The theme parks in Orlando have been on a building spree costing billions of dollars over the course of the last few years, from Walt Disney World's expanded Fantasyland to Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter to the Antarctica complex located at SeaWorld Orlando, which is set to open soon.
These capital investments have, as it turns out, translated into many new jobs for a local economy still very dependant on tourism and continues to struggle to recover from the worldwide economic collapse of 2008 and the Great Recession.
For example, Disney launched the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, worth more than $900 million, seven months ago in March at Port Canaveral, which was its second ship in just two years and successfully spurred the creation of around 500 jobs in the region, both directly and indirectly.
The company then started to open Disney's Art of Animation Resort, the $350 million, 2,000-room hotel which Disney claims will support as many as 750 full-time jobs. Now it has just opened the largest section of its Fantasyland expansion ? worth $425 million ? that, upon completion in two years time in 2014, is expected to be able to support in the region of 800 new positions.
Disney is now altogether the biggest single site employer in the whole of the United States, now employing 66,700 people in Florida alone, 42,300 of who are in full-time jobs, with 24,300 in part-time positions; this is a rise of 4% from just 12 months ago. "Growth in our business has created thousands of jobs in construction and across our operations, ranging from frontline cast members to new management positions," says Bryan Malenius, a spokesman for Disney.
