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The global market for theme parks has behaved rather well in 2012. These are the conclusions of the 2012 Theme Index report released last week by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and AECOM.
As a real annual barometer of the industry, the Global Attractions Attendance Report annually analyzes the evolution of the sector by studying the attendance figures of the major theme parks and water parks in different geographic areas of the world. These statistics are collected directly from the operators or are obtained on the basis of administrative documents that AECOM experts use to identify the trends and the key events that they consider to understand the mechanics of growth.
A changing market
First observation: although there are significant differences between regions of the world, the lights are green largely. See for yourselves: in 2012, the top 25 theme parks - all countries included - have welcomed 205.9 million visitors or 5.2% more than the previous year. As for the water parks, the top 15 parks worldwide have noted a 5.4% increase in the number of admissions at 25 million visitors.
By observing the ten largest global attractions operators, the figures are even more impressive: 357.8 million visitors (+6.7% compared to 2011). The latter have posted attendance levels from +0.9% for Cedar Fair Entertainment Group to +24.5% for the Chinese Haichang Group which made a sensational debut in the ninth place in the standings at the expense of Herschend Entertainment.
Properties of the Walt Disney Company are unassailable heading the global market by totalling 126.48 million visitors (+4.7%). Walt Disney World Resort still reports the highest concentration of visitors with 48.5 million admissions while Disneyland Resort has, for its part, welcomed 23.7 million guests, a significant increase in attendance of over a million.
The British operator Merlin Entertainments Group continues to cling to second place in the world ranking with 54 million visitors (+16.4%), mainly due to the performance of the LEGOLAND theme parks (+33%) and the 'Miday attractions' among which are the SEA LIFE aquariums, the Madame Tussauds wax museums and the family entertainment centres LEGO Discovery Centres.
The world ranking of operators then remains unchanged from 2011 with Universal Studios Recreation Group in third position (+7.9%) followed by Parque Reunidos (+3.5%), Six Flags Entertainment (+6%), SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (+3%), Cedar Fair Entertainment (+0.9%) and OCT Parks (+7.5%). Finally, the French operator Compagnie des Alpes retains its tenth place with an attendance up slightly by 1% to 9.3 million admissions.
Asia: ready to surpass the North American market
Once again, it is Asia that holds all the attention of observers with a solid 5.8% increase in attendance of the top 20 theme parks in the region to 108.7 million visitors.
The Asian market is still dominated by the two theme parks of Tokyo Disney Resort that reported spectacular record results by welcoming over 2 million extra visitors, finally sweeping aside the negative effects of the earthquake of 2011. The other three winners of the year in the Asia-Pacific region are: Universal Studios Japan (3rd in ranking) which grew by a staggering 14% (9.7 million visitors) with the addition of the children's area Universal Wonderland, Hong Kong Disneyland (6th) which noted an attendance increase of 13.6% due to the opening of the Grizzly Gulch themed area, and Songcheng Park (11th) that took advantage, too, of an expansion to welcome 14.2% of additional guests.
Theme parks like Everland (5th) and Lotte World (7th) in South Korea or Ocean Park (4th) in Hong Kong have also performed well marking the success of their investment policy. OCT Parks also continued its intensive development with the opening of a new park in Wuhan, China while another is about to open this year in Tianjin.
The business model that is trending in Asia is clearly the creation of full holiday destinations that feature theme parks, water parks hotel resorts and many related activities such as shopping malls, casinos or cultural centers. There are already many resorts of this kind in the region (including Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore which has, for example, continued to expand in 2012 with the opening of an aquarium) while many projects are in the pipeline. Indoor amusement parks are also very popular: they require less space, they can more easily settle in cities and complement other leisure activities such as shopping or going to the cinema.
The growth potential of the Asian market is therefore very important. According to experts from AECOM, the Chinese market is expected to surpass soon the North American market in term of attendance levels. “I wouldn’t want to box myself into predicting a specific year,
but we will hit a milestone with the opening of Shanghai Disney in 2015,” explains John Robinett, Senior Vice President Economics at AECOM. “Assuming that the Shanghai Disney opening will be consistent with the openings of other major Disney parks in large international markets, it’s reasonable to expect something in the neighborhood of 10 million attendance in its first year. It will be the largest theme park development in China to date and can be expected to put Asia within striking distance of surpassing North American theme park attendance totals.”
Early signs are there: in 2012, the attendance level of the top 15 water parks in Asia already surpassed the top 15 North American water parks!
Europe: resilient despite the unstable situation
Looking at the figures published by the TEA / AECOM report, Europe is the only market where growth has been non-existent in 2012. The overall attendance of the top 20 theme parks in the region is even slightly down 0.3% to 58 million against 58.2 million visitors in 2011.
If the old continent seems to resist the prevailing economic slump - the six major parks of the ranking actually posted attendance from +0.5% for PortAventura to +2.2% for Europa-Park - it is mainly the disastrous weather who sealed the figures of many parks both north and south. Thus, Futuroscope in France (14th) lost 2.4% of visitors, Liseberg in Sweden (7th) 3.4%, Grönalund in Sweden (17) 3.8% and Heide Park in Germany (20th) over 7%! Phantasialand (12th) remained stable at 1.75 million admissions.
Meanwhile, Italian parks suffered the austerity measures taken by the government including a new tax which reduced household spending in leisure. The results are felt for both parks listed in the European top 20: Gardaland (8th) and Mirabilandia (18th) which welcomed respectively 10% and 6.1% less visitors compared to last year.
Another striking fact: the negative impact of the London Olympics on the attendance levels of several major English parks. Indeed, tourists and local visitors have focused on sports events rather than on the attractions. Alton Towers (9th) and Thorpe Park (11th) saw their attendance drop by 9.4 and 10% despite significant investments (including the wing coaster The Swarm for the second). In addition, the cold and rainy weather has led many British citizens to cancel their holiday or day outs according to the tourism office VisitEngland!
Three theme parks have however emerged from the European lot and made good performances: Parc Asterix in France (+8%), Puy du Fou also in France (+6.7%) and LEGOLAND Windsor in UK (+5.3%). According to AECOM analysts, the keys to this success are due to smart investment and good marketing strategy. Parc Asterix has expanded 10% of its park by opening a new themed area with the Inverted Coaster OzIris targeting a young clientele while LEGOLAND Resort has successfully entered into the category of holiday destinations by opening a themed hotel resort. As for Puy du Fou, he took advantage of the Thea Classic Awards received by the TEA in late 2011 to highlight the uniqueness of its concept in commercial campaigns, coupled with a new family attraction.
North America: encouraging return to growth
Top 20 theme parks in the North America region (of which only the 13th ranked Canada's Wonderland is not located in the United States) have welcomed overall 131.6 million visitors in 2012, ie. 4.6 million (+ 3 6%) more than the previous year. Knowing a second consecutive year of growth at this level, the market accumulates positive signs just like the U.S. economy (GDP up 1.4%) after suffering the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008.
In 2011, the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando represented, alone, almost half the increase in North American attendance. It thus proved to the entire industry that the realization of a risky investment in times of crisis was a gamble that paid off. This was observed again in 2012, but this time with three theme parks (Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood and Magic Kingdom) that have fully benefited of big investment to achieve significant performance. By themselves, they indeed represent 57% of the increase in attendance of the area.
Attendance at Disney California Adventure (7th in the ranking) jumped 22.6% (1.4 million visitors) to stand at 7.725 million admissions thanks to the opening of Cars Land themed area and its attraction iconic Radiator Springs Racer that drew the crowds and the attention of the industry (TEA awarded them two Thea Awards).
Also in California, Universal Studios Hollywood attracted more than 750,000 additional visitors (+15%) following the addition of the dark ride Transformers The Ride 3D (also winner of a Thea Award). The park now occupies the ninth place in the top 20 North American and exceeds Seaworld Florida (also up 3%).
Finally, the world's most popular theme park - Magic Kingdom in Florida - drew nearly 400,000 additional visitors (+2.1%) to reach more than 17.5 million admissions after the opening of the first part of the New Fantasyland attractions including Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid and Enchanted Tales with Belle.
In the rest of the ranking, the TEA / AECOM report notes increases in attendance levels from +1.5% for Busch Gardens Tampa (12th) to +6.5% for Hersheypark (17th). Only two parks are reported down beginning with Disneyland (2nd, down -1.1% to 15.63 million visitors) due to the effect of 'Cars Land' and Knott's Berry Farm (14th), which lost 4% of visitors due to the closure of several attractions (including Perilous Plunge) in order to create a new area in 2013.
Commenting on the current trend in North America, AECOM's Economics Vice President Americas Brian Sands says “As this part of the world continues to pull out of recession, we should see a return to people taking longer vacations and traveling further. Sensitivity on pricing is going to remain for a while — however, with technologies and practices such as online ticketing, installment payments and credit wristbands parks are finding ways to cross psychological spending barriers. It’s important that visitors perceive value for their money. Discounting and packaging will continue to be important. There is room for additional, specialized, add-on and VIP experiences in attractions and we should continue to see more of those.”
Rest of the world: positive signs of development
To conclude this overview of the global market of theme parks, the report provides, as every year, a few figures about the region of South America. The latino market is up 2.6% to 13.2 million visitors for the top 10 parks in the area (of which three are located in Mexico and three in Brazil), but with contrasting results between sites (from +42.9% for Beto Carrero World to -13% for El Salitre Magico). This is Six Flags Mexico which continues to lead the ranking with 2.31 million visitors (+5%)
AECOM experts also underline that the promising market of the Middle East gave signs of growth in 2012. Optimism is back for investors and many projects are being developed, mainly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Here are the tables showing the rankings of the top 20 theme parks in North America, Europe and Asia (click to enlarge):
We note in conclusion of this article that the TEA / AECOM report studies for the first time in its history the attendance level of the global top museums. Interesting fact in Europe: the 20 top museums have welcomed 98 million visitors or 69% more than the top 20 theme parks!
Read more : If you want more details, the TEA / AECOM 2012 Theme Index report is available for free on TEA official website (PDF)
Editor's Note : Some of 2011 figures have been adjusted, including those of Merlin Entertainment Group's theme parks that has brought new information. It is therefore possible to see some differences between the figures in this article and the ones we published last year.
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NewsParcs will do a full coverage of the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 in Orlando to have a look at the latest trends and developments of the global theme park industry.
Properties of the Walt Disney Company are unassailable heading the global market by totalling 126.48 million visitors (+4.7%). Walt Disney World Resort still reports the highest concentration of visitors with 48.5 million admissions while Disneyland Resort has, for its part, welcomed 23.7 million guests, a significant increase in attendance of over a million.
