u201cThere was a ton of pent-up demand that actually lifted the entire Orlando market for us,\u201d Armstrong said. He added that competitors saw the same lift.<\/p>\n
Armstrong also detailed continued pressure at Comcast\u2019s international theme parks. That pressure has been building for roughly three quarters, he said. Chinese visitation to Japan has dropped sharply due to geopolitical tensions, and he said that has directly affected the Osaka park. The Beijing park, meanwhile, has felt the impact of broader macroeconomic softness among Chinese consumers.<\/p>\n
Comcast Still Bullish Despite Near-Term Pressure<\/p>\n
Despite the ongoing softness, Armstrong pushed back on the idea that hindsight should cast Epic Universe\u2019s opening negatively. Comcast still views the investment as the right call, he said, pointing to a two-year comparison rather than a year-over-year one. \u201cIn the Orlando market versus two years ago, we are up materially in every metric,\u201d he said. He cited attendance, per-capita spending, overall financial performance, and guest satisfaction scores.<\/p>\n
Armstrong framed theme parks broadly as a business Comcast wants to keep investing in. He cited the durability of intellectual property and the strength of its destinations, which include Orlando, Osaka, Beijing, and Hollywood. \u201cSo incredibly bullish in the parks over the long term, but you\u2019re not wrong. We do have some near-term headwinds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still not clear when the broader Orlando market will pull out of this stretch, or how much of it is comparison noise versus a genuine pullback in travel demand. We\u2019ll continue to track how attendance trends develop at both resorts heading into the fall.<\/p>\n
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com<\/a> for not only the latest Disney Parks news, but also news, photos, and info from great offerings Outside the Bubble<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong addressed the ongoing softness in the Orlando tourism market during a fireside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14475,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-398563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-attendance-report","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}