Attendance at theme parks continues to skyrocket

[MIDisneyFamily]

The Discounts for longer stays at WDW, seem to be helping push the attendance of AK and DHS. The WYW passes that make it cheaper to stay seem to be letting more people head to those Parks.

 

[brisem]

I think the biggest surprise for me is the difference between MK and Universal
of over 10mm people. Also, if you combine Universal and IoA, they would come in 6th overall

 

[MIDisneyFamily]

Cedar Point had 3.12 million visitors in 2007. It appears that Cedar Point is open 140 days a year, for an average daily attendance of 22,286. And Kings Island had 3.05 million visitors for an average of 24,016 visitors per day for the 127 days it is open.

The MK averages 46,740, EPCOT averages 29,945, DHS averages 26,055 and AK averages 26,000.

So, yes, just going by averages for days that the parks are open, Cedar Point and Kings Island do compare favorably with EPCOT, DHS and AK.

It is hard to estimate the park attendance for a theme park only opened half a year. Assuming the Park is in a climate for year round attendance, there are people who head to Cedar piont at a certain time becaouse it isnt opend in, lets say February or March. theres reall no way to estimate, nor compare attendance at a seasonal park, with that of a Year round Park. The 6 month attendance may be spread out differently if it was opened all year. I might plan on going there once a year, and so it has to be in the 6 months when thier opened, rather than when i might rather go in a month they are closed. Does that make sense?...It did when i thought about it...but I tried. What im Saying is, average daily attendance extrapolated from a 6 month attendance figure is not a accurate measure due to way to many intangible factors.

 

[DizWiz]

MIDisneyFamily: Comparing a park that's open year round with one that's open only half the year is like comparing apples and oranges; it can't be done. So with the information at hand, I did a simple comparison of daily average based on the number of days each park is open just to get a feel for how the parks in Ohio compare with the WDW parks. You obviously cannot extrapolate a year's worth of data from that calculation, and I hope nobody would. Yes, Disney's daily attendance numbers would be greater than the average during the same time period that the Ohio parks are open because it's the summer months, but I think the averages show that the Ohio parks are pretty busy when they're open.

Just trying to clarify the numbers in my earlier posts and why I did the calculations. I should have included this explanation when I posted them. Sorry.

 

[OmegaKnight]

Disney is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to theme parks. Other companies may try to compete but in the end, Disney always ends on top.

 

[WhyteAL]

You know it has been my experience that most of us love Magic Kingdom, but always feel like it needs TLC. I read several arguments on these forums to suggest that management is resposible for the problems.

But taking in the current data, all I can say is great gugly mugly !WOW!. 17 million visitors a year. Holy crap! I am not sure that the problem solely lies on management. I mean these are hugh numbers. This is probly why I have yet been unable to wake up tinker bell.

Hey DizWiz can you run some more numbers for us: How many guests ride Carousal of Progress a year, to help justify it's excistence?
haha

 

[sknydave]

Does this list account for every person who enters the park or every person who purchases a ticket? For instance, an annual passholder may visit 60 times in 2007. Does anyone know if it counts this person 60 times or just once?


And yes, this country is definitely in a recession. The number of foreign visitors you see at Central Florida theme parks is staggering.

 

[DizWiz]

Monorail and WhyteAL: I only wish I had those numbers to review.

sknydave: These numbers are the attendance numbers, which is the count of people that go through the turnstiles, not tickets purchased. The report is compiled annually and is jointly produced by the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) and ERA (Economics Research Associates). Since the companies do not release actual attendance figures, these are estimates based on "a variety of sources, including statistics furnished directly by the operators, historical numbers, financial reports, the investment banking community and local tourism organizations, among others." (Source: 2007 TEA/ERA Attraction Attendance Report) They're not exact, and some operators have a problem with them (see the Orlando Sentinel article and Busch's reaction to them). But the numbers are generally viewed as the most complete and accurate available.

 

[sknydave]

oh lord WDWmagic regulars probably accounted for at least a million of those #'s, then.

 

[VillanovaBlue]

Does this list account for every person who enters the park or every person who purchases a ticket? For instance, an annual passholder may visit 60 times in 2007. Does anyone know if it counts this person 60 times or just once?


And yes, this country is definitely in a recession. The number of foreign visitors you see at Central Florida theme parks is staggering.

Definition of Recession: Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth

Number of quarters of negative growth since the last recession (2000/2001 ish): ZERO...

We are not in a recession!! Don't believe everything you see on TV!

 

[sknydave]

Thats funny considering the top financial advisor for the current administration said this quarter is going to be in the red.

 

[DisneyMusician2]

For real...And the other thing is the damn gas prices, I wonder how many families will be canceling their trips due to the high prices. I know I am effected by the high prices and I drive a brand new 4 cylinder car that's good on gas.

I don't know about cancellations, but I do know that I am thinking twice about how I am going to handle my next trip based on the rising cost of airline tickets and food related to gas prices.

I'm sure Disney will be passing that cost onto us come next year's rates...

 

[SpongeScott]

Turnstiles keep spinning
Disney stakes the top 8 spots
Mickey remains king

 

[bork]

If you compare these with past Amusement Business numbers, MK and AK are at all-time highs. (MK had 17 million in 1997). But Epcot and DHS are still behind their 1997 records (before AK opened). Epcot had 11.8 and MGM had 10.4.

I believe the all-time single season attendance record goes to Toyko Disneyland which had 17.7 million in 2001 (before DisneySea opened)

I think DCA was down because they cut back on some of the free ticket deals that padded the 2006 numbers.

 

[Michael72688]

So we can assume if growth rates stay the same that MK will have an all time high and possibly world wide high?

 

[Nero the dog]

While the weak dollar may certainly have increased the numbers of overseas visitors slightly, it still cost upwards of $5000 for a family of 4 to come to Florida from the UK.
Air Fares, Accomodation, Food, Car Hire, and Theme Park tickets all add up.

For me the weak dollar was the final push I needed to buy into DVC:sohappy::sohappy:.

Also, when we visit it is normally for 2 weeks, during that time we may be in and out of each park on several occasions.

 

[sknydave]

$5000 USD? That's only 2466 GBP. Pretty good if you ask me!


I just read that air fares went up yet again yesterday with fuel surcharges, etc.

 

[Disneykidder]

Those are all amazing numbers, even the 25th!! I knew Disney had popularity, but I never knew the numbers would be that outstanding.

MK is my favorite park and always will be. There is something for everyone there and lots of it, too. DCA was what, 13? Still not bad compared to the hundreds of parks out there. I wouldn't say it isn't a success, not by far.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

$5000 USD? That's only 2466 GBP. Pretty good if you ask me!


I just read that air fares went up yet again yesterday with fuel surcharges, etc.

Those prices are if you visit during term time, the prices spike every time there's a school holiday, an August trip will cost £800 each for air fare if your kids are over 12.


I want to know what strange seasonal winds or planet surface shrink-age occurs during term time that allows the planes to fly for 50% less!

 

[slappy magoo]

Does this list account for every person who enters the park or every person who purchases a ticket? For instance, an annual passholder may visit 60 times in 2007. Does anyone know if it counts this person 60 times or just once?


And yes, this country is definitely in a recession. The number of foreign visitors you see at Central Florida theme parks is staggering.

I'd suspect the number's based on each time that turnstile clicks forward, not unique individual visitors. I'd also suspect people who park hop add one number to each park each day. SO the 17 million might also include, for example, people going into the MK JUST for morning or evening EMH, then spending the rest of the day in another park, or people who spent the day in a different park, have dinner ressies in a monorail resort, and decide to pop in and try to get one or two more rides under their belt (something we do quite a bit).

I'm not trying to discount the impressive number, I'm just saying not every visitor is a from opening to closing ride monster. There could be quite a few brief visitors hiding in that number. The parks being part of an overall resort afford visitors that luxury. Whereas Six Flags, Cedar Point or other seasonal parks are often single day destinations. The numbers will be lower there for all sorts of reasons (#1 probably being: They're not Disney suckas, lest the hard core on the forum think I'm a troll or hatah ), but I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage of people in those parks from open to close is higher than at Disney parks as a result.