What is Everland up to?

[Pokemaniac]

Ah, Everland, South Korea. I saw the park mentioned in a recent thread and remembered: "Oh, right, they're the park that has T Express! And formely Eagle's Fortress! Ostensibly two of the greatest coasters in history, or so somebody said once way back when, maybe. I can't remember having heard from them for a while, let's look it up and see what new awesome additions they've made!"

And so I went to RCDB. I was pretty shocked to see that not only had Eagle Fortress not been replaced, but the park hasn't got a single new coaster since T Express, a whole decade ago this year. "Aha," I thought, a little sad. Perhaps the hugely expensive T Express hadn't brought in the crowds they had been expecting. That the park economy hadn't been good enough to allow for more additions. Curious to read more about the sad fate of Everland, I went to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia could inform me that Everland's visitor numbers had gone up by a solid million between 2008 and 2015. Apparently, the park wasn't only not struggling, it was virtually booming. It was the largest park in South Korea, and 14th largest in the world by attendance. They even have one of the world's largest waterparks. And yet I couldn't find a single mention of a new ride of any kind since T Express, even the waterpark wasn't stated to have gotten anything new since 2008. The visitor numbers imply they could certainly afford it, and the increase in visitor numbers suggest people have found a reason to return there, yet what they return for, I have no idea.

The Wikipedia page was a little outdated, though, so I decided to look for data post 2015. And then the story got even weirder. Apparently, attendance has plummeted since 2015, they're back below the 2008 numbers and still dropping. Lotte World has overtaken Everland as the largest park in South Korea, and Everland has fallen to 17th on the list of the world's most visited parks. Still, it gets more visitors every year than Nagashima Spaland, Europa Park or Efteling, so they're not doing badly per se. Yet I still wonder exactly why, since there doesn't seem to have been a single high-profile addition to the park for the past decade.

So I guess what I wonder about is:

• Why wasn't T Express followed up? Why hasn't the park built any new coasters since 2008?
• Have they added anything of note at all this past decade?
• Why did visitor numbers rise so high, without any noteworthy additions?
• And likewise, why did they plummet back down?
• Are they doing anything to address the drop in attendance?

Tagging @Yunho Kim here, since he appears to be the local expert. And @gavin, because he lived there for a while and tends to be super-knowledgeable of Asian parks in general. I figure this question really is a little too simple for a whole thread, but the Q&A section isn't that busy, and I couldn't find anywhere to put it anyway. So yeah, what happened?

 

[Y. Kim]

Why did visitor numbers rise so high, without any noteworthy additions?

It's near Seoul, so it is crowded, connected with the subway from Seoul. but now it is very hot(40'C), so there aren't many crowds. However, in April~May a lot of schools go there for the school trip, and visitors are usually 40000+ in that months.

Have they added anything of note at all this past decade?

Just 1 VR attraction, 1 horror maze(similar with walking dead), and 1 Whitewater's super flume

That picture is Aug. 4th wait time.

 

[davidm]

Added a couple of big safari-ride type things as well that seemed to be non-trivial.
But yeah, for a park that is so busy they don't seem to invest back that much (the ferris wheel was SBNO there for years too I think).

 

[Pokemaniac]

Looking at it again, it seems like Everland is in good company here. Over the past 10 years, only six coasters have opened in South Korea. Five more are under construction or planned, although two of the planned ones aren't slated to open until 2021. By comparison, 17 coasters have opened in Denmark over the past 10 years, and Denmark only has one-ninth the population of South Korea.

Heck, Lotte World, home of the famous Aquatrax and heir to the throne as the country's largest amusement park, also has said Aquatrax as its most recent coaster. It hasn't got an addition on tracks since Atlantis Adventure in 2003. Gyeongju World, known for recently adding the B&M coaster Draken, is also in the same boat. It was previously known for the B&M Invert Phaethon, built in 2007, and wouldn't you know it, Draken is the first addition since then.

Is South Korea just not that much into coasters? It seems like the parks only build one of them every 15 years or so, and no matter how ambitious the addition appears to be, it's not followed up by anything more that decade. Yet the parks appear to do really well without them too. How strange.

 

[TilenB]

Yeah, it's interesting to see that parks like Everland or Lotte World aren't adding anything substantial during the recent years. Though with Lotte World I can see why, since it's so landlocked, but no idea on why Everland hasn't added anything either. There were some rumors about a replacement for Eagle Fortress in 2012 (I can even remember a rcdb page about it), but that has obviously turned to nothing in the end.
As for the other Korean parks, from what I've seen, they never get particularly crowded (I've seen reports of parks being deserted even in the Summer months), so I guess they can't exactly afford any sort of big big additions.
Though speaking of that, didn't Children's Grand Park in Seoul have a massive revamp just a few years ago? Granted, they are only left with one coaster now, but there was an obvious step forward made there.

 

[gavin]

I left Korea almost 10 years ago, but kind of keep track of stuff and have been back to visit friends a couple of times.

The parks around Seoul may not be adding coasters, but it's kind of wrong to say they're not adding major stuff.

As has been mentioned, Everland have made big additions; they just haven't been coasters. They replaced an old log flume with a pretty major water ride and there's a huge new safari thing with amphibious vehicles. They've got pandas now as well. Not a ride of course, but a big draw for visitors.

Lotte World have been focusing on kiddy/family stuff. There are whole new areas and a lot of small rides, simulators, shooting dark rides and a flying theatre. There's also the new aquarium and they've just announced a whole new park for Busan.

Children's Grand Park is a weird one. They added and removed a giant frisbee without ever opening it, then remodeled most of the park, replacing an old Meisho looper with a Vekoma SFC, keeping an old mouse coaster that had been SBNO for years, and adding log flume and drop tower.