Percentage of visitors who are local

[Mondo Mouse]

Has anyone seen any official hard numbers or even close estimates on what the percentage is of visitors to the Walt Disney World Resort who are locals? I don't know if the statisticians consider local patrons as anyone from the entire state of Florida, or simply just folks who are within like a 90 minute or 2 hour radius or something (which I assume is the criteria they use for SoCal with Disneyland visitors). Over the years and on various sitess people have thrown around numbers for each of the resorts but I'm really curious to know if there's been any true measures on this, not just fans like us giving our best guesses. I know Disneyland's annual guests are made up of a (slight or great?) majority of locals, considerably more than at WDW. If anyone has any links or sources as to what the numbers look like for both resorts, or even just one, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Chef Mickey]

It's under 10%, but it also depends on time of year. Blackout dates and many locals aren't going to mess with peak times.

Disneyland has far more locals.

 

[Brad Bishop]

It's kind of surprising that they don't have a bigger draw of Florida residents the way DL has it's local fans. I know that due to the nature of WDW being more of a world-wide destination and DL being more regional that you'd naturally have a higher percentage in California, but, still, you'd think that the numbers would be up there for Florida and, from what I can tell, they're not.

 

[Djali999]

You would probably be surprised at how many people live in Orlando and have never been to WDW. Universal, Fun Spot and Sea World draw in much more of the local population. The perception is that you need to be rich to go to Disney.

I'd bet the AP population tops out around 15% at most during Food and Wine. Disney doesn't release their numbers and never will, so the most you're going to find are guesses.

 

[rufio]

As a (rather recent) local, I can confirm that I (and many others I've met) avoid the parks like the plague during peak times. A couple weeks ago all the crowd calendar estimates were WAY off and assumed MK would have 4/10 crowds. I got there and the guy at the monorail said there were 70,000 people in the park and that their estimates had been off too. I walked into the park and went as far as BTMRR for a fastpass, but it was down. I considered getting lunch, but the line at Columbia Harbor House was out the door. I walked right back out, got back on the monorail, and went back home. It's a good thing too because right after I got home I got a notification that another of my FP+ rides had broken down. Nope, no thank you. I'll be back once the crowds die down.

 

[danyoung56]

I was there during that time too, and was just amazed at how crowded it was. And I'm pretty sure Disney was just as surprised as I was, because they made changes to their park hours during the day, and announced the new closing times over their park-wide P.A. (something they almost never do).

 

[Walt Disney1955]

Right off the bat I figure 10% is accurate. I would say if you live an hour away that's still "local". To an extent, maybe even as far as Tampa Bay (90 minutes) although that's pushing it. I am just taking a guess here though. Just like at Disneyland it is a pretty good guess that 50% are locals. Just a hunch. By "locals" I would say people in the Anaheim/LA area. The thing I noticed with Disneyland is that while there definitely are people that come from afar there is also more of a feel that the community sort of takes the part under their wing as one of "theirs" and treats it the way you do when you visit a friend. You know, pop by after work, pop over during lunch, etc.

Disney World has less of that feel. Maybe because Orlando doesn't have near the population as Southern California and maybe because getting there is harder as well. It is more off on its own while Disneyland is right there down the street from hotels and restaurants and such.

Also, the population of the United States is larger on the east coast. There are more big cities and populated states. People from New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. are more likely to go to Disney World. Even up here in Canada a sizable chunk of the population is in Ontario or Quebec, which aligns better with Orlando. There are also more Europeans likely to come to Florida over California because it is closer.

 

[dreamfinder912]

I'd agree with the 10% for locals. It's part of why things are so very different at WDW than at DL. When you have more "once in a lifetime/great while" guests, elements can be eliminated without them getting very upset. WDW makes its money off of these guests. I might go so far as to say it doesn't really like dealing with the 10% guests who live here and go to the parks often.