The Disneyland Resort added $8.5 billion to the Southern California economy in 2018, up 50% from 2013 and almost double the amount generated in 2009, a new analysis by Cal State Fullerton economists shows.
The resort, the study found, helped generate 78,000 jobs, including 31,000 who work for Disney and more than 40,000 working for other businesses throughout the region. Thats up 7.2% from 72,000 jobs in 2013, the last time the resorts impact was measured. Thats more than double the average job growth rate for Southern California as a whole.
All that economic activity generated nearly $510 million in state and local taxes, up 6% from 2013.
“Every year, (the resorts impact) has grown by 9%. … Its a big number,” said Disneyland Resort President Josh DAmaro. “The engine seems to be working here, and when the engine works here, it ripples into the community.”
Those are the results of a study unveiled Friday, Sept. 13, at Disneys Grand Californian Hotel during a lunch sponsored by the Orange County Forum, a group of Orange County business and civic leaders. Its the latest in a series of economic impact studies commissioned by Disney dating back at least to 2005.
The study, which was not released to the public, used a standard economic model to measure the resorts financial investment and outputs from October 2017 through September 2018 in a seven-county region, said lead author Anil Puri, director of Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting.
The studies show substantial growth over the years, rising from $3.6 billion in 2005.
Those dollars come from an estimated 25 million visitors to the resort area each year, with $2.5 billion of that spending going to off-site purchases at hotels and businesses in Anaheim and other Orange County venues.
Orange County residents accounted for more than 57,000 jobs the resort area generates or 73% of the 78,000 workers supported directly or indirectly by Disney. Thats about 3.4% of all jobs in Orange County.
Growth in the companys economic impact outpaces the rate of inflation, Puri said, coming after Disney invested an estimated $2 billion developing Star Wars: Galaxys Edge and Disney Hollywood Studios, boosting employment to 31,000 workers.
“Disneyland is spending 50% more in 2018 than in 2013. They have more employees. They have more visitors,” Puri said. “To us, that is not surprising. Their investment is 50% greater, so their output is higher.”
The resort generated almost $162 million in tax dollars for the city of Anaheim alone, representing about 46% of the general fund, the study found. Thats keeping city sales taxes down while helping pay for police, firefighters and community services, said city spokesman Mike Lyster.
But one Anaheim councilman said the CSUF numbers dont take into account how much the city spends in the resort district, including annual costs to pay off $500 million in bonds the city took out in the mid-1990s for the resorts infrastructure. It will cost the city more than $1 billion to pay off those bonds with interest.
“Anaheims given out a lot. Its not just us receiving (benefits),” said Councilman Jose Moreno. “Fifty percent of our general fund comes from the bed tax, the transit occupancy tax. But about half of that goes back out to paying off the bonds.”
Moreno agreed, nonetheless, that Disneys economic impact is a net gain for the city, and he praised DAmaro, saying his openness to working with the local community has been “a breath of fresh air.”
But in spite of recent pay raises boosting non-tip employee wages to at least $15 an hour, pay for many workers both at Disney and at neighboring businesses in the citys service industry hasnt kept up with inflation, he said.
“Poverty is increasing in Anaheim,” Moreno said. “(More than) $8 billion in economic impact, thats wonderful. The question is, how does that translate to the economic conditions in the city?”
DAmaro said Disney has become very sensitive to the plight of its workers and of Anaheim residents, saying the company is focused on what he calls the three Cs: Cast (Disneys term for employees), community and commerce (the companys bottom line).
