Walt Disney’s huge money-spinning tourism industry has been temporarily brought to its knees by the coronavirus.
Disney has announced the closing with immediate effect of Walt Disney World as well as its flagship theme park resort in Orlando, Florida, Disneyland Paris and its Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It has also suspended all new departures of the Disney Cruise Line. The pandemic has now officially shut down all eleven Disney theme parks across North America, Europe and Asia.
In a statement to the media a Disney spokesperson said: "In an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of our theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris Resort, beginning at the close of business on Sunday, March 15, through the end of the month."
BREAKING: Theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris Resort will close from the morning of March 15 through the end of the month, spokesperson says. https://t.co/vGdxaQyuwa pic.twitter.com/SdUBmTEwoQ
— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2020
Disney Picture's planned London Premiere of the remake of the 1998 movie Mulan has also been affected by the outbreak. A statement read as follows: "In an abundance of caution, we are downscaling this evening’s premiere of Mulan and will no longer have a media line or red carpet. We will, however, continue to host the premiere screening as a contained, inside, screening event."
Leicester Square is known for hosting dazzling celebrity red carpet events but this time around, as the statement reads, the screening went ahead but the cast and crew did an inside photocall.
The economic effects of the virus on the entertainment industry alone is predicted to run into billions of rands.
