Tomorrow's OS reports the following information on how Orlando's parks did during the traditionally busy Easter week.
"In the strongest signs yet that tourism is recovering to pre-Sept. 11 levels, three Central Florida theme parks reported record-setting attendance, and the Magic Kingdom was so packed on Monday that it had to close parking lots to all but Disney resort guests.
Disney's Animal Kingdom had its largest attendance on Monday since opening in 1998, Disney World spokeswoman Marilyn Waters said. She would not give specific figures, but she added that over the weekend, Disney's resorts were "virtually at capacity.".
She said that Disney World is enjoying a better spring break than last year, but that overall attendance at its four theme parks hasn't reached the record levels of Easter break in 2000. SeaWorld also said business was better than last Easter, when the economy was already showing signs of weakness.
At Universal Orlando, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure recorded their biggest crowd total on Saturday since December 2000, spokesman Jim Canfield said.
"This bodes very well for us and for Central Florida," he added.
Hoteliers also were pleased with the numbers.
Preliminary figures from Smith Travel Research show hotel occupancy actually surpassed last year's rates, if only by a little, several nights during the week ended March 23.
Orlando-area hotels were 83.2 percent full the night of March 18, up 1.8 percent from the same night a year earlier. Occupancy the next night was 82.2 percent, an increase of 2.2 percent. Occupancy spiked to 84.3 percent on March 23, a Saturday, an increase of just 0.7 percent from a year earlier.
On Monday night, the 225-unit Quality Suites Maingate East on U.S. Highway 192 in Kissimmee was sold out, general manager Duane Winjum said.
"We beat March of last year pretty substantially, and we did extremely well compared against our budget," he said.
Winjum said he originally predicted that business wouldn't return to pre-attack levels until late 2001, but, "now, we're saying we may see occupancy return by mid-summer."
Peter Yesawich, an Orlando-based tourism consultant, said the travel industry is recovering at a faster pace than originally expected, in large part because the economy is improving. "My sense is that we should have a reasonable summer," he said.
Universal's big attendance spike highlighted perhaps the Orlando tourism industry's biggest weekend since the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a travel slowdown. Although last Christmas and New Year's were good for the theme parks, none talked of setting records as Universal did on Monday.
Canfield would only confirm that Universal's 20,000 parking places weren't full on Saturday.
Universal's "comfortable" two-park capacity is about 80,000, said a former executive there who asked to remain anonymous.
Last month's relatively strong performance had a lot to do with Easter coming two weeks earlier, said Danielle Courtenay, spokeswoman for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Tourist traffic always picks up around the holiday, she said.
But while business will continue to improve during the next several months, "We're still not expected to return to 2000 levels until 2003."
"In the strongest signs yet that tourism is recovering to pre-Sept. 11 levels, three Central Florida theme parks reported record-setting attendance, and the Magic Kingdom was so packed on Monday that it had to close parking lots to all but Disney resort guests.
Disney's Animal Kingdom had its largest attendance on Monday since opening in 1998, Disney World spokeswoman Marilyn Waters said. She would not give specific figures, but she added that over the weekend, Disney's resorts were "virtually at capacity.".
She said that Disney World is enjoying a better spring break than last year, but that overall attendance at its four theme parks hasn't reached the record levels of Easter break in 2000. SeaWorld also said business was better than last Easter, when the economy was already showing signs of weakness.
At Universal Orlando, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure recorded their biggest crowd total on Saturday since December 2000, spokesman Jim Canfield said.
"This bodes very well for us and for Central Florida," he added.
Hoteliers also were pleased with the numbers.
Preliminary figures from Smith Travel Research show hotel occupancy actually surpassed last year's rates, if only by a little, several nights during the week ended March 23.
Orlando-area hotels were 83.2 percent full the night of March 18, up 1.8 percent from the same night a year earlier. Occupancy the next night was 82.2 percent, an increase of 2.2 percent. Occupancy spiked to 84.3 percent on March 23, a Saturday, an increase of just 0.7 percent from a year earlier.
On Monday night, the 225-unit Quality Suites Maingate East on U.S. Highway 192 in Kissimmee was sold out, general manager Duane Winjum said.
"We beat March of last year pretty substantially, and we did extremely well compared against our budget," he said.
Winjum said he originally predicted that business wouldn't return to pre-attack levels until late 2001, but, "now, we're saying we may see occupancy return by mid-summer."
Peter Yesawich, an Orlando-based tourism consultant, said the travel industry is recovering at a faster pace than originally expected, in large part because the economy is improving. "My sense is that we should have a reasonable summer," he said.
Universal's big attendance spike highlighted perhaps the Orlando tourism industry's biggest weekend since the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a travel slowdown. Although last Christmas and New Year's were good for the theme parks, none talked of setting records as Universal did on Monday.
Canfield would only confirm that Universal's 20,000 parking places weren't full on Saturday.
Universal's "comfortable" two-park capacity is about 80,000, said a former executive there who asked to remain anonymous.
Last month's relatively strong performance had a lot to do with Easter coming two weeks earlier, said Danielle Courtenay, spokeswoman for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Tourist traffic always picks up around the holiday, she said.
But while business will continue to improve during the next several months, "We're still not expected to return to 2000 levels until 2003."