Theme parks will be different the next time you visit, as operators flip the script on a century-old business

Theme parks are designed to have crowds. 

That’s the crux of the issues that theme parks big and small are skin in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, said Bill Coan, president and CEO of ITEC Entertainment.

The amusements business is built on flocks and communal experiences. Rides have been constructed to accommodate more riders. Parades and fireworks shows were originated to entice people to congregate and remain in the park later in the day, and dining areas were designed to seat as many patrons as possible.

Now, owners of national and regional parks are trying to rewrite the theme park playbook so they can reopen in the centre of Covid-19.

“Visitor attractions will feel and look like very different spaces when they reopen,” whispered Sabine Lehmann, founder and CEO of Curiositas, a consulting company specializing in attractions and tourism.

“We leave home in order to procure shared experiences and it is precisely the sharing of the experience (whether in your group or with strangers) that will modulation,” she said.

Currently, Shanghai Disneyland is the only major theme park to reopen during the outbreak. While there are no designs for Disney to reopen any of its other international theme parks, the company will reopen Disney Springs, a shopping and distraction center in Florida on Wednesday.

Universal has said its parks in Florida are expected to be closed until at least May 31; in spite of that, it has not provided a specific reopening date. Its shopping and entertainment area, CityWalk, in Orlando is set to partially reopen Thursday.

Regional greens such as Six Flags, Busch Gardens and Cedar Fair are also currently shuttered and awaiting state guidelines in gone haywire to be able to open their gates to the public.

The timeline for reopening these parks is up in the air. Some analysts have foreboded that park doors will remain closed until 2021, while others see them opening as gladly as June 1.

Here’s what theme parks could look like once they are able to reopen:

To start, many changes will be clearly visible to the guest.

Health guidelines internationally and even state-to-state in the U.S. may remodel. However, common Covid-19 measures have included 6-foot social distancing, the use of face masks, cleaning paves more often and checking people’s temperatures before admitting them to certain locations.

“How attractions are able to device these without ‘sanitizing’ the whole experience will be interesting,” Lehmann said. “People want to be safe, but don’t in need of to sit in a cloud of disinfectant all day.”

Coan noted that many of these measures will be obvious to visitors. Parks are affluent to want guests to feel comfortable during their stay, so companies are going to go out of their way to show that sizes are being cleaned regularly and will post plenty of signage for social distancing and sanitation stations.

Perception is prevailing to be key for parks in gaining trust with parkgoers.

Following the blueprint set by Shanghai Disneyland, guess parks in the U.S. to place a cap on the number of attendees. Disney’s Shanghai park is currently operating at less than 30% of its sense.

Occupancy caps at other parks will be dependent on government guidelines in each country or state. For example, a Florida undertaking force has suggested that theme parks reopen in the state with a 50% cap to start.

Rides, too, will be dressed occupancy caps in order to maintain distance between passengers.

Parkgoers should expect to be asked to wear a cover-up and to have their temperature taken at the gate in addition to the standard security check. Folks will be permitted to separate their masks to eat, but it is unclear how parks plan on enforcing the use of masks throughout the day. 

Guests who are permitted inside commitment have to purchase their tickets in advance, as parks are going to want to carefully control crowds. This inclination also remove the physical interaction of an employee handing out tickets to guests and guests handing tickets to other workers in order to enter the park. Some parks may not allow tickets to be purchased at the gate.

Similarly, many parks resolve offer cashless pay options, if those systems are not already in place, to help reduce the use of cash and physical touch between wage-earners and guests. Mobile ordering at park restaurants will also likely become more prevalent.

“Parks are not make rid of cash, but encouraging people not to use it,” said Dan Doyle, an amusement park safety expert with the Robson Forensic unbending.

Like many retail locations currently in operation in the U.S., parks could use plexiglass barriers between cashiers and buyers as an added safety measure.

Get inti for attractions, restaurants and restrooms will have posted social distancing markers to keep parkgoers separated while they shelved in line. 

“I know some [parks] may also institute a bypass,” Doyle said. “Instead of standing in line at a column, you make a reservation for the coaster and when it’s your turn then you can come and ride the ride.”

Disney’s Magic Borders are a good example of how that company has been able to integrate cashless pay and fast passes with technology. The convention also has an app just for its theme parks that guests can use to make reservations for rides, mobile order from restaurants and travel purchases at gift shops.

Additionally, any live events that encourage parkgoers to congregate in large groups last wishes as be suspended temporarily. That includes daily parades and nightly fireworks shows. These can draw massive herds, exactly what parks are trying to prevent.

However, these performances won’t be gone for long. Parks rely on fireworks, in detailed, to keep guests at the park longer, so they will spend more money. Without those night portrays, parkgoers will have less incentive to stick around. So, parks are going to try to devise a way to have these events in a safe-deposit manner.

Eventually, parks will begin to raise attendance capacity. This could be because stipulations have lessened or because a vaccine has been approved and distributed.

At this point, technology will be more seamlessly put together into theme park operations. Fewer people will use cash, and ticketing and ride reservations will be digitized.

“In the midway term, tech will start to replace all those things that people were doing,” Coan contemplated.

Employees who were responsible for physically counting the number of people in queues for rides or the restroom will be replaced with robot-like counters. Additionally, mobile ordering will become more ubiquitous, reducing the need for cashier labor. That labor can be redistributed to the larders.

“All touchpoints that are transactional in nature will move to no- or low- touch transactions,” Lehmann said. “This thinks fitting initially be motivated by Covid-19 hygiene standards and soon become a new norm. This does not mean that good-natured touchpoints will be eliminated; just that they will be reserved for those points that truly add value to the sustain.”

Long term, parks will begin to design rides a bit differently, Coan said. Queuing and riding designs that focused on packing people into close quarters will change. However, parks will contain to get creative on how to maintain throughput and the guest experience.

“The demand will be there,” Coan said. “At first there see fit be some concerns, but ultimately people will go back to these parks.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.