Numbers UP (and some down too)
TEA and ERA published their annual report on amusement attendance for year 2007 and to nobodies surprise Disney dominates the list again. The top 25 of the world has 10 places reserved for Disney parks. Even better then that, the first 8 places are Disney park.
1 MAGIC KINGDOM at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA 17,060,000
2 DISNEYLAND, Anaheim, CA, USA 14,870,000
3 TOKYO DISNEYLAND, Tokyo, Japan 13,906,000
4 TOKYO DISNEYSEA, Tokyo, Japan 12,413,000
5 DISNEYLAND PARIS, Marne-La-Vallee, France 12,000,000
6 EPCOT at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA 10,930,000
7 DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena V 9,510,000
8 DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, FL 9,490,000
And the other 2 parks also in the top 25 are at place 13 DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE, Anaheim, CA, USA 5,680,000 and at place 21 HONG KONG DISNEYLAND, Hong Kong, SAR, China 4,150,000.
Looking further into the report you can see how well some of the parks did and how they improved. The Magic Kingdom attendance grew with 2.5%, Disneyland in Anaheim did 1% better as the previous year, Epcot and the Disney’s Hollywood Studios both did 4.5% better and Animal Kingdom proofs that adding one of those amazing Disney Imagineering wonders in the park they can grow even more by adding 6.5%. DCA on the other had lost 4.5% of its attendance. Could it be people are loosing interest, or are going to wait till all the big changes have been done before they return? It sure looks like it. Other parks are doing well too. Most parks are showing growth. Universal Studios added a solid 3,3% growth while there adjusted park, Islands of Adventure, also added a 2.5%. IoA will be the park to look at in the future; the 2,5 is a nice extra, but Harry Potter might push this park up in the top 25 once it opens. On the top 25 of the world its at place 15, but the wizard might do its magic putting the park into the top 10 once the changes are complete. Time will tell and, although I am not a Harry Potter fan and might be one of the few missing the “old” IoA settings, it will be interesting to follow the development of the park and the attendance changes. The biggest growth in North America was reserved for BUSCH GARDENS EUROPE, Williamsburg, VA* to 3,157,000 guest and a 12.5% raise.
On the European list Disney did even better. Disneyland Resort Paris grew with 13.1% to 12.000.000 guests will the Studios in Paris grew 13.6% and could welcome 2.500.000 guest. Doesn’t sound like a lot of guests but the studios was never really a full day park and struggled to keep guests in after 16:00. With the new Toon Studios it proofed guests will come when they get something new offered and Tower of Terror will boost the numbers for next year into the sky (my prediction, but I could be wrong of course). The winner in Europe is HEIDE PARK, Soltau, Germany with 1,400,000 visitors it went up 16.7%. Only taking place 20 on the European list, it still can be proud on such an improvement. Europe had some other winners too. Legoland, both in Denmark and the UK, did well with 10.3% increase and a 11.5% increase respectively. Surprisingly some Europe parks lost some visitors too. PLEASURE BEACH, Blackpool, UK 5,500,000 down 8.3% and TIVOLI GARDENS, Copenhagen, Denmark 1 4,110,000 down 6.5% still made it on the second and third place.
The biggest loser however is Hong Kong Disneyland with a 20.2% downfall. After a fairly good start Hong Kong Disneyland is struggling to get visitors to come and or return while Ocean Park, also in Hong Kong climbs up with an increase of 12.3% Ocean Park keeps on surprising, while many first thought they would be suffering from the arrival of Disney. The biggest downfall is for LOTTE WORLD, Seoul, South Korea with 2,600,000 and a52.7% loss. But we do have to take in account that this park was closed for most of 2007 for renovations and only opened in July 2007.
Other Disney winners on the list represent the Water Parks. Both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach improved 1.5%. Typhoon Lagoon being the number one with 2.080.000 visitors in 2007 while Blizzard Beach had 1.910.000 visitors. Wet ‘n Wild, Orlando came in third with 1.370.000 visitors, an 2% improvement. The biggest improvement however was for Hyland Hills Water World, Denver, CO 558,000 climbing a solid 26.0%
The full report can be found here (Via inpark magazine)
March 18th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Thanks for giving us this extensive analyses Andy. I just wanted to add that one should always keep in mind, that some parks are claiming that the numbers of the report are not really correct… which wouldn’t be a surprsie since those parks who release guest numbers usually do not release how they count these numbers (e.g. what about guests who leave and return during a day, what about invitees etc.). Nevertheless the numbers do at least give a rough overview where each park stands and how they did in a year by year comparison.
Regarding the water parks category (sadly so far no opark to compete there for DLRP): it will be interesting to see how Aquatica compares at the end of 2008. In general once could expect that especially Wet’n'Wild could see a negative impact of the new park. But due to Anheuser Busch’s tendency to sell tourists comparable cheap combo-tickets which might include Aquatica in teh future, the Disney parks might take a slight hit as well. Regarding Wet’n'Wild also the increasing guest numbers of the Universal Resort could help it sustain its position, since Wet’n'Wild basically is the water park for that resort.
Speaking of the Universal Resort: the great performance of IoA really surprised me. Afterall the park hasn’t seen a new major attraction in a long time. Guess the cocnept to position the Universal Resort as a full resort with (really great) hotels, two parks and a night time entertainment and shopping district (plus an adjacent water park) finally starts paying off.