Park Attendance Report 2011

[Waffleman]

The TeaConnect global theme park and water park attendance reports for 2011 are now available here.

Generally same old, same old. Islands of Adventure obviously saw a decent increase due to Wizarding World. However, I found it interesting that Alton Towers' attendance decreased by over 5% since 2010, although I'm also quite glad as it proves that they can't get away with no new additions.

 

[madhjsp]

I'm curious as to why Seaworld San Diego also saw a pretty significant increase in attendance last year at 13%. Did they open some massive new exhibit or something?

 

[peep]

Wow, finally got round to reading through all of that. To be honest it's only Europe that interests me, the top 20 list for North America is just Florida and California with a couple of others every single year. Europe changes a lot.

Firstly, Chessington no longer make the list and this heavily upsets me but it's either they did really bad last year or they withdrew their figures (pretty sure parks can do that). It's probably because they just aren't pulling in the peeps. I hope this year is going better for them but I expect the worst.

Disney having a 4.7% growth in numbers at both parks is fantastic news, just a shame everyone barely purchased anything (their sales were very low).

For those that can't be bothered to go into the pdf here be the list for Europe:

1- Disneyland Parc, Paris - 10,990,000 (4.7% change)
2- Walt Disney Studios, Paris - 4,710,000 (4.7% change)
3- Europa Park, Germany - 4,500,000 (5.9% change)
4- De Efteling, Netherlands - 4,125,000 (3.1% change)
5- Tivoli Gardens, Denmark - 3,963,000 (7.2% change)
6- Port Aventura, Spain - 3,522,000 (15.5% change)
7- Liseberg, Sweden - 2,900,000 (0% change)
8- Gardaland, Italy - 2,850,000 (1.8% change)
9- Alton Towers, UK - 2,600,000 (-5.5% change)
10- Legoland Windsor, UK - 1,900,000 (0% change)
11- Thorpe Park, UK - 1,900,000 (2.7% change)
12- Phantasialand, Germany - 1,750,000 (-5.4 change)
13- Futuroscope, France - 1,741,000 (-4.6% change)
14- Legoland Billund, Denmark - 1,600,000 (-3.0% change)
15- Parc Asterix, France - 1,595,000 (-4.1% change)
16- Puy Du Fou, France - 1,500,000 (2.0% change)
17- Mirabilandia, Italy - 1,481,000 (-1.6% change)
18- Gronalund, Sweden - 1,464,000 (12.1% change)
19- Slagharen, Netherlands - 1,400,000 (-4.4% change)
20- Heide Park, Germany - 1,350,000 (0% change)


So, as you might agree, some interesting numbers in there. How the feck did Gronalund, Tivoli and Port Aventura do so much better than 2010? Oh hang on, Gronalund got a woodie, I think that just helps the enthusiasts case towards parks that woodies are still popular.

I do wonder how Alton did so badly compared to the previous year, same for Phantasialand. Phantasialand added three new rides and one of them was a giant interactive dark ride, I bet they're not very pleased with their gate figures.

 

[Robbie]

Interesting stuff, thanks. I assume Blackpool Pleasure Beach opted out in 2008? Is that when they started charging for entry? Surely attendance didn't drop from 5.5m to sub-1.3m in one year?

 

[Lofty]

^ I don't think it'd drop that much, but it has dropped a lot for last year, as far as I've been informed. This year has been even quieter this year, I know that for a fact, so let's hope they have a good Peak-Season because the Low-Season has seemed lower the the usual.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

What I find rather interesting is the comparison of two Merlin owned park's - Heide and Gardaland, which both obtained new coasters for 2011, both "firsts" for their country. And both annoyingly black/grey! :--D

Whilst Gardaland achieved a 1.8% increase (possibly due to the more "revolutionary" nature of it), Heide equaled last year's performance. For a park with so many more coasters and I believe attractions...why not? It also intrigues me why GL is doing so well...positioning?

With only 1 B&M and 3 painful vekoma's..why is this and has been for a while?

 

[Robbie]

^ I don't think it'd drop that much, but it has dropped a lot for last year, as far as I've been informed. This year has been even quieter this year, I know that for a fact, so let's hope they have a good Peak-Season because the Low-Season has seemed lower the the usual.

What I mean is, Pleasure Beach had 5.5m visitors according to the 2007 list, but haven't appeared since then. I assume they have opted out of providing figures?

 

[gavin]

^What you need to remember is that the 2007 numbers were before they started charging an entrance fee. That 5.5 million figure included a lot of non-paying, "just wandered in" guests. Whether the numbers of paying guests are so low as to to not make BPB a "top 20" park though? I honestly couldn't say.

Is it better for Blackpool to not appear on the lists at all than to appear near the bottom and showing a huge decrease in visitors? Possibly, considering they used to use their "most popular UK tourist attraction" label so much in their publicity.

^^ It's almost certainly down to location. Lake Garda is an extremely popular holiday destination, so families vacationing in the area are likely to include a day at Gardaland. It might not even be planned, just something to do when they get there. That movie park place in the same area has added nothing for years and still gets plenty of visitors (enough to keep it going at least) and it must be down to the area.

Heide is more like, say, Alton Towers in that it is the destination for a visit, not an "add-on" to a preexisting trip.