Easter, Spring Break Bless Resort Business

ORLANDO-As Walt Disney World goes, so goes Orlando. Like it or not, that has been the most accepted economic barometer on Central Florida’s business community for the past 25 years.

And right now, Disney’s 18 hotels, 21,000 hotel rooms, 10 milion sf of retail-restaurant-commercial and four theme parks are beginning to bounce back gradually from dismal attendance figures immediately following 9-11, the company acknowledges.

But Disney representatives won’t disclose specific attendance figures for the weekends of Palm Sunday, March 24 and Easter Sunday, March 31, even though area hospitality consultants independently put the number at about 50,000, the theme park’s daily capacity before it has to close the turnstiles. Disney’s Animal Kingdom attraction brought in its biggest crowds since it opened in 1998, the company says.