2011 Theme Park Attendance Report Out

[sir clinksalot]

And it's an interesting one to be sure.

You can check out the report here: http://www.teaconnect.org/pdf/2011Report.pdf

Top 10 Theme Parks Chains:
Walt Disney Attractions - 121.40 million
Merlin Entertainment Group - 46.40 million
Universal Studios Recreation Group - 30.80 million
Parques Reunidos - 26.22 million
Six Flags Inc - 24.30 million
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment - 23.60 million
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company - 23.40 million
OCT Parks China - 21.73 million
Herschend Entertainment - 9.50 million
Compagnie des Alpes - 9.21 million

Top 25 Worldwide parks: (4.8 percent growth over 2010)
Magic Kingdom - 17,142,000
Disneyland - 16,140,000
Tokyo Disneyland - 13,996,000
Tokyo Disney Sea - 11,930,000
Disneyland Paris - 10,990,000
EPCOT - 10,825,000
Disney's Animal Kingdom - 9,783,000
Disney's Hollywood Studios - 9,699,000
Universal Studios Japan - 8,500,000
Islands of Adventure - 7,674,000
Lotte World (South Korea) - 7,580,000
Ocean Park (Hong Kong) - 6,955,000
Everland (South Korea) - 6,570,000
Disney California Adventure - 6,341,000
Universal Studios Florida - 6,044,000
Hong Kong Disneyland - 5,900,000
Nagashima Spa Land (Japan) - 5,820,000
Seaworld Florida - 5,202,000
Universal Studios Hollywood - 5,141,000
Walt Disney Studios Park - 4,710,000
Europa Park (Germany) - 4,500,000
SeaWorld San Diego - 4,294,000
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay - 4,284,000
De Efteling (Netherlands) - 4,125,000
Tivoli Gardens (Denmark) - 3,963,000

Top 20 North American Theme Parks: (2.9 percent growth over 2010)
Magic Kingdom - 17,142,000
Disneyland - 16,140,000
EPCOT - 10,825,000
Disney's Animal Kingdom - 9,783,000
Disney's Hollywood Studios - 9,699,000
Islands of Adventure - 7,674,000
Disney California Adventure - 6,341,000
Universal Studios Florida - 6,044,000
Seaworld Florida - 5,202,000
Universal Studios Hollywood - 5,141,000
SeaWorld San Diego - 4,294,000
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay - 4,284,000
Knott's Berry Farm - 3,654,000
Canada's Wonderland - 3,481,000
Kings Island - 3,143,000
Cedar Point - 3,143,000
Hershey Park - 2,949,000
Busch Gardens Williamsburg - 2,744,000
Six Flags Magic Mountain - 2,700,000
SeaWorld Texas - 2,600,000

[Trav1Disney]

crazy that the mk only beat dl by a little less than a million

[sir clinksalot]

Even more shocking that DL beat DCA by over 10 million. But since they only count the "first click" on park hoppers, and DL has always been open earlier than DCA, maybe it's not that surprising.

It will be interesting to see the numbers next year with Cars Land and that DCA will be opening at the same time as DL.

[wali]

Don't know how accurate are the Disney domestic park numbers as all their theme/water parks except Epcot had the same 1% increase (Epcot number was unchanged). I heard that Disney is only releasing overall US numbers moving forward so this may be what it is.

[EC82]

IOA is up significantly yet again. Little Mermaid did nothing for DCA -- which doesn't mean it was a failure, as much as, DCA has a ceiling on how many people visit it. And not much impacts that ceiling. We'll see about Cars Land. As for Disneyland ... how many more people can you pack into a park that size before people start saying, "Enough is enough." The crowds are ridiculous. And getting worse every day, thanks to APs (myself included). It's to the point that I almost don't even enjoy going anymore except for random rainy Tuesdays in February.

[jcruise86]

THANK YOU for starting this tread, Sir Clinksalot!
Here again is a link to this article:
http://www.teaconnect.org/pdf/2011Report.pdf

I've make this point before, but the most successful (top 3
& top 4 out of 5) parks are Disney parks with Main Street's leading to castles.
So since this is by far the world's most successful park (if not done half-a--ed like in Hong Kong),
if I were the CEO of Disney and owned 51% of its shares, I would build five more of these around the world (in this order: the NE, South Korea, Brazil, the MW, and London), and make each one so excellent, impressive and UNIQUE, that visiting one would inspire guests with the means to visit others. Taking my wife to Disneyland for her first time motivated her to go to Walt Disney World for her first time.

The 13 most popular parks in North America are all open year-round, so if a park in the NE or MW wants to crack the top ten, it should be able to have enough indoor areas to be open in the winter.

Interesting that IOA had another HUGE increase! Good Harry Potter word of mouth.

For all the praise for Tokyo Disney Sea on Miceage, Tokyo' Disneyland's Magic Kingdom still attracts slightly more guests.

I'm surprised that 4.7 million visited Disney's awful studios park in Paris, it's the only Disney park that has ever made me depressed. I hope it improves.

[Not My Real Name]

The link doesn't work and it's apparently their fault because I couldn't access it even from their homepage.

[cruise]

Little Mermaid did nothing for DCA -- which doesn't mean it was a failure, as much as, DCA has a ceiling on how many people visit it.

Not necessarily. If this data only counts "first click" as others have said, DCA's late opening and tendency to be the second park may be a factor... especially since this isn't WDW where the parks are so spread out and park-hopping is not as often used. Unlike WDW, DL and DCA are essentially one park due to their proximity, and guests simply enter DL first because it is open earlier.

I think once both parks open at the same time next year we may actually see DL decrease while DCA increases. Probably will be the same number of guests, but that opening at the same time should effect distribution

[sir clinksalot]

^ Agreed. As I said, next years numbers are going to be interesting for DL/DCA.

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

Ocean Park still leads over Hong Kong Disneyland as the number one themepark in Hong Kong. That is very sad. Ocean Park is one of the worst places I have ever visited... I have been to some baaad places.