Monday, December 26, 2005
Fun continues for theme parks
Attendance up 4.2 percent in 2005
MIKE SCHNEIDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AP file photo
Castle at Disney's Magic Kingdom. |
ORLANDO — Powered by strong investment in new rides, the 50th anniversary of Disneyland and a hurricane season that bypassed the theme park capital of Orlando, attendance at North America’s 50 most popular amusement parks rose 4.2 percent in 2005.
An estimated 176 million visitors went to North America’s most popular parks, according to an annual survey to be released today by the trade publication Amusement Business and the research firm Economics Research Associates.
Worldwide, amusement park attendance increased 2.2 percent to 253 million visitors in 2005.
Neither a rainy spring in California nor a parade of destructive hurricanes in the southeast slowed down growth in the $10 billion industry, which had strong momentum from last year, the first year attendance had increased since the Sept. 11 attacks hobbled the U.S. tourism and travel industry.
Most major parks don’t release their attendance figures, but the Amusement Business numbers are considered the most reliable estimates in the industry.
Those parks that acquired new rides in 2005 saw their investments pay off while those parks that had an off-year in their capital investment cycle, for the most part, experienced attendance dips, said James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business.
Universal’s two parks in Orlando, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures, each saw declines of 8 1/2 percent, while Universal Studios Hollywood had an attendance dip of 6 percent. All three parks came off strong attendance increases in 2004 and the parks in 2005 didn’t introduce an excitement-generating thrill ride comparable to 2004’s Revenge of the Mummy ride.
“There was an appetite and sometimes you don’t want to miss out on that when there is that appetite, if you’re in a rebound kind of year,” Zoltak said. “Universal was left a little flat-footed because they did their big Revenge of the Mummy rollout the year before.”
Amusement Business also said a worldwide marketing juggernaut highlighting the 50th anniversary of Disneyland at Disney’s parks around the world may also have siphoned off some attendance at the Universal parks.
Disney’s four parks in Florida and two parks in California benefited from the celebration with new rides, stage shows and parades. The Florida parks had attendance increases of between 5 percent and 6 1/2 percent, while Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif. respectively saw growth of 8 1/2 percent and 3.6 percent.
The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando, with 16.1 million visitors, and Disneyland in California, with 14.5 million visitors, were not only the two most visited parks in North America in 2005, but they were the best-attended parks in the world. In North America, the remaining top five spots were filled out with Disney’s other Florida parks: Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.
Disney parks in the United States, Japan and France took up the top eight spots in attendance worldwide.
Serial story: THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE