2009 Theme Park Attendance Report

[John Peck]

I would say, if you're a seasonal park and you're packing in 3 Million... you're doing a heck of a fine job.

 

Cedar Point is a great example of the 8% drop because there are a few major factors:

• Job losses in all THREE of its closest markets - Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo

• Rainier weather

• Shorter season by 8 days (I think that's what it came out to)

• No major attraction for the second year in a row (Not saying 2008's Planet Snoopy wasn't major.. it seemed to be a quiet addition)

• Remember also that they had high numbers the prior season, and before that.

 

When it comes to seasonal parks, Wonderland, Cedar Point Kings Island and Busche Gardens are tops.

[robbalvey]

I don't know. Each year these numbers come out, I feel they are very misleading. How do they count park hoppers? I mean, I would think half of the people, or more, that visit Epcot, the Studios, and AK, visit another park that day. Are both entries counted? My family visited 3 parks in one day, were all three counted? Does MNSSHP attendance count? Hell, that's a lot of people right there. Do idiots staying in Disney resorts with LOS passes, that don't even visit a park one day still count as an entry? I just don't buy that Epcot out performs Universal that much on paid entries.

 

 

After visiting the Tokyo Disney parks, I find it hard to beleive that they are #3. And the tickets are such that I doubt many folks park hop at TDR. And seeing the crowds in TDL, there is no way the MK draws more folks.

 

-RO

 

I believe they only count the first gate they go to.

 

--Jay

Where did you get this information from? Do you actually know for sure based on something you read, or did you just make that fact up? I don't think you're right. I don't know for sure either, but I would have to guess they count every click through the turnstile. Because if they counted ONLY the first gate someone went through, that means that DCA would have seen about 14,000 people paying for DCA every day of the year.

 

I just don't think that's realistic at all.

 

--Robb

Edited April 27, 2010 by robbalvey

[monsterfan99]

Also remember the Disney numbers are not official in the least, but educated guesses using a lot of data.

 

I'm actually a little shocked Busch Gardens Tampa dropped as much as it did.

[Tiburon503]

Did you all know that HALF of the 2.6 million people that visted Great Adventure last year rode Nitro? Well they did....and Nitro had the most riders of ANY SF Coaster in the US for the 2009 season. Just thought you should know that.

 

It's a good thing Mark Shapiro has instituted his "No More Goliaths" edict. Lord knows that statistic proves B&M Coasters don't draw people to the parks. How is "The Dark Knight's" ridership holding up?

 

It's a shame the bondholders didn't poach some BEC Management during the bankruptcy process. "Current Management" has proven disastrous during their reign.

[downunder]

Yay for Wet and Wild Australia making the top waterparks in the world at #8, and there's even a coaster credit at our waterpark too.

 

Kings Dominion isn't listed and I don't know if it's even close to getting in the US top 20 but it would be interesting to see the impact of the addition of I305 at the turnstiles.

[larrygator]

It's a good thing Mark Shapiro has instituted his "No More Goliaths" edict. Lord knows that statistic proves B&M Coasters don't draw people to the parks.

 

 

I don't recall Mark Shapiro ever saying that large coasters don't draw people into the parks. Large coasters increase debt (a fact that bankruptcy protected Six Flags Corporation knows too well) and don't bring in enough incremental ticket sales to cover the expenses of a new expennsive coaster.

 

Larger crowds do not necessarily mean more positive financial results if the park has to pay off additional debt.

[DenDen]

First, I'm UBER-impressed at Busch and Universals numbers, especially in the "chain ranking". Wow, who knew?!?!?

 

But as it's mentioned a couple times in the thread, chains that have multiple parks in the same property inflate their numbers with give-aways, packages, etc. It would be nice to see this infographic clarify these numbers, I'm very curious.

[cwcoasterboy]

I noticed that CW was the highest of the seasonal parks. No suprise though as it pulls a large number from the Greater Toronto Area. It would interesting to see the difference between paid admissions and season pass admissions.

 

It also appears that a lot of the seasonal parks showed a decrease in attendance, even though many had longer operating seasons last year. I guess this recession thing has some truth to it.

 

While CW does quite well with Season Passes, the bulk is still paid tickets. On mornings that the park offers ERT for passholders, there are huge crowds of people waiting at flag drop, meaning they don't have passes.

 

The park has shared with me that this report is usually not accurate for other parks in the chain, but for CW they are pretty close. That's as close as we'll ever get to a confirmation on this report.

[HCLcoasters]

It's sort of hard to make a comparison between some of these parks because you're comparing seasonal and year round parks.

[nhman93]

Am I the only one who is very surprised by the fact that Knott's had a higher attendance then SFMM? I have never been to either of the parks (or to the West Coast ) but it just seems SFMM would draw more people just due to the amount of rides and size of the park. Any logical reason behind this?

[SharkTums]

^Yeah, Knotts is open 364 days vs. SFMM's a lot less! Remember from Labor Day to the last week of March SFMM is weekends and holidays only.

[nhman93]

^Yeah, Knotts is open 364 days vs. SFMM's a lot less! Remember from Labor Day to the last week of March SFMM is weekends and holidays only.

 

Thanks for clearing that up it makes a lot more sense now.

[downunder]

Every time I've visited Knott's (except for Scary Farm) it's been a ghost town in more than just theme, and I've wondered how they make money. I read somewhere that they get 15% of their annual attendance from Scary Farm, what's that, like around 20 nights in late September/October.

 

It's a shame they don't publish the attendance figures for North American parks outside the top 20, I'd be very interested to see how some non top 20 parks are going.

[knottslover77]

I don't know. Each year these numbers come out, I feel they are very misleading. How do they count park hoppers? I mean, I would think half of the people, or more, that visit Epcot, the Studios, and AK, visit another park that day. Are both entries counted? My family visited 3 parks in one day, were all three counted? Does MNSSHP attendance count? Hell, that's a lot of people right there. Do idiots staying in Disney resorts with LOS passes, that don't even visit a park one day still count as an entry? I just don't buy that Epcot out performs Universal that much on paid entries.

 

 

After visiting the Tokyo Disney parks, I find it hard to beleive that they are #3. And the tickets are such that I doubt many folks park hop at TDR. And seeing the crowds in TDL, there is no way the MK draws more folks.

 

-RO

 

I believe they only count the first gate they go to.

 

--Jay

Where did you get this information from? Do you actually know for sure based on something you read, or did you just make that fact up? I don't think you're right. I don't know for sure either, but I would have to guess they count every click through the turnstile. Because if they counted ONLY the first gate someone went through, that means that DCA would have seen about 14,000 people paying for DCA every day of the year.

 

I just don't think that's realistic at all.

 

--Robb

 

There was like a whole topic on micechat about it awhile ago.

And I think that sounds about right to me, 44,000 at DL while 14,000 at DCA. I don't know i'm no expert.

 

--Jay

[Jew]

^Robb is talking about 14,000 PAID admissions. No way DCA pulls that in.

[thecoasterkid]

Why do some people sound surprised that Canada's Wonderland is the top seasonal park in North America? It's been that way for as long as I've been reading these reports (2005 or earlier). It doesn't shock me at all. There are a HUGE number of people in southern Ontario that the park pulls on (5.5 million in the Greater Toronto Area alone) with little to no competition.

[gisco]

I wonder how much attendance would be affected at Tokyo Disney and DisneySea if they allowed park hopping from day one instead of day three?

[Six Flags Enthuseast]

Of the ones listed, I only went to DL and DCA. But I sure wish I could've gone to at least half of those others ones, because they're kick- parks!

[ArizonaGuy]

is there any report that shows a listing of all parks even the ones with lower attendance numbers? I'd be curious on how all the Six Flags parks break down.

[coasterfreak914]

Dang, I'm surprised that SeaWorld Orlando's attendance dropped nearly 7% last year. I thought Manta would of paved the way for a big attendance boost...

[thomas2]

Nagashima Spa Land is on number 15.

 

Strange because when I went there the park was deserted. But then again it's a big park and I did go in the winter months.

[Electerik]

My gut feeling is that Disney's strategy in Orlando finally paid off big. For the last five or six years they've been raising prices by $5.00 or so every six months. (Very rough figures.) Every time they do it, Universal and SeaWorld follow suit within a week or two. But Disney has four parks, and they make it relatively-cheap to visit multiple days. So the average tourist faces this question: Should I spend $79 to go to Magic Kingdom, $79 to go to SeaWorld, and $79 to go to Universal Studios (for a total of $257), or just buy a 10-day Disney ticket that will get me into all four of their parks for $243?

 

Sure, Universal can offer a cheap 2-park option, and SeaWorld can roll in Aquatica, but Walt Disney World still has 4 parks and is probably the place most tourists have the least inclination to cut out of their vacation.