ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Hotels at the Universal Orlando Resort announced more than 800 employees will be losing their jobs as the Florida theme park industry continues to be devastated by the pandemic.
The employees at Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and Cabana Bay Beach Resort were indefinitely furloughed or permanently terminated, according to a notice filed last week by the company Loews Hotels & Co.
A company director said in a letter to the state that the surge of confirmed cases in late June and July and other states’ decisions to order Florida travelers to quarantine had caused a “sudden, dramatic and unexpected reversal in bookings.”
The affected employees were not represented by a union. They work as cooks, chefs, servers, receptionists and housekeepers.
Loews Hotels & Co had already shut down two other Universal Orlando hotels due to the coronavirus’ impact on tourism, The Orlando Sentinel reported.