Airports, Theme Parks, and COVID

Join me for a discussion comparing airports to theme parks, with a focus on the pandemic impact on both industries. See the structure below with timestamps, and feel free to skip ahead if there's a particular topic of interest!  

1. Introduction  [0:00]

a. Intro to the project, me, and the topic   [0:30]

b. Background   [1:53]

c. Scope*  [3:13]

2. General comparisons between airports and theme parks. [4:01]

a. Theming, Ambience, Sense of Place *  [4:08]

b. The Guest Experience *  [4:40]

c. Customer Touchpoints *  [8:42]

d. Recent Design Trends *  [11:09]

e. The Push Towards Inclusion   [12:13]

3. When the pandemic hit the US  [14:12]

a. Pandemic policy/procedures implementation   [15:33]

b. Changes to The Guest Experience   [17:13]

c. Enforcement & Communication of policies   [23:25]

d. Customer Touchpoints During the Pandemic *  [26:49]

e. Changes to Security Screening *  [27:29]

f. Enhanced Cleanliness   [29:43]

g. Use of Touchless Technologies   [32:03]

h. Guest Flow & Virtual Queueing *  [34:44]

i. Revenue & Funding During the Pandemic *  [40:56]

4. Reflecting and moving forward [44:03]

a. Magnitude of future infrastructure changes  [44:24]

b. Discussion of study on crowding pre-COVID *   [46:13]

c. Mass COVID vaccination sites   [49:32]

d. Future expansion/improvements beyond the pandemic [50:22]

e. What planners & designers should be focusing on now [55:32]

5. Conclusions/closing  [58:03]

 Acknowledgements: Thank you so much to Dr. Amber Woodburn-McNair for her guidance throughout the semester and to Scott Tumolo (C&S Companies) and Kevin Bodshaug (Universal Orlando) for your time and insight! 

Cover Photo: Airplane taking off above Storm Chaser roller coaster at Kentucky Kingdom, a theme park just across the highway from SDF [photo credit to Taylor Bybee, Coaster Studios].

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