EPCOT is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unrealized concept of the same name developed by Walt Disney, the park opened on October 1, 1982 as the EPCOT Center and was the second of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. The park covers 305 acres (123 hectares), more than twice the size of Magic Kingdom. Often referred to as the "permanent world's fair", Epcot is dedicated to celebrating human achievement, especially technological innovation and international culture.
Epcot was originally conceived by Walt Disney during the early development of Walt Disney World as an experimental planned community to serve as the center of American entrepreneurship and urban life. The idea, known as "EPCOT", an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, included an urban downtown, residential areas, industrial areas, schools, and a range of mass transit systems that would connect the community.
Genesis Epcot was originally conceived as a utopian city of the future by Walt Disney in the 1960s. The concept was an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, often interchanging "city" and "community". As Walt Disney said in 1966, “EPCOT will be modeled on the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be the community of tomorrow, which will never be finished, but will always introduce and test and demonstrate new materials and new systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase for the world of American free enterprise ingenuity and imagination.