A new report indicates that many Americans are cutting spending on live entertainment like live sporting events, concerts, and theme parks as prices continue to rise.
According to a survey done by the Wall Street Journal and Credit Karma, almost 60% of Americans indicated they have cut back on live entertainment events due to the rising costs they dub “inflation.”
The costs of these live events have inflation that has outpaced other necessities like food. We know how bad the inflation is for everyday staples, and entertainment is outpacing that.
In a survey of about 1,000 U.S. consumers last month, 37% said they could not go to all the events they wanted to attend due to the rising costs. While only 20% said they would take on debt to afford to go.
About 26% said they don’t spend any money on live entertainment, which is up 10% from before the pandemic hit in 2020.
MSN pointed out that Americans were going to spend about $95 billion on “spectator amusements,” which include entertainment like concerts, movies, and sporting events. This is a 23% increase from 2022 and 12.5% higher than what was spend in 2019.
Theme park spending has increased 3.4% from 2022 and 6.2% from 2019.
Disney might have made a bad decision by raising prices more.
Disney has already raised prices at a pace far above the actual inflation rates over the years. They would justify their huge price hikes by arguing that they were a destination experience offering “The Disney Difference,” and that warranted the price. Once upon a time, perhaps it did, but that hasn’t been the case for years. When their stocks were falling from poor management and bad decisions, Disney doubled down by raising already high prices for the theme parks.
It just makes it easier for people to cut it out and go elsewhere.
One example cited by MSN is a woman who would visit Walt Disney World two times a year, and sometimes with extended family. They now meet up at a condo in Florida several times a year and spend about half as much.
Here’s what she said about the situation:
“Quality time with friends and family is really important, but prices have increased on so many things that I feel like we have to be better stewards of what we spend. With Disney, they have their hand out and they just want more and more from me, and I hate that feeling.” -Julie Gibbs
Her sentiment is what I’m hearing from many others on the Disney boards I frequent. These comments are usually met with snark from those who still think Disney is a deal and somehow feel personally attacked when others disagree.
The data is compelling but not surprising. Inflation is hitting everyone hard and most can’t afford the daily increases in living expenses, let alone rising prices for extras like visits to theme parks. When Bob Iger returned as CEO he said he was going to cut the price increases, but here we are with even more price hikes.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
Source: MSN, Wall Street Journal
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