Hershey, Pennsylvania, Monday, 20 October 2025.
Hersheypark has extended its Halloween Dark Nights through Sunday, pairing unlit coaster runs with five haunted houses and expanded family offerings to concentrate demand in evening hours. For retail and F&B leaders this is a tactical, low‑capex overlay that intentionally compresses guest flow into limited-night windows to lift evening throughput, increase per‑capita spend, and boost souvenir and food attach rates. Operational priorities are clear: align park versus event hours, implement robust ride lighting and safety protocols for lights‑out coaster operations, optimize queue management for time‑limited activations, and deploy flexible staffing and scheduling for extended entertainment windows. Commercial teams should push Fast Track and bundled F&B offers while finance monitors attendance uplift, average check, and shoulder‑season hotel occupancy. Early signals from last Friday’s roll‑out show strong interest in the lights‑out coaster experience — a behaviour that can be monetised if safety and throughput remain tightly managed.