SeaWorld is outsourcing employees who run carnival games at four theme parks —including Orlando, the company confirmed Thursday.
United Kingdom-based HB Leisure will run the games starting Jan. 27 at SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay followed by the SeaWorld parks in San Antonio and San Diego in the ongoing weeks, according to an employee memo.
“In order to deliver the best guest experience, SeaWorld is restructuring its games department, which will allow the company to provide the latest, most exciting innovations in theme park entertainment,” spokeswoman Lori Cherry said in a statement.
SeaWorld declined to say how many people it affects.
In the memo, senior vice president Christopher Ivy wrote that the company believes “most impacted Ambassadors” will either get rehired with HB Leisure or can apply for another job within the theme parks. Those who are laid off and don’t get a new job are eligible for a severance package.
“It’s important to note this change was not made lightly and involved an honest and healthy exercise reviewing all the data for this line of business,” Ivy wrote, adding it gives “our merchandise teams more flexibility to focus on the retail side of our business.”
According to its website, HB Leisure operates “skill games and family arcade games” at several attractions across the world, including Legoland and Madame Tussauds.
The cuts come as SeaWorld looks to run more efficiently and trim its budget while at the same time it gains momentum with growing attendance and new rides, including a roller coaster in Orlando that media will get a hard hat tour of next week. SeaWorld’s new CEO recently announced that attendance was up 2% during the final quarter of 2019 which included the busy holiday season.
SeaWorld employees have experienced a steady rounds of layoffs over the years as well as recent benefit cuts.
In September 2019, the Orlando-headquartered company laid off 100 employees at its call center on John Young Parkway. A few months earlier, in April, the company had let go of an undisclosed number of employees. Many of those employees reportedly worked with animals.
Larger layoffs also occurred at least twice in 2017 and 2018 when SeaWorld eliminated 475 positions companywide.
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