TEA 2019 report is out

[peep]

Always love going through the attendance report that TEA/AECOM put out every year.

Link to report

I noticed a few errors this year. There's a picture on pages 24/25 which caption it as being Cedar Point when it's Kings Island. Also saw Efteling mentioned as being in Belgium, big whoops.

It mostly looks stagnant this year. Anyone spot anything interesting?

 

[Hixee]

From what I've seen around (@Hyde might be able to concisely provide some sources), this year's report is particularly poorly put together.

Barely worth the pixels it's printed on.

 

[gavin]

For me, it was interesting to see OCT overtake Universal to become the world's 3rd biggest theme park operator (though I'm fairly sure it's more of an annual blip than a long-term thing) and to see Ocean Kingdom overtake Shanghai Disneyland. I can actually see that one being a bit more sustainable.

The drop in visitors for Hong Kong Disneyland was entirely predictable thanks to the protests, but not quite as bad as I'd expected it to be.

In general though, the report all feels a bit dull this year since there really hasn't been much movement in terms of park visitors are positions of parks.

Next year's should be interesting though. I can see parks being very reluctant to share numbers.

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[Matt N]

I’m with @gavin in being very interested at some of the Chinese developments in 2019. As he already mentioned, OCT has now overtaken Universal as the 3rd biggest operator, but Fantawild is also hot on Universal’s heels, with only around 1 million less visitors. That could see Universal pushed down to 5th in the years to come (well, presumably not this year or potentially next due to all that’s gone on, but maybe in 2022?).

Can I ask a question, though; why does Chimelong Ocean Kingdom get such a high volume of visitors?Out of all the theme parks not owned by Disney or Universal, it is by far the most visited, with the next largest being Everland, which has visitor figures that are not far off 50% lower!

 

[gavin]

I’m with @gavin in being very interested at some of the Chinese developments in 2019. As he already mentioned, OCT has now overtaken Universal as the 3rd biggest operator, but Fantawild is also hot on Universal’s heels, with only around 1 million less visitors. That could see Universal pushed down to 5th in the years to come (well, presumably not this year or potentially next due to all that’s gone on, but maybe in 2022?).

Can I ask a question, though; why does Chimelong Ocean Kingdom get such a high volume of visitors?Out of all the theme parks not owned by Disney or Universal, it is by far the most visited, with the next largest being Everland, which has visitor figures that are not far off 50% lower!

I can only answer purely based on what I've seen myself, so I have no actual data to back this up, but:

Chimelong already had brand recognition in the area thanks to Chimelong Paradise, Safari Park and Water Park, which are also extremely popular.

It's in the Pearl River Delta, which consists of some huge cities with very large populations (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Foshan). It's doable as a day trip for hundreds of millions of people.

It's extremely close to, and easily accessible from, Macau and Hong Kong which both get ludicrous visitor numbers (or did until recently). From Macau especially, it's an easy day trip with easy transport options. So, you're not just getting an already enormous local population, but a potential cut of enormous tourist numbers as well.

It was/is heavily advertised all over the region. Until very recently I'd see billboards for it (for the whole "brand" including the Guangzhou resort as well) all over the Hong Kong metro.

They offer free transport between the Guangzhou and Zhuhai resorts for hotel guests and have other, excellent direct bus links all over the region. They're also working on a metro/monorail line which will improve things even more.

They are very happy to brag about world records: world's biggest this, that and the other.

It's very much a resort, with excellent hotels, pools, restaurants, evening entertainment etc. A lot of Fantawild parks have hotels, too, but they're not so much a "thing" as Chimelong.

Staying with the hotels (which, as I've said, are excellent), they offer loads of different room/park/circus/buffet packages. You just check in at the hotel and all the **** you need is handed over.

Unlike the other Chinese chains (OCT and Fantawild), they offer a consistently good product. They have, by far, the best operations of any local park (very much on par with the better Western parks) and "sell" the fact that all their stuff is American or European.

That's enough for now...


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[Hixee]

Wow, thanks @gavin!

 

[Matt N]

I admit I would have instinctively said that, but I decided to stop doing that after being reprimanded for it on another forum, so I put that very line in my signature!

 

[Pokemaniac]

Parques Reunidos actually growing again. Bit strange, since most of their individual parks tend to see attendance dropping from year to year. I guess they keep buying more parks to cover up this fact, but I wasn't aware of any purchases that could inflate the 2019 numbers.

Or they could be cooking the books, of course. Wouldn't put it past them.

 

[Antinos]

Parques Reunidos actually growing again. Bit strange, since most of their individual parks tend to see attendance dropping from year to year. I guess they keep buying more parks to cover up this fact, but I wasn't aware of any purchases that could inflate the 2019 numbers.

Or they could be cooking the books, of course. Wouldn't put it past them.

The TEA report tends to be riddled with inaccuracies - some of which even contradict the numbers released by a park. It's my understanding that a lot of the numerical data is more or less made up, and their qualitative data and root cause analysis tends to have a similar level of accuracy. A couple obvious examples are where they list both Efteling and Rulantica, and they also claim that Universal Orlando is continuing to see growth because of...wait for it...Fast and the Furious: Supercharged. To their defense, they do mention Hagrids, but I can guarantee that the majority of guests don't even realize there's a Fast and the Furious attraction at the resort.

 

[cocoa]

I bounced over to chimelong ocean kingdom when I was visiting macau and cleared the park out in 3/4 hours. Really loved the place, just was in a bit of a rush. It never struck me as such an incredibly busy place! Maybe I got really lucky on the day I went but I waited in almost no lines...

maybe I'm just a confused pleb but I actually found it somewhat confusing to get there from macau. I probably did all the wrong things though, since I had to get a 3-day china visa at the pedestrian border crossing in the north of macau. then I wanted to catch a bus but the bus terminus on the other side was like a nightmare fever-dream of confusion.

 

[gavin]

It depends where in Macau you are I guess. The main border crossing is Gongbei (that black border line at the top), with Zhuhai Train Station and a bus station (with direct buses to the park) as soon as you enter China. It's a busy crossing though and I could see how it could be confusing.

The Lotus Bridge crossing (pink circle) is much quieter and much closer to the park (orange). It's right next to Studio City/The Parisian/The Venetian, so if you're in the Cotai area (with most of the bigger, newer casinos) it's really easy. Probably no option for a Visa on arrival though.

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