What Impact Does Walt Disney World's Culture Have On Central Florida?

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What impact does Walt Disney World's culture have on Central Florida? – Historical In 1965, Walt Disney unveiled his grand plan to open a theme park in Central Florida (Fickley-Baker). Since this historical moment, Walt Disney World had many prevailing influences on its surrounding area. These influences are significant to the area surrounding Walt Disney World because it has attributed to the culture and development of the space. This prosperous industry, that took a foothold in Central Florida, has led to sharp increases in tourism trends and the organizational culture of Walt Disney World had profound effects on the businesses encompassing it. To begin, the creation of Walt Disney World in 1965 caused a drastic increase in the amount …show more content…
The way that Walt Disney World creates its culture has a positive, stimulating effect on the parks themselves and the businesses encompassing the area. In the past, Walt Disney World’s mission statement was, “We want to make people happy by providing the finest in entertainment to all ages everywhere.” (Zanolla) However, this mission statement was too drawn out and not easy for employees and guests to support, so in the 1980’s, Walt Disney World implemented a simple mission statement which was “we create happiness.” (Zanolla) The simplicity of this mission statement allowed for employees to understand the actions that they must perform in order to reach the company’s goal. Also, it allowed for a greater appeal to visitors, in turn, stimulating the amount of tourists who visited Walt Disney World and the amount of money they spent there. The idea of having an ultimate goal of pleasing the consumers transferred to the businesses surrounding Walt Disney World which attributes to the aura of happiness the customer can recognize within them. Continuing on, Walt Disney World prides itself in the precedents set by Walt Disney and these values contribute to the foundation of its culture. Bruce Jones, Programming Director at Disney Institute, expanded upon these values which include keeping it simple, promoting individuality and encouraging all levels to buy in to Walt’s vision. Jones claims that, “Our intentional culture-reinforcement is what encourages Cast Members to go above-and-beyond for Guests, and inspires us all to remember Walt’s vision.” (Jones) Historically, Walt Disney prided himself in the idea of a putting on a performance, and this idea was transferred to the theme parks he created. According to Lee Cockerell, “We’re fanatical about—you don’t have to