Theme Park attendance estimates released - Record 112 Million Visit Disney Parks

[crazy4wdw]

Theme Park attendance estimates released

posted by Scott Powers on Apr 4, 2007 11:47:12 AM

The new Expedition Everest roller coaster helped boost Disney's Animal Kingdom's attendance by 8.6 percent to 8.9 million people last year, the largest jump at any major theme park, according to new estimates produced by TEA Inc. and Economics Research Associates for Park World and InPark magazines.

Their 2006 theme park attendance research continues annual work ERA did for many years for Amusement Business magazine until that publication closed last year. In most cases, including with Disney and Busch Entertainment parks, attendance figures are never publicly released. The unofficial ERA estimates are the most-commonly cited and rarely publicly-contested numbers within the industry.

As usual, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom came out on top in 2006, with an estimated 16.6 million visitors. The rest of the top 10 North American parks were: Disneyland (14.7 million,) Epcot (10.4 million,) Disney-MGM Studios (9.1 million,) Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios Orlando (6 million,) Disney's California Adventure (5.9 million,) SeaWorld Orlando (5.7 million,) Islands of Adventure (5.3 million) and Universal Studios Hollywood (4.7 million.)

 

[crazy4wdw]

From Local6.com (WKMG in Orlando)

Record 112 Million Guests Visited Disney Theme Parks Worldwide

More Than 60 Million Visited Central Fla. Attractions

An estimated 112 million people traveled to Disney theme parks worldwide last year, setting a record, according to a new amusement industry survey.

The report showed that Disney's Magic Kingdom was the most visited theme park in the nation with an estimated 16.6 million guests.


Disneyland in California was the second most visited park in the survey followed by Epcot, Disney-MGM and Animal Kingdom.

The report showed that all of the parks welcomed more guests than the year before, Local 6 reported.

Universal-Orlando finished in sixth place in the survey, which is up slightly from the year before and SeaWorld-Orlando was also up, the report said.

The survey showed that only Universal's Island's of Adventure dropped in attendance.

It was also estimated that 62 million people visited Central Florida theme parks last year.

 

[erikthewise]

A link to the figures:

http://www.connectingindustry.com/pdfs/TEA-ERAAttendance06.pdf

 

[YoHo]

So Disney finally beat their pre-9/11 figure.

 

[MJMcBride]

It does seem more crowded

I noticed DAK had the biggest increase (probably E:E and has narrowed the gap with MGM

http://www.mouseextra.com/category/extra-extra/

 

[raidermatt]

It does seem more crowded

I noticed DAK had the biggest increase (probably E:E and has narrowed the gap with MGM

http://www.mouseextra.com/category/extra-extra/

I'd be surprised if AK doesn't pass MGM in '07. The Nemo show is still fairly new, the Yak on the Yeti restaurant will open this summer, and MGM's TSMania doesn't open until '08.

 

[Big Dipper]

The OP has mixed numbers for DAK. At one point it says 8.9 million. Later it says 6 million. Which one is correct?

I find the DCA numbers interesting. For all the bashing this park receives, it is still in the top 10? Sure it's not close to Disneyland's numbers, but it still beat out 2 Universal parks and only one non-Disney park had higher numbers
(100,000) than DCA.

 

[raidermatt]

The OP has mixed numbers for DAK. At one point it says 8.9 million. Later it says 6 million. Which one is correct?

I think the 6 million is actualy for USF. The quote has no number after AK, which was just an oversite. It's 8.9.

I find the DCA numbers interesting. For all the bashing this park receives, it is still in the top 10? Sure it's not close to Disneyland's numbers, but it still beat out 2 Universal parks and only one non-Disney park had higher numbers
(100,000) than DCA.

True, but we have to look at the numbers in context. It's across form DL, which drew nearly 15 million people and admission is sometimes free when you purchase a DL ticket. If it had to stand on its own, it would certainly drop back in the pack. Conversely, put another park a few short steps from DL and certainly its numbers would improve.

The company itself has admitted the park has issues and needs fixing. It's one thing when Disney claims a success in spite of the facts, but in this case, they are acknowledging the problem, so we should probably just agree with them.

 

[Big Dipper]

I think the 6 million is actualy for USF. The quote has no number after AK, which was just an oversite. It's 8.9.

Thanks. The way I read it looked like AK and USF were both in the 6M category. I'm glad to see that AK attendence is picking up. I think it can take up to ten years for a park to find it's audience.

True, but we have to look at the numbers in context. It's across form DL, which drew nearly 15 million people and admission is sometimes free when you purchase a DL ticket. If it had to stand on its own, it would certainly drop back in the pack. Conversely, put another park a few short steps from DL and certainly its numbers would improve.

The company itself has admitted the park has issues and needs fixing. It's one thing when Disney claims a success in spite of the facts, but in this case, they are acknowledging the problem, so we should probably just agree with them.

I agree with your statement and agree that mistakes were made with DCA. But given it's proximity to DL and it's reputation, how much repeat business is it getting? Do people skip the park on return visits, forcing the attendence numbers to come from somewhere else? Or do people just drop in to DCA to ride Soarin', Screamin', ToT and GRR, see Aladdin and then leave? I like to stretch my day out there as much, but I admit it's not that easy to do without variety.

 

[raidermatt]

It seems that it gets repeat business from AP holders who hit the major rides and sometimes catch the Electrical Parade. Also the locals who take advantage of the various promotions that run, like the "buy one park day get a second at the other park free".

Then it also seems to get business from out-of-state visitors, who don't know as much about the park before they enter, and also don't seem to end up as down on it after they visit it. Nobody says it's of the same standard as DL, but to an out of state visitor, at least the overall California experience is somewhat unique to them.

 

[dvc_john]

Stupid question:

When you visit more than 1 park in a day (park hopper or AP), how do they count that? One for each park visited, or just one for the day (1st park visited?)?

Guess this question would apply mainly to WDW, DLR, and USF/IOA.

 

[raidermatt]

It's actually a very good question.

Since Disney doesn't release attendance figures, as far as I know we only have "unofficial" info on how they count it.

But everything seems to point to them counting the first park entered only.

 

[YoHo]

Which would still inflate numbers.

For instance, I have a DL AP, and often, We'll go on Soarin first thing which means I count as a visit to DCA for the day even though I only spent like 20-30 minutes in the park.

 

[raidermatt]

Which would still inflate numbers.

For instance, I have a DL AP, and often, We'll go on Soarin first thing which means I count as a visit to DCA for the day even though I only spent like 20-30 minutes in the park.

Yup, the norm for park hoppers is to go to DCA first, which would not only inflate DCA's number, but also suppress DL's number.

 

[MJMcBride]

I'd be surprised if AK doesn't pass MGM in '07. The Nemo show is still fairly new, the Yak on the Yeti restaurant will open this summer, and MGM's TSMania doesn't open until '08.

I always thought DAK was the better park anyway

 

[Disneybag]

I always thought DAK was the better park anyway

I'd agree with that. For me, there isn't much past Sunset at MGM. At least AK makes me walk from side of the park to the other to visit my favorite attractions.

 

[raidermatt]

I always thought DAK was the better park anyway

I think MGM could have been a lot more than what its become. Certainly AK is more cohesive. There's issues there, but not like with MGM. AK also has a logical layout, unlike MGM.

They're both way short on attractions.

For me personally, I like the feel of AK better, but MGM still has better attractions. Though I've yet to see the Nemo musical.

 

[wdw4us2]

Well, MGM has certainly gone downhill in the past few years. Attractions close with nothing to replace them. Plus, they have gone too far away from the original intent - seeing and learning how they do things in the movies and TV.

They've closed Superstar Television, Hunchback of Notre Dame show, Animation Tour (the current one is a joke), The Lottery Winner/Honey I Shrunk the Kids Stunt, The Monster Sound Show (Sounds Dangerous is a great place for a nap).

It just seems like after they put in ToT and RnR they gave up on their original concept completely.

 

[DC7800]

Counting only the first park visited in a day would indeed seem to hurt DL (and Epcot), while helping DCA and perhaps Animal Kingdom - the 'half-day' park argument, where you spend the rest of the day somewhere else (like an evening at Epcot, perhaps, but only AK gets 'credit' for the visit).

DCA, already an admitted failure, looks even worse when you realize a significant portion of its attendance is really just DL visitors that it got the attendance credit for (instead of DL).

But would such distinctions be accurately reflected in the estimated ERA numbers? They lack access to WDW's park-hopping statistics, potentially making it difficult to determine just which park gets 'credit' for a guest visit.

ERA's figures are said to be rarely questioned, but how do they arrive at their figures?

 

[dunnhorn]

If their numbers are up to pre-9/11 numbers, then they need to reopen some restaurants and add more services. PLEASE. Restaurants like Spoodles (remember the fabulous brunch) and Ariel's (at Beach club) as well as others started limiting meals and offerings shortly after 9/11 when the parks were deserted.

We were there last week and it was CROWDED. Yet, many of the food vendors in EPCOT were closed! If we were seeing record crowd numbers and the vendors were not open, just when was Disney planning on selling food from these places?

We had to wait in like for 40 minutes for food at the Electric Umbrella.