April 29, 2024
Universal's Tram Collision, Delays, and Overtourism
A Tram collision injured 15 at Universal Studios Hollywood, but does that mean the park has a safety issue? Meanwhile, EPCOT cuts a month from Food & Wine, Donkey Kong is delayed, and Japan is concerned about Overtourism.
A Tram collision injured 15 at Universal Studios Hollywood, but does that mean the park has a safety issue? Meanwhile, EPCOT cuts a month from Food & Wine, Donkey Kong is delayed, and Japan is concerned about Overtourism.
SOURCES
WEBVTT
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Well, hello and welcome to Green
Tagged Theme Park in thirty. I'm Philip
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and I'm joined as always by Scott
Swinson, A Scott Swinson Great Development,
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my co host for this series.
Scott, I'm right now in the Philadelphia
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region for the first annual East Coast
Hunts Convention. It has been a packed
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show, like an absolute smashing success. There's so many folks here that we
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know in the industry and a few
listeners that I have seen that have said
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hi to me, which was always
great. I'm sorry if I was too
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much of a zombie already to reply
to you, but this is their apply.
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It definitely a few days. Well, it's funny because I've I've seen
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so much on social media in general
about the show, and it looks like
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it's a great show. It looks
like everyone's having a good time. You're
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right, it looks like it's absolutely
packed. And I've got I have a
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couple of friends who are ending there
for the first time and just to kind
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of test things out, and I
think that's you know, I think that's
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super fun. I'm really bummed that
I couldn't couldn't be there myself. So
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for all of you who are there
who are listening to the show. Hi,
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Sorry I'm not there, but I've
just been doing so much traveling recently
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that I needed some time to actually, you know, do my work.
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So I decided it would be in
my best interest not to be there.
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Chances are good I will try to
get there next year if the if the
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show continues, but based on everything
that I've seen and heard, looks like
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it's the kickoff for something that will
be around for a while. Okay,
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Well to the news, as they
say, and I think the first story
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here, I think that we definitely
have to talk about because it's important news,
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but I don't think we need to, you know, catastrophize about it.
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But of course I'm sure everyone is
aware of the tram crash that injured
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fifteen at Universal Studios, Hollywood.
I'll read a little bit here from the
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excellent story from Theme Park Insider.
It's always difficult because not a lot of
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people, not too many people,
you know, cover these in a good
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way. And I always think that
Robert does a good job over there,
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so I'll read some excerpts from his
article here. The Los Angeles kint of
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Fire Department responded to the collision just
after nine pm Pacific time. The fire
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department reported that fifteen patients were transported
to local hospitals with minor injuries. Is
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unclear at this time what caused the
collision. Universal said in a statement,
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there was a tram incident at the
theme park tonight that resulted in multiple minor
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injuries, confirmed by the La County
Fire Department. We were working to support
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our guests and understand the circumstances that
led to the accident. They were,
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of course preparing for the sixtieth anniversary
Tram tour and this was really right before
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the media nite, so I think
they might have canceled the media night about
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this. I'm not sure, but
this was the debut of the new Glamour
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trams was supposed to happen at this
time. There's been just a few updates
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on this, but we don't have
too many specifics other than the update report
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from the police saying that the last
car on the tram was struck struck a
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guardrail on the right side of the
road as the tram was turning left onto
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Avenue M just past the Jurassic Park
cars, So it wasn't like they didn't
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hit another vehicle or whatnot. It
was. It was the tram just colliding
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with guardrails that caused it, and
then the collision caused the tar to tilt
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and eject multiple multiple passengers from the
tram. So the police are actually going
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to launch investigation into this, and
we'll here I guess more later if anything
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new comes to light after the investigation, but they're going to be doing an
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investigation, they're going to reveal those
findings to the public. I assume Universe
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is also going to do an investigation, but they haven't set too much.
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So that's what we know. Well, yeah, and I think you know
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your Universal in their statement did sort
of allude to the fact that they were
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doing an internal investigation as well and
working with the external sources to make certain
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that that investigation was was the best
it can be. I think the most
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important thing about this is number one, there were no major injuries. It
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was you know, minor injuries and
tilt and ejected. It sounds significantly less
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threatening than crash, but tilt and
ejected guests doesn't make for a good headline,
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especially I think the important that you're
trying to promote as being the main
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attraction for your sixtieth anniversary for the
exactly the timing was just bad. Yes,
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well, and I think that's what
is really the most important thing about
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this story. You know, those
of us in the industry, if we
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are not involved directly in the in
the safety department, we always think of
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safety as being just the thword in
our side. You know. It's like,
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oh my gosh, they always are
telling us what we can't do,
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and blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah. But this is a
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perfect example of how the best laid
plans can be completely uprooted by one minor
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safety infraction. And and when I
say minor, if if any of the
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families of the people who were injured
or listening, I don't mean that.
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I don't mean that to to downplay
it or disregard it. But in the
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grand scheme of things, you know, thank goodness, no one was severely
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injured or worse yet killed. But
even just having people being dumped out of
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a tramcar and having minor injuries and
taken to the hospital is enough to undermine
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a very expensive reopening or celebration of
their sixtieth sixtieth anniversary. So you know,
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whenever, whenever the safety folks come
to you and say, we can't
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do this, we can't do that, let's look at this, let's look
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at that. Instead of looking at
them going oh my gosh, we have
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to do this, thank them for
it, thank them for it, and
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get them involved early so that you
know you don't have to redo things later.
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Now, could this have been prevented? I have zero idea. I'm
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not part of the investigation team.
I have no investigation information. So in
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this particular incident, I have no
idea, But I think it's I think
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it's worth stating, especially in a
show like this one, that you know,
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if you are working in the industry, safety is always going to be
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job one, no matter where you
work, no matter what you do.
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And this is why it can completely
even even a minor incident can completely upend
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a very expensive and well planned out
media launch or new event launch or promotional
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launch. And so embrace, embrace
your safety people, Tell them thank you
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when they bring things to your attention. And what I've discovered has always worked
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really well, whether it was back
in my bush Gardens days or with my
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client since then, is if there
is a safety concern, go to the
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safety team and say, you know, what can we get away with have
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a discussion with them, and not
even get away with what is a safe
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way to accomplish what we need to
accomplish, Because even your even good safety
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people will tell you the safest way
to run a park is not to open
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it. You'll have zero injuries.
You'll also have zero profit. So you
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have to you have to find those
balances. You have to find those ways
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to work with the safety team and
utilize their knowledge and their expertise so that
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you can, in the best of
terms, avoid situations like this completely,
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and in the more difficult of terms, you know exactly how to handle it
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if something unexpected goes wrong because you've
planned out, you know, five other
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options, even though what really happened
was number six, you can at least
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have a working plan to get through
it smoothly and with the least amount of
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personal injury, injury to scenic and
hard goods, and media upheaval. So
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again, safety is not something that
should be put on the back burner.
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It's something that should be on the
front burner. And this is a perfect
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example as to why I have nothing
to add and I think that's fine,
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so I think we can move on, move on, because because in other
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words, Scott, you've talked way
too much about this one time, so
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I'm not moving on. I don't
never say that, Scott. Of course
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I would never say no, but
you're thinking it. That's okay, okay,
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sorry. Number two World has cut
a month from the Food and Wine
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Festival. So Disney World has cut
a month from Epcot's Food and Wine Fest.
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They announced the dates for the twenty
twenty four Food and Wine Festival,
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which this year will start on August
twenty ninth and continue through November twenty third,
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which is a big change from twenty
twenty three, when it started in
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the middle of summer and ran through
November eighteenth. Of course, there's also
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menus and whatnot, but I don't
want to talk about any of that.
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I just thought it was very interesting
to have the discussion about the timing here.
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And I'm not sure if this is
part of the largest or you know.
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I think last year when the dates
came out, we talked about how
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it's like they were trying to fill
a whole new season with like food festival,
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Like here's a food festival season,
and it was a good you know,
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three month type of run. And
we did recently talk about how Halloween
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was trying to become a three month
thing, especially in the Orlando area,
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with activity starting in August. So
we have August, September, October.
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But is that too long? And
is that why the the scaling back?
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You know, has it? Has
it resulted in? I think like festival
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too many festivals like festival overload to
guess who are you know, like whenever
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they're there, there's a festival some
kind that evolves food, so it becomes
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something that works against it where there's
no reason to really need to go because
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there's always food there. I think
you yes, I think you've I think
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you've hit the nail on the head. It sounds to me, and again
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I have no internal information that would
would lead me to be able to state
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this with a great deal of certainty, but it sounds to me as though
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they're trying to have a little bit
of a palate cleanser letting. Letting the
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park itself without a festival overlay be
what it makes it unique for that period
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of time. It also may be
something as simple as it's the way the
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calendar worked out, or something as
simple as this is when they could get
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the best bands for the concert series, or something as simple as they had
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to reduce their or they their business
planning chose to reduce the amount of money
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they were going to spend on concerts, so therefore they had to have fewer
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you know, there's there's a whole
bunch of reasons for reducing this. I
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think that, you know, I
love the phrase that you use, the
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sort of festival overload concept. I
think that if people think there's always going
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to be something going there, going
on, then they have no impetus to
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go at a specific time. And
I think that you know, lighting that
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fuse. I think they're they're at
least testing. I don't know, it
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appears as though it appears to me
as though they're at least testing the concept
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of will we be able to get
the same number of people in a more
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condensed, cost efficient time period if
we eliminate that one month in the summer,
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because you know what, they don't
need I've been to Walt Disney World
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in this. They don't need to
drive attendance in uh you know, yeah,
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in see, that's exactly what I
was. I was going to get
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these dates and I'm like, oh, basically, this is Halloween at Epcot.
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Like it's the very end of August, and so you're you're it's still
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three months, so it's all September, all of October, and basically all
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the way up until Thanksgiving. So
it's this is this is Halloween at Epcot.
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And they've decided, you know,
because Halloween has been a shoulder season
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in the past. I think they've
decided, well, we summer is fine,
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we don't need to bring people there
in summer. But because of all
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the competing Halloween events happening around the
area, maybe we need to have something
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for Halloween at Epcot. But it
doesn't make sense to have Halloween, so
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it'll be able to have We'll move
food and wine. I mean that's kind
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of well, and since and since
more and more it's it's also food and
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wine, which targets, generally speaking, an older demographic, and school they're
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starting in August. I'm sorry,
I have to you have to have minded
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by the food and wine, and
you have to be able to drink the
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wine exactly exactly. And since most
schools you know, are now kicking up
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in August, now, they it
just seems to make sense I don't know.
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I to me, this is this, this is a good thing to
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see. And you know, they've
got the what is it flower and Garden
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show that's going on right now,
and that will continue and then there'll be
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a breath of fresh air and then
they'll kick in to kick into food and
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wine in August. And I think, you know, I think there's there's
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been sort of a I think they
keep trying to build these these events,
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and as you say, we've gotten
overload to the point where they're even overlapping.
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And that's happening not just at Disney
Parks, that's happening in other parks
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as well, where it's kind of
like we're doing we're doing october Fest on
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the weekends, but we're doing Halloween
during the week I mean, we're doing
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you know, leaf Festival or whatever
every other Thursday. And it just gets
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it just gets really overwhelming and confusing. So it's kind of too much of
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a good thing. And we have
to write size ye speaking of right sizing,
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Oh, I'm not sure that that. I think that does work.
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So so Universal has delayed the Donkey
Kong roller coaster, you see, because
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you know you're right, because it's
the Mind Coaster, and you're like right
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sighting it, it was that's a
good, good attempt at a transition.
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Okay, all right, well we're
here, we have transitions. So so.
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Universal Osaka announced today that is delaying
the opening of the Donkey Kong Country
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expansion of its Supernintendo World until late
twenty twenty four. The expanded land,
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with its first of a kind mine
cart Madness roller coaster, was scheduled to
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open the spring. I don't know. I mean, I think that's one
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of those things maybe a little bit
overlooked to me. It's a similar story
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where I'm like, I think it
might have been a little bit of an
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overload where them kind of I'm sure
partially, I'm sure it is a build
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concern as well. But we've seen
a lot of you know, delays here
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with the matel and it's just been
a lot of delays all over still,
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which I think are still I think
a lot of places haven't realized, you
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know, the long term impact of
the pandemic, which is kind of what
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I'm getting at, which is,
you know, you're seeing these delays in
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big projects like this, and part
of it is because there's still supply chains
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that have not recovered, you know, up until now, and we've been
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talking about even people not recovering in
their traveling and but you also have you
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know, the planes and the you
know that infrastructure that hasn't recovered. And
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then on the supply side. So
I think these are echoes of that,
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and I also think it's echoes of
what we just talked about, which is
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do you really need that much in
the summer. I mean, that's the
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natural you know, as people are
returning back to their natural schedule, they
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want to do stuff in the summer, and I'm not sure that you need
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to position you know, your big
openings there. So when you combine these
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two big forces, I think it's
these delays as I think we're going to
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see more of these is what I'm
getting at. We're going to see more
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of you know, stuff being delayed
just due to stuff out of the control.
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You know, they can't secure the
supplies as fast as they were able
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to do that in twenty nineteen.
I think you're absolutely one correct, and
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I think that is it is a
major factor in this. I think we
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also have to take into consideration that
you know, Universal is working on so
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many different fronts right now. I
mean they're just everywhere. So I think
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there's also that. So this truly
is a right sizing situation. It's it's
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right sizing the the expectations based on
the production chain of getting stuff done.
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It's it's right sizing the expectations of
a monumental park who is doing everything,
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a monumental brand that is doing everything
they can to expand and invigorate the guest
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park experience and trying to do it
all kind of at once. You know,
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I I will say, based on
what on the rumblings I'm hearing here
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in Florida, there other, that
other little thing that they're doing here in
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Florida, that epic thing, don't
expect that to open fully and on time.
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Yes, either they're struggling. They're
struggling and there and they'll get it
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done. Don't misunderstand me. But
again, it's that right sizing. It's
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that how how can we write and
this is happening not just in the in
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the the attractions industry. I mean, you know, we just last week
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we uh or earlier this week we
heard we heard the the Southwest is now
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no longer operating in four different airports
and what they claimed was the reason,
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and it may be is that that
they're waiting on planes from Boeing because they
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can't get the planes to fill out
the schedule. I think it's also a
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challenge with with staffing, as we've
talked about Naudrum, so you know this
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kind of thing. Let me put
it this way. It's probably driven by
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the fact that they can't get the
parts and pieces or the labor that they
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need to get it installed on top. But to your point, Philip,
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I don't think they're too stressed about
it because moving it to late twenty four
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is just kicking the can down the
road a little bit and probably doing an
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opening ceremony in a much better time
that where they actually need the attention and
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they need the bump of attendance.
Well, speaking of places that actually don't
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want any more attention, it's a
good transition. Yeah, okay, I'm
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with you. That's good. Let's
go okay, okay. So our next
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story is also in Japan. Actually
I didn't think about that when I placed
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it, but it's also in Japan, just a little bit different area.
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So there's a town in Japan that
is setting up a blockade to block the
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view of Mount Fuji. In response
to over tourism, a huge black barrier
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to block Mount Fuji from view will
be installed in a popular photospot by Japanese
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authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behave
foreign tour So it's a mesh net.
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It's going to be two and a
half meters high by twenty meters wide,
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and it's going to begin next week
the construction on that. The officials for
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the town said that it's regrettable.
We have to do this because of some
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tourists who can't respect the rules,
that who have been leaving little behind and
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ignoring traffic regulations. And it's the
latest direct action in Japan against overturism,
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after residents of Kyoto's Geisha District banned
visitors from small private alleys this year.
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They said this partly due to a
record number of overseas tourists who are traveling
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to the country, where monthly visitors
exceed during three million in March for the
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first time ever. So this particular
area, they tried traffic signs, they
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tried repeated warnings from security guards,
and none of that apparently has worked.
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So as a last res were the
town decided on this huge screen. The
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article that we're linking to says that
tourism to Japan has been booming since pandemic
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ara border restrictions were lifted, and
the government has been working hard to boost
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visitor numbers, which you just talked
about in other areas, but these have
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not been universally welcomed, including the
Kyoto mentioned the Kyoto reference we mentioned earlier.
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There's also others, things like the
Mount Fuji, which is now charging
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foreigners to climb certain areas just because
of the amount of congestion. So we've
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talked about this in not just Japan, but other areas, you know,
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where it's like you have these competing
interests a lot of times with areas where
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you definitely have the want, you
know, tourism is the hot thing that
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everybody wants. They want to bring
in tourism and bring in especially high margin
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tourism. And in fact, there
was an article recently by the Japan Tourism
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District saying they're trying to encourage more
tourism, but like premium travel tourism,
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you know, instead of the lower
grade thing, which I think is so
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it's like they want tourism, but
they want this premium one, but there's
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a lot of smaller areas that people
want to go to. You know,
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again see pandemic, you know,
encouraging people to go small areas, but
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those small areas don't have the infrastructure, and not always the folks that you
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know, the locals that want that
to happen. You know, see ie
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Disneyland previously right in the Anaheim locals
not wanting to prove expansions in previous years.
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So just tourism forces are very interesting, and I think it's interesting to
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see how the different areas react to
this industry that we're in because we always
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see the positive, right, We're
always like more tourism is a good thing,
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but in some cases the locals don't
like it. Well, more tourism.
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More tourism isn't a bad thing if
there's the infrastructure to take care of
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it. And you know, I
think this is a perfect example of the
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challenges. And again I think,
I know, I've worked on projects that
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were more successful than they were supposed
to be and we never thought that it
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would be causing traffic backups for miles
and you know that kind of thing.
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But so it's to me, this
is just a reminder that, you know,
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be careful what you ask for because
you just might get it. You
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know, if you want this kind
of increased tourism and there is a town
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that is you know the locals are
opposed to it, make certain that you
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get them involved and figure out how
they can benefit from it, because then
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they will become your greatest advocates.
You know. That's a perfect a perfect
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example. The idea here is the
the first thing I thought of was,
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well, gosh, if this were, if this were in the States,
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the first thing they would do is
instead of building a wall, they'd build
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a giant building that would block the
view, but put a glass face on
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the side facing Mount Fuji, or
like the merchants around, or do some
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sort of thing where you could get
local, you know, spend more.
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Yeah, exactly, that's America.
Exactly. We're always but that we're really
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good at making money. Well,
we're really good at creating things that we
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think will make money. Let's put
it that way. Because we're also really
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good at spending a lot of money
and then having things closed, like we
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talked about last week's So we are
still think the best economy, we are
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the best economy of the G seven
right now, coming out of well,
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that's true, that is very true. Yeah, it's it's well, and
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we're in a good place right now. I mean, despite what we see
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milling about. Our economy, as
you say, is in a good is
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in good shape. It's in really
good shape right now. And so yes,
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you're absolutely right, it's it's that's
probably where my my capitalist thinking comes
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in. But I just think it's
important. This is a good message for
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all of us. And that is, if you're looking for something that you
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think is going to be successful and
impactful, don't just look at the microcosm,
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look at the macrocosm. I've had
this discussion with a couple of my
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clients just within the last couple of
weeks, and that is, you know,
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uh, you may find a perfect
place to build a show, make
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sure you've got a place for an
audience, and uh so the same the
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same is true here. If you've
if you want to encourage more tourism to
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come see Mount Fuji, then make
sure you've got ways to control the additional
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traffic that's going to create the desire
in this particular case to stop. You
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know, maybe instead of investing in
a wall, you invest in a pullout
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so that people can pull off the
road get their photos, and then you
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can set up vendors and food trucks
and benefit the local economy as well using
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this giant natural wonder. But apparently
they've tried all that, Yeah, and
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the only thing they can think of
to do is to put up a big
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black screen to block the v Yeah, it is difficult because I just find
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it so interesting that these places are
trying to thread the needle so delicately,
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like that. You know, the
the Tourism Council trying to encourage premium traveling
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in other areas, you know,
and part of that plan is they even
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said that in the other article that
i'll link to I'll try and link to
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hopefully, is the trying to encourage
these premium travelers that spend more than a
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million of the Japanese dollar. But
like it part of the part of that
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challenge, you know, they're like, we want to create you know,
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natural like Japanese experiences, but you
know, we're getting into the rural areas
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is difficult because you know, because
of all the infrastructure is lacking. There's
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no hotels, blah blah. You
know, so it's a it's just it's
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difficult because you know, it's like
it reminds me also of the some of
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the challenges that theme parks face,
you know, which is that if you
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know, if you're going to Japan, Mount Fuji is such a thing where
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like how can you discourage people from
It's it's like, you know, when
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people are going to Disney and they're
like, well, I want to be
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able to see the Small World and
the Matter Horn and the you know,
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the big three mountains. I mean
there's some iconic like the Castle, Like
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you want to go to Disney to
be able to see the castle, right,
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It's like you want to if you're
going to Japan. Mount Fuji is
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a thing I think a lot of
people want to see in some way.
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But then they're like, well,
we don't really want you going to rural
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areas to crowd sidewalks to take photos. Which it's just when you step back
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and think about this, the reality, it's so crazy that so many people
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want to get photos of Mount Fuji
that they're going to this area just to
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stop and crowd a side walk to
take them to take photos. There's nothing
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to do, they're just taking photos. But there's so many that wanted they're
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crowding it, and then so many
that want to climb the mountain. There's
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that like it's like it's too congested
to climb, so they're trying to charge
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higher fees and just climb the mountain. So it's it's just, you know,
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it's that interesting thing that we deal
with all the time where there's definitely
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iconic things that we use in our
marketing to encourage people to attend our attractions,
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But then how do you manage that
and then what do you do when
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they're not available? Right? Well, I mean the on a microcosm,
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I mean, I think back to
when I worked at when I worked in
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Williamsburg, Virginia on the fourth of
July, because that was the only time
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they used to do fireworks. But
on the fourth of July, you could
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see the fireworks beautifully from the highway. So what the biggest challenge they had
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is people would just to park along
on the shoulder along the highway to watch
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the fireworks, and they actually had
to stop doing fireworks. They actually had
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to hold back on doing fireworks because
it was creating a dangerous scenario out on
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the highways. I don't remember I
don't know exactly how they managed through that,
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but you know, it's it's a
perfect example of well, gosh,
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here's a great way. And who
doesn't want to see Mount Fuji? I
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mean it, it is so iconic, it is it is one of that
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I would say, one of the
top three visuals people outside of Japan think
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of when they think of Japan.
You know, it's Mount Fuji, so
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you want to get the best picture
of it, and or you want to
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climb it, or you want to, you know, experience it in some
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way, so you know whether it
is a natural attraction or attraction an attraction
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that you control. Just make sure
that you have all the things in place
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to handle the crowds you're trying to
get. And you're probably better off being
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out in front of it than being
behind it, because if you're behind it,
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then you have to take, like
they're doing here, these stop gap
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measures of well, we'll just make
it so you can't see it from here,
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which it seems to be the opposite
of what I would want to do,
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and that is, let's build a
place that you can see it,
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so you can pull right up in
there and get your perfect shots. You
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know, I'm not sure, I'm
thinking that it's also financial. I'm thinking
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putting up this giant mesh screen is
going to be significantly cheaper than restructuring the
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roadways. And maybe that's a secondary
plan. I don't know, but it
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certainly would be if it were,
if it were in my books, because
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I've seen, you know, in
Caribbean islands, for example, they will
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have pull offs for tour buses where
tour buses can pull off and get these
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beautiful views and vistas of the natural
beauty that is on these islands, so
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that they don't have to get either
blurry shots or pull over onto the non
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existent shoulder in some Caribbean highways.
So yeah, this to me seems like
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either a last ditch or a stop
gap until they can come up with a
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better solution. Well, okay,
I'm gonna try and fit one more story
398
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in here at the very end,
and that's just to say that we got
399
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a little bit more news from the
Pepe Pig theme park that's coming to Shanghai.
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We had heard about this, you
know, previously, it's been announced.
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I think we are hearing a little
bit more about it, which is
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encouraging because we've talked about how we're
hearing less from China as they're trying to
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deal with their economy and get that
figured out. So it's a little bit
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encouraging that we're starting to see news
come out about the Pepa Pig park again.
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00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:48.720
They just reiterated, I think what
we had heard previously. It'll be
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Haspro's first a park in Asia.
It's a three hundred and thirty one million
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US dollar investment to cover approximately forty
eight acres. No details about what's going
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to be there, they just said
it's going to have them barius rides,
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00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:07.519
shows, hotels and all the stuff. The thing I thought was interesting really,
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it's more just like interesting that we're
seeing these announcements again, which is
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encouraging, but also interesting that they
underscored that they're all that they said here,
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we're always looking to make sure that
we adapt the local flavor and customs
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making it appealing to local guests,
but at the same time, so highly
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00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:23.759
the elements of Peppa Pig. We're
really excited about how we can actually adapt
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00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:29.720
it for Shanghai and our Chinese fans. So that was interesting that they're it's
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00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:32.759
probably all political right that, you
know, making sure the announcement to be
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00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:33.680
like, oh, things are still
happening in China, but also, you
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00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.079
know, don't worry. It's going
to be you know, adapted, you
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00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:40.000
know, to to not just like
what we talked about, to not disrupt,
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you know, too much of the
local culture. So it was interesting.
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00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:47.359
Well, and let's be honest,
people aren't going to go to or
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at least I would not go.
I would not go to Shanghai to get
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a replica of the Peppa Pig part
that I can get here in Florida.
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Absolutely, I would want that take. I would want that uniqueness, and
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I think that, you know,
with most countries that have a great deal
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of national pride. It's a it's
somewhat political, but I also think it's
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a wise choice from a from a
tourism standpoint, because it gives people a
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reason to go specifically there and not
just to say, well, I'm not
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going to do pep a pig because
it's exactly like the one in Orlando,
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and I live in Dunedin, so
I'll just go over there. So I
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think it's I think it's a really
wise idea, and I think it's a
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00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.640
good choice. Speaking of good choice, it would be a good choice for
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us now to end our show,
because that way we remain somewhat true to
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our title Theme Park in thirty.
As usual, we've gone over just to
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00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:41.400
shade. But that's all right.
So I hope you guys are all having
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00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:45.440
a great week. Please tell everybody
about the show, anybody that you think
437
00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:48.000
might be of interest. I can't
tell you how many people that I work
438
00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:52.319
with who have who don't know about
the show yet, and the moment I
439
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:56.880
let them know and give them a
link and send them on their way,
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00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:00.160
they become regular listeners. So I
really appreciate all of you who are listening
441
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:04.839
now, So share the share the
love, and hopefully we'll get uh and
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00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:10.920
continue to increase our listenership. On
behalf of Philip Bernandez with Gantam Lighting and
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00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.039
the Haunted Attraction Network and myself Scott
Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development. This
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00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.079
is green tagged theme Park in thirty
and we'll see you next week.
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00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.480
Well, hello and welcome to Green
Tagged Theme Park in thirty. I'm Philip
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00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:07.080
and I'm joined as always by Scott
Swinson, A Scott Swinson Great Development,
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00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:15.039
my co host for this series.
Scott, I'm right now in the Philadelphia
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region for the first annual East Coast
Hunts Convention. It has been a packed
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show, like an absolute smashing success. There's so many folks here that we
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know in the industry and a few
listeners that I have seen that have said
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hi to me, which was always
great. I'm sorry if I was too
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much of a zombie already to reply
to you, but this is their apply.
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It definitely a few days. Well, it's funny because I've I've seen
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so much on social media in general
about the show, and it looks like
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it's a great show. It looks
like everyone's having a good time. You're
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right, it looks like it's absolutely
packed. And I've got I have a
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couple of friends who are ending there
for the first time and just to kind
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of test things out, and I
think that's you know, I think that's
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super fun. I'm really bummed that
I couldn't couldn't be there myself. So
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for all of you who are there
who are listening to the show. Hi,
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Sorry I'm not there, but I've
just been doing so much traveling recently
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that I needed some time to actually, you know, do my work.
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So I decided it would be in
my best interest not to be there.
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Chances are good I will try to
get there next year if the if the
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show continues, but based on everything
that I've seen and heard, looks like
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it's the kickoff for something that will
be around for a while. Okay,
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Well to the news, as they
say, and I think the first story
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here, I think that we definitely
have to talk about because it's important news,
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but I don't think we need to, you know, catastrophize about it.
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But of course I'm sure everyone is
aware of the tram crash that injured
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fifteen at Universal Studios, Hollywood.
I'll read a little bit here from the
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excellent story from Theme Park Insider.
It's always difficult because not a lot of
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people, not too many people,
you know, cover these in a good
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way. And I always think that
Robert does a good job over there,
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so I'll read some excerpts from his
article here. The Los Angeles kint of
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Fire Department responded to the collision just
after nine pm Pacific time. The fire
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department reported that fifteen patients were transported
to local hospitals with minor injuries. Is
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unclear at this time what caused the
collision. Universal said in a statement,
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there was a tram incident at the
theme park tonight that resulted in multiple minor
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injuries, confirmed by the La County
Fire Department. We were working to support
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our guests and understand the circumstances that
led to the accident. They were,
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of course preparing for the sixtieth anniversary
Tram tour and this was really right before
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the media nite, so I think
they might have canceled the media night about
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this. I'm not sure, but
this was the debut of the new Glamour
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trams was supposed to happen at this
time. There's been just a few updates
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on this, but we don't have
too many specifics other than the update report
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from the police saying that the last
car on the tram was struck struck a
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guardrail on the right side of the
road as the tram was turning left onto
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Avenue M just past the Jurassic Park
cars, So it wasn't like they didn't
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hit another vehicle or whatnot. It
was. It was the tram just colliding
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with guardrails that caused it, and
then the collision caused the tar to tilt
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and eject multiple multiple passengers from the
tram. So the police are actually going
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to launch investigation into this, and
we'll here I guess more later if anything
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new comes to light after the investigation, but they're going to be doing an
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investigation, they're going to reveal those
findings to the public. I assume Universe
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is also going to do an investigation, but they haven't set too much.
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So that's what we know. Well, yeah, and I think you know
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your Universal in their statement did sort
of allude to the fact that they were
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doing an internal investigation as well and
working with the external sources to make certain
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that that investigation was was the best
it can be. I think the most
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important thing about this is number one, there were no major injuries. It
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was you know, minor injuries and
tilt and ejected. It sounds significantly less
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threatening than crash, but tilt and
ejected guests doesn't make for a good headline,
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especially I think the important that you're
trying to promote as being the main
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attraction for your sixtieth anniversary for the
exactly the timing was just bad. Yes,
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well, and I think that's what
is really the most important thing about
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this story. You know, those
of us in the industry, if we
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are not involved directly in the in
the safety department, we always think of
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safety as being just the thword in
our side. You know. It's like,
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oh my gosh, they always are
telling us what we can't do,
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and blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah. But this is a
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perfect example of how the best laid
plans can be completely uprooted by one minor
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safety infraction. And and when I
say minor, if if any of the
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families of the people who were injured
or listening, I don't mean that.
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I don't mean that to to downplay
it or disregard it. But in the
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grand scheme of things, you know, thank goodness, no one was severely
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injured or worse yet killed. But
even just having people being dumped out of
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a tramcar and having minor injuries and
taken to the hospital is enough to undermine
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a very expensive reopening or celebration of
their sixtieth sixtieth anniversary. So you know,
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whenever, whenever the safety folks come
to you and say, we can't
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do this, we can't do that, let's look at this, let's look
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at that. Instead of looking at
them going oh my gosh, we have
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to do this, thank them for
it, thank them for it, and
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get them involved early so that you
know you don't have to redo things later.
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Now, could this have been prevented? I have zero idea. I'm
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not part of the investigation team.
I have no investigation information. So in
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this particular incident, I have no
idea, But I think it's I think
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it's worth stating, especially in a
show like this one, that you know,
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if you are working in the industry, safety is always going to be
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job one, no matter where you
work, no matter what you do.
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And this is why it can completely
even even a minor incident can completely upend
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a very expensive and well planned out
media launch or new event launch or promotional
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launch. And so embrace, embrace
your safety people, Tell them thank you
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when they bring things to your attention. And what I've discovered has always worked
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really well, whether it was back
in my bush Gardens days or with my
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client since then, is if there
is a safety concern, go to the
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safety team and say, you know, what can we get away with have
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a discussion with them, and not
even get away with what is a safe
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way to accomplish what we need to
accomplish, Because even your even good safety
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people will tell you the safest way
to run a park is not to open
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it. You'll have zero injuries.
You'll also have zero profit. So you
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have to you have to find those
balances. You have to find those ways
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to work with the safety team and
utilize their knowledge and their expertise so that
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you can, in the best of
terms, avoid situations like this completely,
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and in the more difficult of terms, you know exactly how to handle it
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if something unexpected goes wrong because you've
planned out, you know, five other
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options, even though what really happened
was number six, you can at least
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have a working plan to get through
it smoothly and with the least amount of
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personal injury, injury to scenic and
hard goods, and media upheaval. So
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again, safety is not something that
should be put on the back burner.
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It's something that should be on the
front burner. And this is a perfect
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example as to why I have nothing
to add and I think that's fine,
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so I think we can move on, move on, because because in other
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words, Scott, you've talked way
too much about this one time, so
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I'm not moving on. I don't
never say that, Scott. Of course
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I would never say no, but
you're thinking it. That's okay, okay,
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sorry. Number two World has cut
a month from the Food and Wine
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Festival. So Disney World has cut
a month from Epcot's Food and Wine Fest.
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They announced the dates for the twenty
twenty four Food and Wine Festival,
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which this year will start on August
twenty ninth and continue through November twenty third,
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which is a big change from twenty
twenty three, when it started in
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the middle of summer and ran through
November eighteenth. Of course, there's also
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menus and whatnot, but I don't
want to talk about any of that.
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I just thought it was very interesting
to have the discussion about the timing here.
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And I'm not sure if this is
part of the largest or you know.
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I think last year when the dates
came out, we talked about how
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it's like they were trying to fill
a whole new season with like food festival,
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Like here's a food festival season,
and it was a good you know,
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three month type of run. And
we did recently talk about how Halloween
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was trying to become a three month
thing, especially in the Orlando area,
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with activity starting in August. So
we have August, September, October.
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But is that too long? And
is that why the the scaling back?
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You know, has it? Has
it resulted in? I think like festival
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too many festivals like festival overload to
guess who are you know, like whenever
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they're there, there's a festival some
kind that evolves food, so it becomes
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something that works against it where there's
no reason to really need to go because
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there's always food there. I think
you yes, I think you've I think
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you've hit the nail on the head. It sounds to me, and again
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I have no internal information that would
would lead me to be able to state
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this with a great deal of certainty, but it sounds to me as though
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they're trying to have a little bit
of a palate cleanser letting. Letting the
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park itself without a festival overlay be
what it makes it unique for that period
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of time. It also may be
something as simple as it's the way the
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calendar worked out, or something as
simple as this is when they could get
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the best bands for the concert series, or something as simple as they had
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00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:07.840
to reduce their or they their business
planning chose to reduce the amount of money
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00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:11.480
they were going to spend on concerts, so therefore they had to have fewer
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00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:16.240
you know, there's there's a whole
bunch of reasons for reducing this. I
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think that, you know, I
love the phrase that you use, the
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00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:24.399
sort of festival overload concept. I
think that if people think there's always going
147
00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:28.039
to be something going there, going
on, then they have no impetus to
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go at a specific time. And
I think that you know, lighting that
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fuse. I think they're they're at
least testing. I don't know, it
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appears as though it appears to me
as though they're at least testing the concept
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of will we be able to get
the same number of people in a more
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condensed, cost efficient time period if
we eliminate that one month in the summer,
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00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:58.720
because you know what, they don't
need I've been to Walt Disney World
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00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:03.799
in this. They don't need to
drive attendance in uh you know, yeah,
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00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:07.639
in see, that's exactly what I
was. I was going to get
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00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:09.879
these dates and I'm like, oh, basically, this is Halloween at Epcot.
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00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:15.519
Like it's the very end of August, and so you're you're it's still
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00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:18.639
three months, so it's all September, all of October, and basically all
159
00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:24.600
the way up until Thanksgiving. So
it's this is this is Halloween at Epcot.
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00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:26.320
And they've decided, you know,
because Halloween has been a shoulder season
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00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:31.120
in the past. I think they've
decided, well, we summer is fine,
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we don't need to bring people there
in summer. But because of all
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the competing Halloween events happening around the
area, maybe we need to have something
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for Halloween at Epcot. But it
doesn't make sense to have Halloween, so
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it'll be able to have We'll move
food and wine. I mean that's kind
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of well, and since and since
more and more it's it's also food and
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wine, which targets, generally speaking, an older demographic, and school they're
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starting in August. I'm sorry,
I have to you have to have minded
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by the food and wine, and
you have to be able to drink the
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wine exactly exactly. And since most
schools you know, are now kicking up
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in August, now, they it
just seems to make sense I don't know.
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I to me, this is this, this is a good thing to
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see. And you know, they've
got the what is it flower and Garden
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show that's going on right now,
and that will continue and then there'll be
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a breath of fresh air and then
they'll kick in to kick into food and
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wine in August. And I think, you know, I think there's there's
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been sort of a I think they
keep trying to build these these events,
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and as you say, we've gotten
overload to the point where they're even overlapping.
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And that's happening not just at Disney
Parks, that's happening in other parks
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as well, where it's kind of
like we're doing we're doing october Fest on
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the weekends, but we're doing Halloween
during the week I mean, we're doing
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you know, leaf Festival or whatever
every other Thursday. And it just gets
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it just gets really overwhelming and confusing. So it's kind of too much of
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a good thing. And we have
to write size ye speaking of right sizing,
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Oh, I'm not sure that that. I think that does work.
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So so Universal has delayed the Donkey
Kong roller coaster, you see, because
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you know you're right, because it's
the Mind Coaster, and you're like right
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sighting it, it was that's a
good, good attempt at a transition.
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Okay, all right, well we're
here, we have transitions. So so.
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Universal Osaka announced today that is delaying
the opening of the Donkey Kong Country
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expansion of its Supernintendo World until late
twenty twenty four. The expanded land,
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with its first of a kind mine
cart Madness roller coaster, was scheduled to
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open the spring. I don't know. I mean, I think that's one
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of those things maybe a little bit
overlooked to me. It's a similar story
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where I'm like, I think it
might have been a little bit of an
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overload where them kind of I'm sure
partially, I'm sure it is a build
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concern as well. But we've seen
a lot of you know, delays here
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with the matel and it's just been
a lot of delays all over still,
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which I think are still I think
a lot of places haven't realized, you
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know, the long term impact of
the pandemic, which is kind of what
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I'm getting at, which is,
you know, you're seeing these delays in
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big projects like this, and part
of it is because there's still supply chains
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that have not recovered, you know, up until now, and we've been
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talking about even people not recovering in
their traveling and but you also have you
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know, the planes and the you
know that infrastructure that hasn't recovered. And
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then on the supply side. So
I think these are echoes of that,
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and I also think it's echoes of
what we just talked about, which is
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do you really need that much in
the summer. I mean, that's the
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natural you know, as people are
returning back to their natural schedule, they
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want to do stuff in the summer, and I'm not sure that you need
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to position you know, your big
openings there. So when you combine these
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two big forces, I think it's
these delays as I think we're going to
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see more of these is what I'm
getting at. We're going to see more
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of you know, stuff being delayed
just due to stuff out of the control.
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You know, they can't secure the
supplies as fast as they were able
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to do that in twenty nineteen.
I think you're absolutely one correct, and
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I think that is it is a
major factor in this. I think we
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also have to take into consideration that
you know, Universal is working on so
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many different fronts right now. I
mean they're just everywhere. So I think
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there's also that. So this truly
is a right sizing situation. It's it's
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right sizing the the expectations based on
the production chain of getting stuff done.
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It's it's right sizing the expectations of
a monumental park who is doing everything,
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a monumental brand that is doing everything
they can to expand and invigorate the guest
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park experience and trying to do it
all kind of at once. You know,
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I I will say, based on
what on the rumblings I'm hearing here
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in Florida, there other, that
other little thing that they're doing here in
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Florida, that epic thing, don't
expect that to open fully and on time.
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Yes, either they're struggling. They're
struggling and there and they'll get it
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done. Don't misunderstand me. But
again, it's that right sizing. It's
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that how how can we write and
this is happening not just in the in
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the the attractions industry. I mean, you know, we just last week
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we uh or earlier this week we
heard we heard the the Southwest is now
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no longer operating in four different airports
and what they claimed was the reason,
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and it may be is that that
they're waiting on planes from Boeing because they
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can't get the planes to fill out
the schedule. I think it's also a
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challenge with with staffing, as we've
talked about Naudrum, so you know this
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kind of thing. Let me put
it this way. It's probably driven by
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the fact that they can't get the
parts and pieces or the labor that they
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need to get it installed on top. But to your point, Philip,
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I don't think they're too stressed about
it because moving it to late twenty four
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is just kicking the can down the
road a little bit and probably doing an
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opening ceremony in a much better time
that where they actually need the attention and
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they need the bump of attendance.
Well, speaking of places that actually don't
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want any more attention, it's a
good transition. Yeah, okay, I'm
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with you. That's good. Let's
go okay, okay. So our next
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story is also in Japan. Actually
I didn't think about that when I placed
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it, but it's also in Japan, just a little bit different area.
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So there's a town in Japan that
is setting up a blockade to block the
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view of Mount Fuji. In response
to over tourism, a huge black barrier
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to block Mount Fuji from view will
be installed in a popular photospot by Japanese
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authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behave
foreign tour So it's a mesh net.
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It's going to be two and a
half meters high by twenty meters wide,
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and it's going to begin next week
the construction on that. The officials for
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the town said that it's regrettable.
We have to do this because of some
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tourists who can't respect the rules,
that who have been leaving little behind and
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ignoring traffic regulations. And it's the
latest direct action in Japan against overturism,
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after residents of Kyoto's Geisha District banned
visitors from small private alleys this year.
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They said this partly due to a
record number of overseas tourists who are traveling
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to the country, where monthly visitors
exceed during three million in March for the
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first time ever. So this particular
area, they tried traffic signs, they
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tried repeated warnings from security guards,
and none of that apparently has worked.
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So as a last res were the
town decided on this huge screen. The
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article that we're linking to says that
tourism to Japan has been booming since pandemic
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ara border restrictions were lifted, and
the government has been working hard to boost
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visitor numbers, which you just talked
about in other areas, but these have
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not been universally welcomed, including the
Kyoto mentioned the Kyoto reference we mentioned earlier.
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There's also others, things like the
Mount Fuji, which is now charging
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foreigners to climb certain areas just because
of the amount of congestion. So we've
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talked about this in not just Japan, but other areas, you know,
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where it's like you have these competing
interests a lot of times with areas where
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you definitely have the want, you
know, tourism is the hot thing that
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everybody wants. They want to bring
in tourism and bring in especially high margin
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tourism. And in fact, there
was an article recently by the Japan Tourism
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District saying they're trying to encourage more
tourism, but like premium travel tourism,
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you know, instead of the lower
grade thing, which I think is so
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it's like they want tourism, but
they want this premium one, but there's
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a lot of smaller areas that people
want to go to. You know,
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again see pandemic, you know,
encouraging people to go small areas, but
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those small areas don't have the infrastructure, and not always the folks that you
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know, the locals that want that
to happen. You know, see ie
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Disneyland previously right in the Anaheim locals
not wanting to prove expansions in previous years.
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So just tourism forces are very interesting, and I think it's interesting to
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see how the different areas react to
this industry that we're in because we always
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see the positive, right, We're
always like more tourism is a good thing,
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but in some cases the locals don't
like it. Well, more tourism.
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More tourism isn't a bad thing if
there's the infrastructure to take care of
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it. And you know, I
think this is a perfect example of the
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challenges. And again I think,
I know, I've worked on projects that
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were more successful than they were supposed
to be and we never thought that it
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would be causing traffic backups for miles
and you know that kind of thing.
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But so it's to me, this
is just a reminder that, you know,
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be careful what you ask for because
you just might get it. You
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know, if you want this kind
of increased tourism and there is a town
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that is you know the locals are
opposed to it, make certain that you
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get them involved and figure out how
they can benefit from it, because then
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they will become your greatest advocates.
You know. That's a perfect a perfect
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example. The idea here is the
the first thing I thought of was,
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well, gosh, if this were, if this were in the States,
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the first thing they would do is
instead of building a wall, they'd build
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a giant building that would block the
view, but put a glass face on
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the side facing Mount Fuji, or
like the merchants around, or do some
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sort of thing where you could get
local, you know, spend more.
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Yeah, exactly, that's America.
Exactly. We're always but that we're really
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good at making money. Well,
we're really good at creating things that we
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think will make money. Let's put
it that way. Because we're also really
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good at spending a lot of money
and then having things closed, like we
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talked about last week's So we are
still think the best economy, we are
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the best economy of the G seven
right now, coming out of well,
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that's true, that is very true. Yeah, it's it's well, and
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we're in a good place right now. I mean, despite what we see
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milling about. Our economy, as
you say, is in a good is
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in good shape. It's in really
good shape right now. And so yes,
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you're absolutely right, it's it's that's
probably where my my capitalist thinking comes
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in. But I just think it's
important. This is a good message for
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all of us. And that is, if you're looking for something that you
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think is going to be successful and
impactful, don't just look at the microcosm,
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look at the macrocosm. I've had
this discussion with a couple of my
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clients just within the last couple of
weeks, and that is, you know,
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uh, you may find a perfect
place to build a show, make
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sure you've got a place for an
audience, and uh so the same the
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same is true here. If you've
if you want to encourage more tourism to
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come see Mount Fuji, then make
sure you've got ways to control the additional
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traffic that's going to create the desire
in this particular case to stop. You
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know, maybe instead of investing in
a wall, you invest in a pullout
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so that people can pull off the
road get their photos, and then you
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can set up vendors and food trucks
and benefit the local economy as well using
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this giant natural wonder. But apparently
they've tried all that, Yeah, and
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the only thing they can think of
to do is to put up a big
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black screen to block the v Yeah, it is difficult because I just find
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it so interesting that these places are
trying to thread the needle so delicately,
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like that. You know, the
the Tourism Council trying to encourage premium traveling
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in other areas, you know,
and part of that plan is they even
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said that in the other article that
i'll link to I'll try and link to
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hopefully, is the trying to encourage
these premium travelers that spend more than a
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million of the Japanese dollar. But
like it part of the part of that
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challenge, you know, they're like, we want to create you know,
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natural like Japanese experiences, but you
know, we're getting into the rural areas
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is difficult because you know, because
of all the infrastructure is lacking. There's
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no hotels, blah blah. You
know, so it's a it's just it's
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difficult because you know, it's like
it reminds me also of the some of
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the challenges that theme parks face,
you know, which is that if you
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know, if you're going to Japan, Mount Fuji is such a thing where
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like how can you discourage people from
It's it's like, you know, when
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people are going to Disney and they're
like, well, I want to be
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able to see the Small World and
the Matter Horn and the you know,
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the big three mountains. I mean
there's some iconic like the Castle, Like
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you want to go to Disney to
be able to see the castle, right,
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It's like you want to if you're
going to Japan. Mount Fuji is
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a thing I think a lot of
people want to see in some way.
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But then they're like, well,
we don't really want you going to rural
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areas to crowd sidewalks to take photos. Which it's just when you step back
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and think about this, the reality, it's so crazy that so many people
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want to get photos of Mount Fuji
that they're going to this area just to
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stop and crowd a side walk to
take them to take photos. There's nothing
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to do, they're just taking photos. But there's so many that wanted they're
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crowding it, and then so many
that want to climb the mountain. There's
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that like it's like it's too congested
to climb, so they're trying to charge
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higher fees and just climb the mountain. So it's it's just, you know,
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it's that interesting thing that we deal
with all the time where there's definitely
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iconic things that we use in our
marketing to encourage people to attend our attractions,
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But then how do you manage that
and then what do you do when
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they're not available? Right? Well, I mean the on a microcosm,
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I mean, I think back to
when I worked at when I worked in
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Williamsburg, Virginia on the fourth of
July, because that was the only time
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they used to do fireworks. But
on the fourth of July, you could
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see the fireworks beautifully from the highway. So what the biggest challenge they had
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is people would just to park along
on the shoulder along the highway to watch
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the fireworks, and they actually had
to stop doing fireworks. They actually had
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to hold back on doing fireworks because
it was creating a dangerous scenario out on
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the highways. I don't remember I
don't know exactly how they managed through that,
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but you know, it's it's a
perfect example of well, gosh,
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here's a great way. And who
doesn't want to see Mount Fuji? I
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mean it, it is so iconic, it is it is one of that
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I would say, one of the
top three visuals people outside of Japan think
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of when they think of Japan.
You know, it's Mount Fuji, so
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you want to get the best picture
of it, and or you want to
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climb it, or you want to, you know, experience it in some
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way, so you know whether it
is a natural attraction or attraction an attraction
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that you control. Just make sure
that you have all the things in place
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to handle the crowds you're trying to
get. And you're probably better off being
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out in front of it than being
behind it, because if you're behind it,
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then you have to take, like
they're doing here, these stop gap
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measures of well, we'll just make
it so you can't see it from here,
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which it seems to be the opposite
of what I would want to do,
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and that is, let's build a
place that you can see it,
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so you can pull right up in
there and get your perfect shots. You
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know, I'm not sure, I'm
thinking that it's also financial. I'm thinking
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putting up this giant mesh screen is
going to be significantly cheaper than restructuring the
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roadways. And maybe that's a secondary
plan. I don't know, but it
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certainly would be if it were,
if it were in my books, because
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I've seen, you know, in
Caribbean islands, for example, they will
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have pull offs for tour buses where
tour buses can pull off and get these
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beautiful views and vistas of the natural
beauty that is on these islands, so
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that they don't have to get either
blurry shots or pull over onto the non
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existent shoulder in some Caribbean highways.
So yeah, this to me seems like
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either a last ditch or a stop
gap until they can come up with a
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better solution. Well, okay,
I'm gonna try and fit one more story
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in here at the very end,
and that's just to say that we got
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a little bit more news from the
Pepe Pig theme park that's coming to Shanghai.
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We had heard about this, you
know, previously, it's been announced.
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I think we are hearing a little
bit more about it, which is
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encouraging because we've talked about how we're
hearing less from China as they're trying to
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deal with their economy and get that
figured out. So it's a little bit
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encouraging that we're starting to see news
come out about the Pepa Pig park again.
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They just reiterated, I think what
we had heard previously. It'll be
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Haspro's first a park in Asia.
It's a three hundred and thirty one million
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US dollar investment to cover approximately forty
eight acres. No details about what's going
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to be there, they just said
it's going to have them barius rides,
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shows, hotels and all the stuff. The thing I thought was interesting really,
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it's more just like interesting that we're
seeing these announcements again, which is
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encouraging, but also interesting that they
underscored that they're all that they said here,
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we're always looking to make sure that
we adapt the local flavor and customs
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making it appealing to local guests,
but at the same time, so highly
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the elements of Peppa Pig. We're
really excited about how we can actually adapt
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it for Shanghai and our Chinese fans. So that was interesting that they're it's
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probably all political right that, you
know, making sure the announcement to be
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like, oh, things are still
happening in China, but also, you
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know, don't worry. It's going
to be you know, adapted, you
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know, to to not just like
what we talked about, to not disrupt,
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you know, too much of the
local culture. So it was interesting.
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Well, and let's be honest,
people aren't going to go to or
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at least I would not go.
I would not go to Shanghai to get
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a replica of the Peppa Pig part
that I can get here in Florida.
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Absolutely, I would want that take. I would want that uniqueness, and
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I think that, you know,
with most countries that have a great deal
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of national pride. It's a it's
somewhat political, but I also think it's
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a wise choice from a from a
tourism standpoint, because it gives people a
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reason to go specifically there and not
just to say, well, I'm not
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going to do pep a pig because
it's exactly like the one in Orlando,
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and I live in Dunedin, so
I'll just go over there. So I
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think it's I think it's a really
wise idea, and I think it's a
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good choice. Speaking of good choice, it would be a good choice for
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us now to end our show,
because that way we remain somewhat true to
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our title Theme Park in thirty.
As usual, we've gone over just to
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00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:41.400
shade. But that's all right.
So I hope you guys are all having
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00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:45.440
a great week. Please tell everybody
about the show, anybody that you think
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00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:48.000
might be of interest. I can't
tell you how many people that I work
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00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:52.319
with who have who don't know about
the show yet, and the moment I
439
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:56.880
let them know and give them a
link and send them on their way,
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00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:00.160
they become regular listeners. So I
really appreciate all of you who are listening
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00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:04.839
now, So share the share the
love, and hopefully we'll get uh and
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00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:10.920
continue to increase our listenership. On
behalf of Philip Bernandez with Gantam Lighting and
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00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.039
the Haunted Attraction Network and myself Scott
Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development. This
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00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.079
is green tagged theme Park in thirty
and we'll see you next week.












