Nightmares in “the happiest place on earth”: dissatisfaction in theme parks during the post-COVID era

Abstract

This study examines the negative effects of COVID health and safety protocols implemented by theme parks in the context of the ‘new normal’ (summer 2021) on the number of visitors the park has received and their (dis)satisfaction levels. The study uses actual content analysis from 1,142 online reviews from two different time periods (before and after the COVID-19 pandemic), obtained from TripAdvisor, for a cross-country analysis. Results from analysis of variance and linear regression models show that dissatisfaction has rocketed since the pre-COVID era. Reasons for this dissatisfaction differ among parks, indicating that there may be different ways in which tourist agents can deal with these COVID protocols, ways that may be more or less successful in terms of improving consumer satisfaction.