Following the successful launch of its first, North American theme park in 1999, Merlin entertainment’s LEGOLAND Florida is set to open in early 2011. This will be the fourth “LEGOLAND” park to be built, mirroring the successful Danish, German, UK and Californian versions.
Skyscanner Travel Editor, Scot Carlson commented “After the news of Universal Orlando’s new Harry Potter experience hit the wire, we saw dramatic spikes in searches for tickets to Orlando. While investigating this, we saw a huge, unexplained spike in search traffic to the area on January 21st which didn’t seem to fit the trend. When your search traffic triples overnight, it tends to grab your attention. We then decided to look at what else happened in the area, or the news, that could explain the sudden interest.”
As it turns out, the official press release which announced the LEGOLAND Florida Resort project was released on the same day that search results to the region spiked to over 200% of their normal levels. Cheap flights engine Skyscanner continued to see search results spike for 72 hours, before returning to more normal levels for the month.
LEGOLAND Florida Resort will take over the recently-closed Cypress Gardens and will include the well-known botanical gardens which made the area famous. The LEGOLAND plan includes over 50 rides and attractions, as well as a themed hotel and room for a second park. Overall, the project is expected to create over 1,000 jobs; helping improve the local job market and bringing in a boost to the local economy.
With the addition of LEGOLAND, Orlando continues to entice tourists to hop on cheap flights to Florida and rediscover their inner-child.