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From our studios this week in Los Angeles and Tampa.
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This is Green Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip
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and I'm joined as always by my delightful co host
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Scott Swinson of Scott Swinson Creative Development and Uh. This week,
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Scott with we should talk a little bit about the
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rebounding I think of the industry in other places.
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Yeah.
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So we've talked a lot about how it's rebounding in
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the US, and we talked a lot last week about
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how Ayappa was setting new records and what's happening in
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the rest of the world.
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Philip, Yeah, well physically.
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Let's see.
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So we heard we got research out this week from
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China and it looks very exciting. So this came out
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from the China Daily and it's a it's their tourism
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department put together a little study and they just kind
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of gave us the highlights of the study, and it
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says that the China's theme park industry experienced significant growth
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in twenty twenty three, with one hundred and thirty million
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visitors total, marking a seventy one point eight percent increase
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in visitors and a ninety seven increase in revenue from
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the previous year, So this is twenty twenty three numbers,
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and we're looking at the previous year. As of October
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twenty twenty four, sixty percent of China's three hundred and
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eighty five theme parks were profitable, reflecting the sector's robust expansion.
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And so this is a little bit of a time delay.
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And of course, so you're looking at these numbers from
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the closure. So I think I'm interpreting this as we've
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talked about before. Whereas the US, since we grew open
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so early, we're at we're past that like post pandemic
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surge in travel demand. But other areas that opened later,
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like China opened I think pretty late that towards some
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sector open pretty late comparatively to the rest of world,
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so they're earlier in the cycle of reopening and they
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should be still having revenge travel and then equalizing and
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whatever whatever, and so hopefully that'll spark new expansion, which
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is what happened here in the US, because if you
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look at the US right, a lot of our stuff
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is opening in twenty twenty six, you know, twenty twenty
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five and twenty twenty six, twenty six seven, with the
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epic next year, and then a few projects Disney has
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announced for the next following years. So I think it
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all kind of follows that timeline. So hopefully we should
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see some new announcements and new reinvestment in China in
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you know, in the next few years. And I wanted
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to mention this is something that was mirrored in the
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APAC breakfast that they had at Ayapa where we had
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a speaker from Village Road Show and Village Road Show,
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you know, it does a lot of different they have
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them entertainment venues, but they also do shows, and they
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mentioned anecdotally that their events were seeing double digit increases,
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much in line with this report. And they didn't really
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talk about new projects per se, but they'd talk about
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how it was rebounding and then people were recouping. And
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so this is I think exciting for all of us
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because China was supposed to be, you know, the Asia
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region was supposed to be the new Orlando, and then
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it moved over to the OAE, you know, and the OE,
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I think, has opened up new parks and is announced
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more plans and has opened up faster, right, And so
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this then the pandemic kind of really choked that Chinese economy,
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and I think now we're hoping that as the economy
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recovers and that reopens, and then travel spending and stimulus
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and all that will help bring new projects there and
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maybe potentially in time for when the projects are already opened,
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because once EPIC opens, that a lot of people who
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are going to be looking for work.
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Right right well.
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And it's interesting because it shifted first to the UAE
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and then to the KSA, So Saudi Arabia is a
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heavy duty player now and we'll see how China rebounds.
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I think the biggest the biggest curiosity I have with
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China is glad to see that the numbers are coming back.
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I think that's wonderful, and I think that's wonderful for
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every one of us who works in the industry. I
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do know anecdotally that that some of the companies that
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I either subcontract with or maybe subcontracting with in the
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future have also started up negotiations with expansions and new
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projects in the China market.
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I think the biggest.
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Curiosity I have, and you know, I don't whether I'm
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pretty sure you don't have this data right at your fingertips,
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but I just think it would be interesting is I'm
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curious to see what kind of international travel into China
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is going to look like. Because now, granted, for the
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first couple of years, China probably doesn't need a whole
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lot of influx of money from the outside because China
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is a big country and it's filled with people, so
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it can kind of work internally for a while. But
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one of the things that I know, I know for
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a fact just because of projects that I'm working on KSA,
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the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is working on, is they
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want to get money coming from outside the country. They
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want to make people feel safer and safer to visit
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a place that certainly people in the United States have
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had hesitancies about visiting in the past. I know the
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UAE has gone through the same thing, and they're continuing
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to try to bring in money from not just the US,
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but also from you know, other European countries, countries that
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are significantly closer. So I'm wondering if that's part of
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China's plan as well as you say, they're earlier on
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in the in the recovery process. But you know what, what,
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if anything, I'm curious to see, what, if anything, China
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is doing or will be doing to encourage international tourism
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and bringing people in from outside so that they can
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continue to to bring money into the country as opposed
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to just using money that is within the country.
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I don't know.
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That's just the first thing I think of when I
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think of the China expansion, because I know a lot
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of people who are concerned about about visiting China.
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I know a lot.
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Of course, there's a lot of people who are concerned about
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visiting the Middle East as well, and so I'm just
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knowing some of the things that the Middle East has
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done to.
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Sort of.
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Put those put those fears aside and make people feel
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comfortable to travel there. I'm just curious if that's part
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of the China plan as well, because I know it
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is a huge part of the Saudi Arabian plan.
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That is very interesting. I don't know. I'm honestly not
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sure if they've talked about that or not. I only,
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you know, came across this one study, But I don't
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know if they've talked about it and not.
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You know, like you know, tourism sectors.
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Sure about it, and please, I don't mean, I don't
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mean to put you on the spot, but you have
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a much better understanding of this region of the world
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than I do, so.
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Well it you know, the only thing I don't know
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the answer to that. I think that it's a really
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valid point, and it's like something that follows, you know,
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I know normally, you know, domestic recovers, and I mean,
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just look at Orlando's a great you know, domestic recovered first,
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and then then now they're trying to bring international because
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it makes up what twenty five thirty percent you know,
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of their revenue, and you know that's you know, it's
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making it friendly for that to come in. Is is
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really essential for tourism, And I am wondering, I think
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I would guess, just total guessing that they haven't looked
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at that yet because of just how much, like you said,
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population is within China itself, so just recovering the main
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population going to these things is enormous. But the only
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thing I remember, and this was back when I was touring,
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touring other sectors, but when I'm back when I was
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at the summit in Uee, which was before you went there,
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so it is like like a long time ago, but
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I just remember essentially they were talking about or essentially
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there was like some worry with the with with the
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China at that time, with the Chinese development, because essentially
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it was kind of like people vying for the dollars
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of the more wealthy Chinese families. Because essentially what they
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were trying to do was pull the wealthy families, like
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if you can afford to leave China, they want you
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to go there. They want you to go to that
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They want you to go to that area instead of
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coming to the US. You know that that was a
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piece of the of the tourism, you know, the Thirty
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Year Plan or whatever was like pulling other people from
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this area. So I think and every country has that struggle,
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we know, Right, The question is like you know that
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the people that have the money, the one percent or
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even the ten percent that can afford you know, most
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of the Chinese population, you know, is just going to
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go locally and they're gonna send their towison dollars locally
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and maybe they can move from one sector to the other.
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But the one percent that really have the money to spend,
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where are they going to go? And you always want
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them to stay locally in your country, right, But then
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you have these these areas vying for each other. I
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mean a lot of people. You know, I think we
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underestimate in the US how many people come to Orlando
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or they come to the US only and they invest
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in the dollar just because it's the best the part
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capital of the world. But if that shifts to China
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or to and if other regions, then are we you know,
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there's a lot of that we're losing as well. But
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so I'm not sure if that's also or I'm sure
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that's also in play in terms of how do we
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keep these not do we just recover, but how do
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we keep folks interesting and traveling throughout China versus you know,
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running over you know, to the Middle East, or to
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going to Orlando or to London, right, you know that
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any of those.
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Things well, and with China specifically, again, I think we'll
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I said, I think we'll see this come into play
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if we can get information shared about this, because they
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may also be holding this very they may be playing
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this particular part very close. Yeah, that's that's a very
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common thing that even I know in working with this
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part of the world. And but we'll we'll see as
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we as we move forward in their timeline, because like
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you said, we're still just at the beginning of the
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recovery timeline for them, and and or just just just
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past the beginning, coming into the middle of the recovery
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timeline for them. And uh, we'll see how how eagerly
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they they try to bring in the outside dollar.
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But you're you, you brought it.
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You brought up a good point, and that is that
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you know, their population is such that there's there's enough
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to keep these theme parks running in in China. And
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if they can keep especially the Chinese wealthy, the Chinese,
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you know, the wealthier Chinese citizens in China as opposed
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to traveling to other places like Saudi or the UAE
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or whatever, or the US, then there's money that they
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save and just keep in the country. So it's just
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it's it's just interesting because I look at I look at,
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as you say, Orlando.
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You know, there's a huge amount, a huge amount. And
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I think and I.
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Honestly think that I honestly think that Disneyland. I think
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Anaheim is to a lesser degree, but I think that
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Orlando is because you can go first, you can come
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to the US, which has a mystique all its own
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for people in different countries. Secondly, you can experience the
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Flagship Disney, the flagship Universal Parks all in one trip,
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plus every other cheesy roadside attraction you could ever possibly want.
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It's called My Drive just you know right there.
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It's so like I said, I was just curious to
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see if if China had mentioned anything about that yet.
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I think we should probably keep an eye on that
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and see if that comes up in the future because
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that could be very interesting.
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Well, our next story, I think is very parallel to this,
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but potentially I think is a plan to try and
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attract some of those luxury tourists, you know, which is
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an interesting play. Again, I feel like it's a little
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bit like Star Cruser play. But so the next story
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is that there's there's a pretty big new luxury resort
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opening in Mexico. And this has been a project's been
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in the works for a while, but this past week
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before right before Thanksgiving, we actually got the details, like
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the act, like the full details of the rides and
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the manufacturers and the whole thing, which generally means that
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it's pretty you know, it's it's pretty close to to
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I mean, it's already sections have already been built. But
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I think this means it's it's pretty far down the pipeline,
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so I'm going to read here excerpts from the press release.
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It says Mexico's Group this week revealed details about its
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new theme park in Nuevo Valerta, a reported US one
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point three billion dollar projects. That's US one point three