Theme park attendance figures 2010

[Ian]

Themed Entertainment Association have released attendance figures for theme parks worldwide. Here's the top 20.:

Rank | Park | (#visitors/change)

1. Magic Kingdom (17m/-1.5%)
2. Disneyland (16m/+0.5%)
3. Tokyo Disneyland (14.5m/+5.9%)
4. Tokyo DisneySea (12.7m/+5.5%)
5. Epcot (10.8m/-1.5%)
6. Disneyland Paris (10.5m/-2.6%)
7. Animal Kingdom (9.7m/+1.0%)
8. Hollywood Studios (9.6m +1.0%)
9. Universal Studios Japan (8.2m/+2%)
10. Everland (South Korea) (6.9m/+11.6%)
11. Disney California Adventure (6.3m/+3%)
12. Islands of Adventure (6m/+30.2%)
13. Universal Studios Florida (5.9m/+6.1%)
14. Lotte World (5.6m/+22.4%)
15. Hong Kong Disneyland (5.2m/+13%)
16. Sea World Florida (5.1m-12.1%)
17. Ocean Park (5.1m+6.3%)
18. Universal Studios Hollywood (5.04m+26%)
19. Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris (4.5m /-2.6%)
20. Nagashima Spa Land (4.47m/-5%)

Urgh, Disney parks dominate. IOA boosted by Harry Potter World.

Compared to 2009, all geographical areas except for Europe saw an increase in visitor figures.

EUROPE
1. Disneyland Paris (10.5m/-2.6%)
2. Walt Disney Studios 4.5m/-2.6%)
3. Europa Park (4.25m/0%)
4. Efteling (4m/0%)
5. Tivoli Gardens (3.7m/-4.5%)
6. PortAventura (3.05m/+1.7%)
7. Liseberg (2.9m/-7.9%)
8. Gardaland (2.8m/-3.4%)
9. Alton Towers (2.75m/+3.8%)
10. Legoland Windsor (1.9m/0%)
11. Thorpe Park (1.85m/+3.4%)
12. Phantasialand (1.85m/-5.1%)
13. Futuroscope (1.83m/+7.4%)
14. Parc Asterix (1.66m/-8.6%)
15. Legoland Billund (1.65m/0.0%)
16. Mirabilandia (1.5m/-7.3%)
17. Slagharen (1.46m/-6.9%)
18. Flamingoland (1.4m/-1.3%)
19. Heide Park (1.35m/-3.6%)
20. Parque de Attracciones (1.34m/-10.2%)

Well done to Alton And Thorpe for the increase. I'm glad to see Dinsey on the decline, but they are still untouchable. Shame about Parc Asterix because it's great, hopefully the new B&M will turn it around.

NORTH AMERICA
1. Magic Kingdom (16.9m+1.5%)
2. Disneyland (16m/+0.5%)
3. Epcot (10.8m/-1.5%)
4. Animal Kingdom (9.7m/+1%)
5. Disney Hollywood Studios (9.6m/-1%)
6. Disney California Adventure (6.3m/+3%)
7. Islands of Adventure (5.95m/+30.2%)
8. Universal Studios Florida (5.9m/+6.1%)
9. SeaWorld Florida (5.1m/-12.1%)
10. Universal Studios Hollywood (5m/+26%)
11. Busch Gardens Tampa (4.2m/+2.4%)
12. SeaWorld California (3.8m/-9.5%)
13. Knott's Berry Farm (3.6m/+8%)
14. Canada's Wonderland (3.4m/+7%)
15. King's Island (3.1m/+3.7%)
16. Cedar Point (3m/+3.7%)
17. Hersheypark (2.9m/+3%)
18. Busch Gardens Williamsburg (2.8m/-3.4%)
19. Six Flags Great Adventure (2.7m/+2.5%)
20. Sis Flags Great America (2.7m/+10.2%)

Excluding SeaWorld, very impressive figures for the FL parks. Again, the Harry Potter World made a good impact on IOA and by the looks of it, helped out a few of the local parks. SeaWorld flopped tremendously!

ASIA
1. Disneyland Tokyo (14.5m/+5.9)
2. Tokyo Disneysea (12.7m/+5.5%)
3. Universial Studios Japan (8.16m/+2%)
4. Everland (6.9m/+11.6%)
5. Lotte World (5.5m/+22.4%)
6. Disneyland Hong Kong (5.2m/+13%)
7. Ocean Park (5.1m/+6.3%)
8. Nagashima Spa Land (4.5m/-5%)
9. Yokoghama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (4.02m/-6%)
10. OCT East (3.53m/+21.4%)
11. Happy Valley Shenzhen (3.05m/+8.9%)
12. Happy Valley Beijing (2.73m/+17.8)
13. Window of the World (2.65m/+12.8%)
14. Dunia Fantasi (2.4m/-4%)
15. Chinelong Paradise (2.4m/0%)

A really impressive set of results. As we've said for ages, China is on the up. Will that trend continue this year? Probably.

PARK CHAINS
1. Disney (120.6m/+1.3%)
2. Merlin (41m/+6.5%)
3. Universal (26.3m/+11%)
4. Parques Reunidos (25.8m/+4%)
5. Six Flags (24.3m/+2.1%)
6. Cedar Fair (22.8m/+8.1%)
7. Busch (22.4m/+4.9%)
8. OCT Parks (19.3m/+22.2%
9. Herschend (9.6m/new entry)
10. Compaigne Des Alpes (9m/-9.1%)

Let's face it, merlin are "first" because nobody will ever beat Disney. I can only see it getting better for Merlin tbh. Universal have probably peaked imo. Again, China is the place to watch.

PDF: http://www.themeit.com/etea/2010Report.pdf

 

[nadroJ]

Ian, why do you hate Disney so much? Genuine question, I've always known you hate them but have never known why.

It's good to see any parks doing well in my opinion. More visitors means more money to spend on continuing to improve the parks and keeping up the good standard. Glad to see Merlin on the up, hopefully we can see some big investments coming our way soon =]

 

[Tony]

No surprise there with the Disney parks... I'm happy to see Port Aventura's attendance is back on the rise after sharp declines in the previous 2 years.

 

[peep]

Whoa, I'm quite shocked at the decrease in attendance for the majority of European parks. My question is, where is Chessington? I thought they were doing pretty well last year due to Wild Asia. I wonder what Merlin's response to that will be.

Yay for Futuroscope, I love that place and I'm not surprised it's had a huge increase in attendance what with several new attractions each year. I take it this will be a much better year for Phantasialand too with several new attractions, still odd to see it have a decrease though.

I reckon we'll continue to see a rise in attendance over in Asia, will be interesting to see.

Universal must be loving it at the moment, the Harry Potter area was always going to be a success, quite crazy to see how big of a success it is though.

 

[marc]

Not shocked by the result.

Will be interesting to see how merlin do next year as they got a boost due to take overs etc, their growth is a lot higher than Disney. Next year when the new area opens I would expect Disney to thrash them. Dlp is down for the 3rd year in a row.

As for sea world enough said, it's the worst park in Orlando.

Later this year Lego land opens so merlin will show well again next year.

 

[andrus]

I'm glad to see my favourite park (Port Aventura) doing well And I'll assume the attendance figures will continue to rise over the next couple of years due to the opening of Sesamo Aventura this year and the construction of their new "world class coaster" next year!

I'm not that familiar with attendance figures but I'm in quite a shock that Tivoli Gardens had more visitors then (and Liseberg equally many to) Cedar Point :shock: I guess it has to do with the low entrance fee at the scandinavian parks (and then you have to pay per ride), so I'll assume that Cedar Point and the likes still make more money..

 

[Martyn B]

I agree with Jordan, whats with the major hatred for Disney?

I'm glad to see Dinsey on the decline

Some of their parks offer a far greater experiences than most other parks on earth, so why are you not wanting them to do well?

 

[madhjsp]

How come the Busch parks aren't lumped in with the Merlin parks when counting chain attendance?

 

[peep]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's because the only way they are connected is by the company that owns both of them so technically they are still two separate companies.

 

[marc]

Merlin own them but they are operating under different names, thats why I think it shows up like that. But Merlin bought them not Blackstone.

 

[Nic]

I don't know where Slagharen is, or what rides they've got... but I want to go there.

 

[Thekingin64]

^ http://www.rcdb.com/4842.htm

 

[Ian]

EDIT - Mark accidently clicked edit instead of quote and removed my post.

 

[mouse]

^ I agree with you about the rides, but most people don't go to Disney for the rides, they go for the whole experience.
Disney doesn't exactly care about having good rides, it cares about the theming, and atmosphere. Sure, they might not have the best rides, but who cares? (Other than you, of course ).

(BTW, Mickey Mouse won't love you now.)

 

[marc]

What is strange is that the fact I thought Disney would do better as people that went to Harry Potter I assumed would go there. But we were shocked by how much park tickets and parking is for Disney, sorry but no park in the world is worth $84 for the day!

The problem is Paris which has pulled the numbers down for the whole group, without losing 6% there they would have bigger growth than Merlin who own more than double the parks.

WDW is now very expensive and if they do not lower their price people will not be able to afford it, they reply on people from Europe and the Far East going there and lets face it the Far East now have more than enough parks and better rides.

I can see where Ian is coming from, Disney is not for everyone. Tbh though the only park where you really have Disney in your face is the Magic Kingdom, the other parks tend to be more normal lol.

Europe has suffered big time due to the Euro and flight costs, I think most are in for a bad year again.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

It's an arguable thing about Disney, because for every sequin dressed fairground ride there's a real quality attraction that no other park has...

So for example, for every Dumbo/Orbitron/Flying Carpets (seriously how DO they get away with that?), there's a Tower of Terror, Test Track, Mission Space, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, etc...

Think I could definitely sit on Tower of Terror all day... And live in DisneySea...


But Disney isn't about the rides at the end of the day, it's about the experience for the average guests and they do provide that better than other parks in the world... Everyone knows Disney provide a fantastic family experience, and when you don't know much about theme parks, are you going to go to (effectively) a park no-one has heard of and risk a poor day out or will you go somewhere that is well known for providing a great experience?

Definitely gets it's high figures from being a recognised brand, which may be why Merlin are really pushing forward with their own brands atm in an attempt to do similar... But I doubt the Mouse's dominance will ever really change because it's essentially the Man Utd of the theme park world... You can go to any corner of the globe and say Disney and they would know what you're on about...

Another reason I think Disney are loved for is how they've changed the industry (and possibly even created it) to an unbelievable degree... Would rides today exist in the same vein if Disneyland hadn't been built? Quite possibly not, but Disney have made a massive difference to advancements in the industry through their ideas and construction...


And marc, the worrying thing is that going to Florida next year for 14 nights (With tickets to all parks) amounted to about £1500 (package with Virgin staying at All-Stars hotel in September), which potentially is cheaper than the same for Paris... They defo need to get the act together for Paris because of a general lack of ride investment, and just price...


In the end, it's actually nice to see someone have such an opinion on Disney parks, against the veritable long slide of grain of it...



(Apologies for the Man Utd analogy, but it does make sense to me)

 

[Thekingin64]

But I doubt the Mouse's dominance will ever really change because it's essentially the Man Utd of the theme park world...

So, They pretend they're good, every kid likes them but are in fact rubbish

 

[bob_3_]

I'm with Ian on this one, I find Disney abit too sweet and sugary, to a point where it's sinister.

I enjoy the films but I find the parks abit much, I like my coaster with with more grit. Gimme a hardcore carpark B&M coaster over what Ian has refered to as (rightfully imo) a polished turd.

 

[tks]

My mothers take on Disneyland Paris:
"they even play that awful music at you when you're on the toilet". No escape!

 

[STC]

So Flamingoland get higher visitor numbers than Blackpool? I find that hard to believe...