SeaWorld Will Now Permanently Furlough Some of Their Employees

 SeaWorld Entertainment has filed information with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they will be terminating some of their furloughed employees stating they were “committed to a plan of termination, impacting some of the company’s furloughed employees.”

According to the Orlando Sentinel they did not indicate how many workers were terminated or which of their parks had cuts made, but they did say they planned on spending $2.5 – $3 million on severance costs.

The company had about 95% of their employees furloughed at one point with their part-time employees remaining on unpaid furlough since March. Their part-time positions make up a significant number of their workforce with about 11k being part-time and only about 4,300 being full time.

SeaWorld parks reportedly only had about 300,000 visitors from April-June 2020. Keep in mind the parks closed in March and they didn’t start reopening until June. During the same 3 month quarter in 2019 they had over 6 million visitors. So it is a huge loss in revenue for them.

SeaWorld Entertainment has been facing economic issues for awhile now and the pandemic has dealt a major blow. They have already fallen behind on construction bills in Florida and California by millions. Lay-offs have been happening for a couple of years before the shut-downs.

Orlando theme parks are all being severely impacted by the pandemic related closures and now the lack of attendance. Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld are all offering deals and incentives to bring people to the parks, especially focusing on Floridians, since out-of-state and international travel had dwindled significantly.

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Source: Orlando Sentinel