Sydney Wagner
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
5 April 2016
Seaworld
Seaworld is known for its unique marine life and exciting events that show the animals and trainers performing amazing stunts. But after relentless criticism about how they treat their animals, Seaworld announced that they will end orca breeding inside of their parks. Among the mixed reactions “animal activists were delighted, while it disappointed many marine scientists, who say they will gradually lose vital opportunities to learn things that could help killer ha;es in the wild” (Kay). As the current population of whales in the park remains constant, biologists are rushing to collect and analyze enough data.
(Kay)
As for the park, ticket sales have decreased ever since the documentary entitled “Blackfish,” which questions the orca care and focuses around the death of a trainer during a performance in Orlando. The decrease in spending in the parks results in a decrease in revenue. With dwindling revenue and the whale population, most past customers are turning to other parks or staying home. In Florida, most turn to the Disney parks or Universal to make up for the amusement they got when visiting Seaworld. This fact allows the other parks to increase their ticket sales and develop repeating customers for future sales. For others, staying home allows them to save money for future endeavours. This could lead to an increase in spending within their home towns, or an increase in investments. The extra spending money gives the consumers more spending power to decide where their money goes.
Although the new announcement has questioned the fate of Seaworld, animal activists and competitors are benefiting at the expense of the marine park. If the ticket sales continue to decrease, the employment of the park will begin to decrease while price levels increase in order to keep up with the expenses. This will eventually lead to an increase in the unemployment for the states that house a Seaworld park. As the employees look for new jobs they will be experiencing frictional unemployment. As this develops, the demand for careers in marine biology will increase in the states while the supply decreases.
Many families will take their vacations to new destinations but Seaworld is still holding on. In captivity orcas can live to be well over 50 years and the parks currently have half of their whales that are younger than 20 years.This means that the shows and research will continue until the final whales pass away in their cages. For many, the whale shows will become more and more special and the trainers will begin to appreciate their jobs knowing that an expiration date has now been put in place.
Works Cited
Kay, Jennifer. “Scientists bemoan SeaWorld decisions to stop breeding orcas.” The San Diego Union-Tribune. The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2016. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Not only are the parks being affected, but the towns that the parks are located in are being affected immensely. When people go to these amusement parks, they tend to spend a few hours in the biggest city closest to the park. When a park gets more or less popular, the town is affected just as much as the park itself.
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job writing this article and focussed on both the positive and negative sides of Seaworld. It is unfortunate that the whales have to be treated poorly and that there was a death of a trainer at a performance. Like you mentioned, these events will draw away customers and decrease Seaworld’s revenue, as well as the revenue for businesses in the area. On the other hand, Seaworld still has a lot to offer. The excitement of seeing the performances will still draw in many consumers for years to come since the whales are still young. I wonder if revenue would increase if new animals were brought into Seaworld. Overall, I predict they will hold steady sales since there is an end date in the near future and people will want to come before it is too late. Great article!
ReplyDeleteYour piece was really well-written! I hadn't heard anything about the topic and found your post very informative. You did a nice job hitting a wide range of economic topics. At first I was a little surprised by the information about Sea World possibly closing but after thinking about it more it makes sense. There are so many other theme parks in the Orlando area that offer arguably better entertainment opportunities. Sea World's only advantage is really the sea life that is not offered at other parks; but with new technology and increased research, along with the animal activist movement, this is becoming increasingly more difficult. Without the extra revenue it will be hard for the park to stay in business. However, this could have a positive impact on other parks in the area as the people who would be at Sea World go to other places instead.
ReplyDeleteOverall, your piece was very well-written and insightful. It's amazing how a single documentary concerning the mistreatment of the wildlife can inspire such a decrease in business at Sea World. I am honestly surprised that a large entertainment business such as Sea World would have to close because of a single documentary. It does make sense however when attractions such as Disney and Universal are also in the same area. I don't know about you, but a roller coaster is far better than an animal show. With increased research about the harmful effects of its attractions on the animals, and as those other parks increase their technology, it will no doubt be difficult for Sea World to remain as a positive business model. This decreased presence at Sea World will however be beneficial to Disney and Universal and other parks who will would get the visitors who would normally have gone to Sea World. Overall though, nice job!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to hear about the economic impacts from Sea World especially after the documentary aired. I figured they would have lost money since Blackfish sparked a revolution among animal rights activists but I never thought of how it was effecting the cities the parks are located in and other amusement parks within the area. I'm happy to hear that they've stopped breeding their whales though. I'll be really interested to hear if Sea World stays in business because without their whale shows they are basically just another zoo and there are way cheaper zoos people can go to.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting to learn how much of an impact documentaries can affect the total number of customers at Sea World. I agree that killer whales really shouldn’t be showcased as they are and that it isn’t ideal. However, when Sea World does shut down, people will be happy for awhile, and then get angry about other zoo animals that are caged. The more concerns that arise, cause a less amount of consumers, now not only at Sea World, but maybe in zoos as well. As you had mentioned, people have jobs in these industries and with declines in customers, individuals are soon left looking for another job available.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how the consumer tastes in the economy are so apt to change-- seen in your piece, how one documentary has had such widespread popularity to completely change consumer tastes, going as far as to drive Sea World eventually out of business. I agree that as the consumer tastes change, generating less revenue for Sea World, laborers will become frictionally unemployed, and I'd argue that this in the long run could have a positive impact on animal advocacy, because as clearly qualified trainers are being downsized from Sea World, this may encourage increased numbers of marine biologists supporting the larger marine world, rather than just a small portion, Sea World. Overall, nice piece, your explanation of causes and effects resulted in a further understanding of the impact Sea World will have on the economy.
ReplyDeleteThis piece was very nicely written and full of insightful comments. For me personally, I don't support Seaworld in any capacity because I'm sort of an animal activist myself. But I do find unfortunate that Seaworld's overall revenue has depleted since the unavailing of the "Blackfish" documentary. Although I do agree with a lot of the points that were made in the documentary, I didn't find the public bashing of Seaworld's franchise to be very professional. Seaworld's orca breeding did help to continue the vast studies of whales in general for marine biologists. But they shouldn't be kept in pools that they're kept in are comparable to bathtubs in our eyes. Hopefully Seaworld will create another attraction that doesn't involve animal cruelty that allows them to be back in the theme park market. Great piece Syd!
ReplyDeleteIt’s unfortunately very sad that we live in a world where lots of our money comes from entertainment through the suffering of animals. The shut down of breeding the whales will help prevent animals from poor living. Although shutting down the breeding claims to be restricting marine biologists from learning about these animals. This is inhuman, as saying they would rather support learn about the whales, while their unhappy, than let them be well taken care of beyond the walls of Seaworld. Already Seaworld has lost a lot of tickets to shows and other event, because of the restriction of breeding, but the state and workers have other opportunities and options to develop entertainment not neglecting animals, like Disney World.
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