The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

‘I feel excited, knowing that I will receive my salary every week and

will be able to cover my needs without the anguish of wondering

when they will pay me unemployment, since that system is very bad

and we workers lived desperately.’

KARINA LIRA, Walt Disney World cast member

‘We know Florida’s economic health is all based on the tourists,

because everyone comes from other places. It’s going to be a huge

impact. Nobody is going to be able to trust anyone to come here

now, because everyone is worried about their life.’

KIKI PIERRE, cook at Orlando Airport

‘Down here, everybody speaks to everybody and talk and all that. Now,

nobody does that because everybody’s scared. Nobody wants to come

out, nobody wants to talk to anybody. And if you go in these stores right

now, people are standoffish, and Southern people are not like that.’

RONNIE JACKSON, cook at Orlando Airport

than central Florida, which is
home to Disney World, SeaWorld,
Universal, Gatorland, Legoland
and a plethora of smaller attrac-
tions. An estimated 250,000 peo-
ple work in the leisure and hospi-
tality industries, accounting for 25
percent of jobs in the area, accord-
ing to the trade organization Visit
Orlando.
Most workers whose liveli-
hoods depend on Orlando’s ability
to attract tourists in large num-
bers have managed to get by as
the amusement economy shut
down around them — though for
some it has been a struggle.
Recent weeks have brought a
new kind of purgatory for tourism
workers in the region. Will spiking
coronavirus cases in Florida halt
the reopening that was beginning
to happen? Disney, for instance,
has been calling back employees
ahead of a limited return to opera-
tions on July 11.
“To Disney’s credit, they have
done everything in their power to
mitigate our safety concerns
about returning to work,” said Mr.
Cox, who also serves as president
of Disney World’s stagehand un-
ion. “People are mostly terrified
that the company is going to stop
the recalls. That would be a disas-
ter. People are barely hanging on
as it is, and unemployment bene-
fits will end soon.”
Others are worried that going
back to work will lead to infection.
With the coronavirus now ram-
paging in Florida, one Disney em-
ployee started an online petition
asking the company and govern-
ment officials to reconsider their
reopening timelines. It had about
16,200 signatures on Sunday.
Before the coronavirus halted
travel in March, Orlando was
booming. The convention center,
the second largest in North Amer-
ica, had announced a $605 million
addition; billions of dollars’ worth

of new theme park attractions and

hotels were on the way; and Or-

lando International Airport was

working on a $3 billion expansion.

With local officials estimating

that it could take five years for vis-

itation to rebound from the pan-

demic, many of those growth

projects are being scaled back or

postponed. Unemployment in the

Orlando metropolitan area was

22.6 percent in May, the highest

level since Florida began its cur-

rent estimating process in 1976.

Universal Orlando made sweep-

ing layoffs last week.

Pandemic Throws Orlando’s Tourism Workers Into Limbo

‘I really want to go back to work. I want to be a part of rebuilding

everything that we lost. I want to be a part of the new beginning.’

JAVIER LOPEZ, employee at Budget Rent A Car

‘When I’d feel safe going back to work would be when all of this is over,

when they’ve actually been able to detect that there’s no more cases and

that everything can basically go back to normal for everybody. Because

until then, nobody’s going to feel safe going back to work.’

OLIVIA WILLIAMS, Starbucks at the Orlando Airport

‘My hope is if we can get a vaccine or if we can get this under

control, that people could come back. The only hope you can have.’

MICHAEL BOYLE, electrician for Bob Carr Theatre

Few areas of the country rely on tourism more than central Florida, which is home to attractions like the Starflyer swing, left, and a roller coaster at Fun Spot America.

Empty seats at SeaWorld’s Orca Encounter attraction in Orlando. Animals at the theme park are being taken care of during the temporary closure.

Photographs by EVE EDELHEIT

for The New York Times

FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE

Eve Edelheit reported and pho-
tographed from Orlando, and Brooks
Barnes reported from Los Angeles.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 N B5

VIRUS FALLOUT