Theme park operators, including Disney, Six Flags, SeaWorld Entertainment and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, are planning multimillion-dollar investments in new developments with attendance rebounding, hoping they can capitalize on an industry-wide pandemic recovery that they see as a year or two away.

Theme parks are major generators of nearby retail and hotel demand. During their most recent quarterly earnings calls, national operators touted attendance levels that have reached or passed pre-pandemic levels at many locations, and they are looking to bring more people back with plans for significant development of new rides, attractions and even hotels.

“We are currently refining our design planning on our first hotels, and we expect to begin opening in 2026,” SeaWorld Entertainment CEO Marc Swanson told analysts during the Orlando, Florida-based company’s earnings call, adding that the operator of 12 U.S. parks is scouting sites and will provide more details in coming months.

SeaWorld has previously hinted at plans for hotels, a source of considerable on-site revenue for rivals including Disney, Universal and Cedar Fair Entertainment, but has yet to formally proceed with such projects. But it has moved ahead on other fronts, including this year’s openings of a “screaming swing” ride at its Busch Gardens Tampa and a surf-themed roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando.

Theme park industry executives and analysts agree that it could be 2024 or 2025 before parks fully recover their pre-pandemic attendance, revenue and profits. The industry faces lingering challenges that emerged during the pandemic, including rising food and labor costs, along with staffing shortages during peak visitor seasons.

Traffic analytics firm Placer.ai said the expected continued addition of rides, entertainment and related development should help the major national operators bounce back.

“All of these companies view the industry as a growth industry, and as a consequence of that bolstered viewpoint are increasing their rate of investment in it,” said Thomas Paulson, Placer.ai’s director of research and business development, in a May report.

Some parks, including Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, are still awaiting the full return of international visitors after pandemic air travel restrictions were only recently lifted in Asia and other regions that traditionally account for large portions of Disney’s total attendance, especially in Florida.

SeaWorld Entertainment reported in May that international visitor counts were still 40% below 2019 levels, and many of those customers often visit rival Florida and California parks operated by Disney, NBCUniversal and other companies. They also stay in local hotels, and shop and dine at area retail centers.

As in prior quarters, Burbank, California-based Disney pointed to strong performance at its 12 global parks as an important counterbalance to ongoing struggles in bringing its streaming services to profitability in a competitive market. Parks could become even more important to Disney and its park and media rival NBCUniversal as lingering writer and actor strikes halt film and TV production.

Disney’s division, which includes its theme parks, posted a 13% revenue increase from a year earlier in its latest quarter, with net operating income for that division rising 11%. That compares with a 1% annual decline in revenue and an 18% drop in net income for its media and entertainment distribution division, which includes movies, streaming, cable and broadcast programming.

“Our parks and experience segment overall has had an impressive streak and will continue to be a key growth engine for the company, even as we navigate the cycles that come with operating this business,” Disney CEO Robert Iger told analysts during his company’s earnings call.

Theme parks figure largely in future Disney development. The company did not disclose dollar figures for planned new movie-themed projects, including an “Avatar” experience at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, “Frozen” theme lands at its Hong Kong and Paris parks, and a “Zootopia” land at its Shanghai venue.

Philadelphia-based Comcast executives said that the company’s NBCUniversal-operated parks in Orlando, Los Angeles, Beijing and Osaka, Japan, posted company-record net income in the latest quarter, rising 32% from a year earlier and besting Comcast’s overall profit growth of 25%. Its theme parks’ 22% annual boost in revenue was helped by second-quarter openings of its Super Nintendo World at the parks in Los Angeles and Osaka.

NBCUniversal plans to open a new Minion Land in Orlando later this summer, to be followed next year by a Donkey Kong section in Osaka and later by its previously announced new child-oriented theme park under construction in Frisco, Texas. It is also planning a new “Halloween Horror” experience in Las Vegas, with a new theme park called Epic Universe planned to open in 2025 near its existing parks in Orlando.

“Underlying momentum remains healthy as attendance was relatively in line with 2019 pre-pandemic levels while revenue was substantially ahead of 2019 levels,” said Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong of the company’s second-quarter theme park results.

Executives at Arlington, Texas-based Six Flags Entertainment, operator of 27 North American theme parks, said second-quarter attendance rose 4% from a year earlier despite a “challenging weather backdrop” that included storms and other climate events that kept some visitors away. July’s attendance was up 11% from a year ago.

Six Flags is examining tiered or “dynamic pricing” strategies that could help it adjust admission fees depending on traffic flow at certain times of the week and recently introduced wristband-enabled payments at some of its water parks to streamline customer service.

Those come after development-related initiatives discussed earlier this year, as Six Flags looks to win back customers lost due to price hikes and limited discounting in recent years. Plans include new VIP lounges, water park cabanas and shaded park seating at some locations, with an e-sports arena and campus planned for its park in San Antonio, Texas.

Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment announced a multimillion-dollar slate of new attractions and hotel renovations planned for 2024 across several of its 13 North American theme parks and resorts.

The company is looking to rebound after weather kept many people away from its parks in the second quarter, as the company posted 5% growth in net income from a year earlier despite a 2% decline in revenue.

“Unfortunately, anomalous weather patterns — including unprecedented rainfall in California and wildfires in Canada — have significantly disrupted year-to-date attendance, as well as sales of 2023 season passes, creating a headwind on demand,” Cedar Fair CEO Robert Zimmerman told analysts. “To better adapt to changing market dynamics, we have expanded our research efforts to further isolate the impact of macro factors on specific markets.”

Candace Carlisle contributed to this report.