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Worst Country in Getting new Coasters

Starlight88

Roller Poster
Whats the worst country for new coasters one that hasnt got a big new coaster in years maybe not have a coaster made ever for me is Chez Republic then possbily India and Portugal
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
There's something like 205 recognised countries right? and the RCDB has coasters in 119.
So at least 80 countries have never had a coaster.

So in answer to the question I feel
Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Vatican City, Iceland, Kenya, Kiriba, Laos. Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Timor Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe
Are all having pretty bad coaster droughts.
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
Liechtenstein doesn't have any coasters despite being home to one of the best rides manufacturers in the world.
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
There's something like 205 recognised countries right? and the RCDB has coasters in 119.
So at least 80 countries have never had a coaster.

So in answer to the question I feel
Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Vatican City, Iceland, Kenya, Kiriba, Laos. Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Timor Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe
Are all having pretty bad coaster droughts.
A concise list of places not worth visiting. ;)
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
And I think @Pokemaniac might have something to add too.

Indeed I have! The country with the poorest current pace of coaster building compared to previous history has to be ...Spain.

"But Pokemaniac", I hear you say. "Spain has got both Red Force and Shambala in recent years! Surely, you must be jesting!" But no, I'm serious. Because while PortAventura has built coasters at a steady pace, the rest of the country has got nothing of any significance in over a decade. Muntanya Russa at Tibidabo is the only coaster faster than 60 km/h built in Spain since 2008, outside PortAventura. Furius Baco remains the newest coaster in Spain with inversions, it was built in 2007.

What makes Spain's case so bad is that it wasn't always like that. Spain-minus-PortAventura is home to a huge B&M Floorless, a Batman clone, a Vekoma GIB, a couple of big RCCA woodies, a rare Intamin invert, and even a couple of SLCs. It's not a bad lineup, built mostly between 1997 and 2005. But at some point, investment ground to a complete halt. Outside PortAventura, not a single non-family coaster has been built since 2007 (Inferno at Terra Mítica). That's almost as bad as Norway, but Spain has ten times more people, a lot more international tourists, a much larger economy, and a much longer operating season. Heck, Italy is in the same situation or worse on most indicators, and some pretty big coasters have been built in various parks across that country in recent years.
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
Indeed I have! The country with the poorest current pace of coaster building compared to previous history has to be ...Spain
Well, if we're going down that road, I have a couple of other contenders to add;
  • South Korea; Draken in Gyeongju World has been a bit of a saving grace, but there has been nothing else of worth built since T-Express in 2008 (a couple of family and kiddie coasters was all). There's a few more new park projects due in coming years, so hopefully their coaster situation is getting on a bit of an upward curve.
  • Kuwait: This country seemed to have quite an exciting coaster collection some 10 or 15 years ago (for such a small place, that is), but nowadays most of the big rides have either been removed or are SBNO, leaving this as their most exciting operating coaster: https://rcdb.com/8848.htm - quite a drop from a B&M Invert, a couple of pipeline coasters and a Schwarzkopf Speed Racer.
  • Taiwan: The last major amusement park project was the opening of E-DA theme park back in 2010. There's only been a small family coaster built since, with most of the big coasters being about 20 years old by now
  • Japan: Perhaps this one is a bit controversial, but has anything major been built outside of the main few parks (Nagashima, USJ or Fuji-Q) in the past 10 years. Japan used to have a huge number of sizable amusement parks, most of which are either stagnating nowadays or have even closed down entirely...
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Well, if we're going down that road, I have a couple of other contenders to add;
  • South Korea; Draken in Gyeongju World has been a bit of a saving grace, but there has been nothing else of worth built since T-Express in 2008 (a couple of family and kiddie coasters was all). There's a few more new park projects due in coming years, so hopefully their coaster situation is getting on a bit of an upward curve.
  • Kuwait: This country seemed to have quite an exciting coaster collection some 10 or 15 years ago (for such a small place, that is), but nowadays most of the big rides have either been removed or are SBNO, leaving this as their most exciting operating coaster: https://rcdb.com/8848.htm - quite a drop from a B&M Invert, a couple of pipeline coasters and a Schwarzkopf Speed Racer.
  • Taiwan: The last major amusement park project was the opening of E-DA theme park back in 2010. There's only been a small family coaster built since, with most of the big coasters being about 20 years old by now
  • Japan: Perhaps this one is a bit controversial, but has anything major been built outside of the main few parks (Nagashima, USJ or Fuji-Q) in the past 10 years. Japan used to have a huge number of sizable amusement parks, most of which are either stagnating nowadays or have even closed down entirely...
Great catches! I'm a little embarrassed to have forgotten South Korea and Japan myself (having even opened a thread about South Korea's declining coaster situation a month or two ago). Haven't followed the situation in Kuwait or Taiwan very closely, though, but those seem like good candidates too.
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
Indeed I have! The country with the poorest current pace of coaster building compared to previous history has to be ...Spain.

"But Pokemaniac", I hear you say. "Spain has got both Red Force and Shambala in recent years! Surely, you must be jesting!" But no, I'm serious. Because while PortAventura has built coasters at a steady pace, the rest of the country has got nothing of any significance in over a decade. Muntanya Russa at Tibidabo is the only coaster faster than 60 km/h built in Spain since 2008, outside PortAventura. Furius Baco remains the newest coaster in Spain with inversions, it was built in 2007.

What makes Spain's case so bad is that it wasn't always like that. Spain-minus-PortAventura is home to a huge B&M Floorless, a Batman clone, a Vekoma GIB, a couple of big RCCA woodies, a rare Intamin invert, and even a couple of SLCs. It's not a bad lineup, built mostly between 1997 and 2005. But at some point, investment ground to a complete halt. Outside PortAventura, not a single non-family coaster has been built since 2007 (Inferno at Terra Mítica). That's almost as bad as Norway, but Spain has ten times more people, a lot more international tourists, a much larger economy, and a much longer operating season. Heck, Italy is in the same situation or worse on most indicators, and some pretty big coasters have been built in various parks across that country in recent years.

I am in no way defending Spain but I can understand somehow how this country works. It follows the principle of offer and demand led to an extreme.

Basically, after PortAventura opened everyone and their dog wanted a big theme park. That's why Isla Mágica (Seville), Terra Mítica (Benidorm) and Parque Warner (Madrid) were built in such a short time. IM followed PA's steps in terms of good taste and themeing, Terra Mítica took a new direction using the Mediterranean myths and combining them with a selection of dark rides never seen in the country, which was not well received by the public. Last, Parque Warner (former Six Flags park) was built with an opening coaster lineup that would make some other SF parks jealous (two B&M, a GIB, a giant wooden coaster and a familiy Zierer), soon to realise that the European public could not be sold just on coasters, no matter how good or tall they were.

After this period of experimenting with a good formula, park attendance fell into stagnation, which led to less investments. Besides this, the Spanish mindset is "if there is a cow, milk it dry", so if parks are still pulling good numbers without substantial investments, why bother building something exciting which will make profit drop? I wish parks cared more about the experience than about their figures... Oh, well.

Tibidabo and PAM are a league on their own. Tibidabo is virtually landlocked and had to be extremely creative into fitting Muntanya Russa, and PAM boosted their coaster count to counteract the opening of Parque Warner (which was direct competition at that time). Once Parques Reunidos got to operate Parque Warner, non of these parks have seen major investments.
 

Y. Kim

Mega Poster
South Korea; Draken in Gyoengju World has been a bit of a saving grace, but there has been nothing else of worth built since T-Express in 2008 (a couple of family and kiddie coasters was all). There's a few more new park projects due in coming years, so hopefully their coaster situation is getting on a bit of an upward curve.
EXACTLY!!!! I live 30min away from Gyoeungju World, and personally I felt boring about T Express. Since 2008 Korea opened an Vekoma SFC,Draken, and Mack spinner in Jeju. Kind of drought in 2008~2018 however Busan Lotte World will be opened, and some more projects were planned.
 

Y. Kim

Mega Poster
Japan: Perhaps this one is a bit controversial, but has anything major been built outside of the main few parks (Nagashima, USJ or Fuji-Q) in the past 10 years. Japan used to have a huge number of sizable amusement parks, most of which are either stagnating nowadays or have even closed down entirely...

Space World was closed and Stealth clone-don't know where it has gone. Venus GP has been relocating to Rusutsu Resort, and Arrow hyper was scrapped.
but RMC is making White Cyclone a good hybrid coaster.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
We do like whinging about the state of the UK theme park industry on this forum, but this thread makes me think that, hey, maybe it's not so bad here after all! :)

Potential for a new anti-bragging topic here: How many cred-less countries have you visited? Should weed out the more 'cultured' among us.
I've got 4 - Antigua, Dominican Republic, Vatican City and Iceland. :p
 
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