Stories of Interest
Visitors to Party City, Spirit Halloween, and Visit Halloween stores were above 2019 levels in September, a testament to early shoppers, and they dropped slightly below 2019 levels in October. All three of the stores reported profits, if not quite at 2019 levels they were close.
“Overall [Walt Disney Co.] revenue on the quarter came in at $18.53 billion,” with a profit reported of $640 million, “driven largely by continued reopening efforts across the parks and Disney Cruise Line.”
SeaWorld Entertainment sees continued COVID-19 recovery, but lack of international travel is blamed for the 11% lower numbers compared to the 2019 year.
“Thanksgiving To Go is a pre-boxed dinner” from Holiday World, and is coming back this year “receiving a large amount of positive feedback”
“Crayola is now seeking partners around the world” as the build and scale up their new Family Entertainment Center
HauntPay 2021 Industry Report
HauntPay has released their 2021 Haunt Industry Report. In early August HauntPay had a three-minute survey for members of the haunt community. Participants’ data has been compiled and analyzed to give an overview of the state of the haunt industry for 2021. The report covers trends on staffing, ticketing, and COVID’s impact on the haunt industry. Respondents indicated that staffing was their main concern for this year with over 30% of respondents indicating that they employ between 51-100 employees during peak season and 9% employing over 101 staff members. Contactless payment options are increasing in popularity with 43% of haunts accepting this form of payment and the percentage of online ticket sales are encompassing significant portions of the overall sales. 8.6% of the participating haunts indicated that they did not plan to accept any on-site ticketing for 2021. For marketing, Facebook is still the most popular social media network with 96% of businesses using the platform. Instagram was the second most popular platform and video-based sites like Youtube, Snapchat, and Tik Tok were gaining steam for the 2021 season. Haunters can download the full report at HauntPay’s website.
