ORLANDO, Fla. — Five years ago, tourism officials were wrapping their heads around a new world of theme park reservations, temperature checks at turnstiles, amped-up sanitization procedures and the very concept of social distance as the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly transformed their business.

Some procedures faded with the virus, and others evolved into practices that continue within the travel industry.

In 2020 and 2021, the Orlando Sentinel asked five tourism experts what trends to anticipate. Now, in 2025, they talk about the pandemic’s lasting effects as well as new trends in international travel, room service and rooftop bars.

Reservation station

Date-specific reservations for theme parks didn’t last in most places, but the technology used has accelerated related developments, said Curtis Parks, managing partner at Jacksonville-based Icon Experiences.

“From that, spawns all these new options that you can do with your ticketing systems, from dynamic pricing to bundling your hotel and your park tickets and food, and pass holders can now add friends to their ticket purchases, and online tickets being sent to digital wallets,” he said.

Park reservations emerged as attractions ended pandemic-related shutdowns in 2020. Walt Disney World continues to require reservations with some ticket types, although with fewer restrictions.

An emphasis on online purchases and cleanliness influenced the trend of cashless parks at SeaWorld attractions, Busch Gardens and Six Flags locations, Parks said. Disney and Universal never stopped taking cash.

“All the major players were all still taking cash, and then when the pandemic hit, they suspended that and went to cards only and pushing everybody online,” he said.

“They say it’s faster and safer and more secure. … You don’t have the big cash vaults anymore like you used to have at the parks,” he said.

On the upside, billions of dollars are being invested in paused or once-canceled theme-park projects, a sign of confidence, Parks said.

“You’re betting on the American families and people visiting the parks, and that’s exciting to see,” he said.

Fading influences

The pandemic’s influence has faded as far as future attractions go, said Brian Morrow, owner of B Morrow Productions, a Kissimmee-based design studio that works on projects for theme parks, resorts and museums.

“The words pandemic and COVID are rarely used in any design process currently. They were back in ‘21, but now you don’t hear it at all. … Clients aren’t using those words,” he said.

Another bygone factor is the fear of touch screens.

“We do some work in the educational category, so a lot of touch screens are used there … and all that [concern] has gone away,” Morrow said. “It really has dissipated. It’s not a top topic.”

Talk about virtual queues has decreased, but reservations have lingered at some attractions for crowd management and guest satisfaction, he said. Gaylord Palms Resort retained them for its holiday season “Ice” attraction.

“They kept it because it allowed them to remove this massive queue line that they would build and these massive 9 a.m. arrivals for guests,” Morrow said.

Changes to chew on

On the food front, dining at Walt Disney World is back to its old ways, with some exceptions, said AJ Wolfe, who runs the Disney Food Blog, a site independent from Disney World.

“Everything is returned to normal in terms of character meals and buffets,” two fan favorites that were suspended during the pandemic, she said.

Some restaurants inside the theme parks are not open as much as they were. And some eateries have altered dining options. For instance, Be Our Guest restaurant at Magic Kingdom bagged counter service at lunchtime in favor of a prix fixe menu, Wolfe said. A la carte service at California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort also is gone, she said.

In Disney-owned resorts, room service is available at the Grand Floridian only, Wolfe said. It could be a staffing or financial issue, she said. There are also no 24-hour eateries on Disney property now, she said.

“There were so many issues with staffing, and it could just be that they haven’t rehired for those particular things,” she said.

There’s also been the rise of food-delivery services. It’s likely a less expensive option than room service would be, Wolfe said.

“DoorDash or Uber Eats or whatever are so prominent, and they will deliver to your hotel,” she said. “The biggest difference is that you have to put on clothes because you have to go down and get it.”

Filling rooms

Hotel occupancy in the U.S. is not as robust as it was in 2019, said Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality, for CoStar Group, an Arlington, Va.-based real estate company that tracks real estate analytics.

“You would think that we’ve made up for that,” he said. “The good news is that, of course, room rates are 30% higher than they were back then.”

Industry trends that surged during the pandemic include keyless entry and remote check-in for rooms, and those have lasted.

The mindset that rooms don’t need to be cleaned daily paired pandemic precautions with hoteliers’ desire to fulfill green expectations, Freitag said.

But then during pandemic times “a lot of people got laid off, and then as they got rehired again, the unions were saying, ‘Wait, wait, wait, if we need less, if you make housekeeping optional, then we need less housekeepers, which means we have less union members, which means we have less union dues. And we don’t like that.’” he said.

A more visible hotel trend to emerge from the pandemic: rooftop bars.

“They were always sort of in vogue in, like, ‘17, ‘18, ‘19, but I think if you build a hotel today, you will have a rooftop bar,” Freitag said. “It is just such a great magnet, and customers love it, and even locals like it. … Outdoors plus food and beverage makes for a winning combination.”