2019 Theme Park attendance figures

[rteetz]

http://www.teaconnect.org/Blog/TEA-Blog/index.cfm?ID=8520&redirect=y
Everyone’s favorite time of year!

 

[AvidDisReader]

Saw this early today, notice the increase in Hollywood Studios with only a small number of months of Star Wars open. Animal Kingdom still doing nicely with the help of Pandora. Darn that Pandemic, I can only imagine what attendance would be in 2020 we were not all shut down.

 

[rteetz]

Saw this early today, notice the increase in Hollywood Studios with only a small number of months of Star Wars open. Animal Kingdom still doing nicely with the help of Pandora. Darn that Pandemic, I can only imagine what attendance would be in 2020 we were not all shut down.

Agreed. Especially with Rise now open. You had 15-16 days if that of operation for Rise in 2019. Had we had a normal year in 2020 I think DHS would’ve seen a nice boost.

 

[rteetz]

Since I love looking at these numbers even though they are estimates.

Disney parks worldwide saw a -0.8% change. Merlin was second who owns parks like Legoland with a 0.9% increase. Universal parks globally saw a 2.3% increase. SeaWorld even saw a slight increase 0.2%.

Individual parks
1. MK +0.5% 20,963,000
2. DL 0 18,666,000
3. Tokyo DL 0 17,910,000
4. DisneySea 0 14,650,000
5. Uni Japan +1.4% 14,500,000
6. AK +1% 13,888,000
7. Epcot 0 12,444,000
9. DHS +2% 11,483,000
10. Shanghai -5.0% 11,210,000
11. Uni Orlando +2.0% 10,922,000
12. Islands +6% 10,375,000
13. DCA 0 9,861,000
14. DLP -1.0% 9,745,000
15. Uni Hollywood 0 9,147,000
21. HKDL -15% 5,695,000
23. Walt Disney Studios -1% 5,245,000

Water Parks
2. Typhoon -1% 2,248,000
3. Blizzard -1% 1,983,000
7. Volcano Bay +5% 1,811,000

So a few things stand out to me. Hong Kong struggling BIG TIME. Between political unrest and now the pandemic that park is in a world of hurt.

Disneyland didn’t move at all with SWGE being added. I guess I didn’t expect big increases there but surprised it didn’t move at all.

Shanghai must be losing its newness luster.

Paris parks dropped minimally but obviously something to watch there.

Universal continues to grow on all fronts for the most part. I’m really interested to see how Nintendo does in Japan and then in Hollywood. Will Japan pass DisneySea?

 

[BrianL]

Disneyland didn’t move at all with SWGE being added. I guess I didn’t expect big increases there but surprised it didn’t move at all.

That's not too shocking to me. The local DL folks go there anyway, SWGE or not. I think people planning big trips wanted to wait for the WDW version, which did bump HS it seems. DL is just such a different animal - honestly, I don't know that they needed to build SWGE there at all. Sure, there are hardcore folks like me that take trips there, but, again, I would with or without SWGE.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Thanks for posting. This is always interesting to look at.

 

[Jrb1979]

My take away is SWGE wasn't as big a draw as Hagrids was for Universal.

 

[rteetz]

My take away is SWGE wasn't as big a draw as Hagrids was for Universal.

I think it’s really hard to compare the two. Rise didn’t open until December and Hagrid’s opened in June.

 

[Jrb1979]

I think it’s really hard to compare the two. Rise didn’t open until December and Hagrid’s opened in June.

What I do find interesting is at some parks new attractions increase attendance where at others they don't do much. Universal and Disneyland in California are both locals parks. Both added new attractions. One saw an increase in attendance and they other was flat. I'm not trying to make this a Universal vs. Disney debate. It happens at regional parks too.

My local park added a dive coaster last season and saw a big jump in attendance. Yet Six Flags Great America added one of the fastest coasters in the US and didn't see much change at all. Just curious as to why that happens?

 

[rteetz]

What I do find interesting is at some parks new attractions increase attendance where at others they don't do much. Universal and Disneyland in California are both locals parks. Both added new attractions. One saw an increase in attendance and they other was flat. I'm not trying to make this a Universal vs. Disney debate. It happens at regional parks too.

My local park added a dive coaster last season and saw a big jump in attendance. Yet Six Flags Great America added one of the fastest coasters in the US and didn't see much change at all. Just curious as to why that happens?

And 2020 will give us next to nothing to compare too.

 

[ShadeDK]

After posting earlier in the News thread, I looked at a few other TEA reports. Here are the attendance bumps at Orlando parks in the year they opened new lands (all opened in their respective summers between June -August):

Hogsmeade - IoA (2010): +30%
Diagon Alley - USO (2014): +17%
Pandora - AK (2017): +16%
Toy Story Land - DHS (2018): +5%
Galaxy’s Edge - DHS (2019): +2%

Although there are plenty of variables to try and explain differences (and not just that RotR hadn’t opened), the fact that Galaxy’s Edge generated a fraction of the attendance increases of comparable lands is still somewhat shocking.

 

[rteetz]

After posting earlier in the News thread, I looked at a few other TEA reports. Here are the attendance bumps at Orlando parks in the year they opened new lands (all opened in their respective summers between June -August):

Hogsmeade - IoA (2010): +30%
Diagon Alley - USO (2014): +17%
Pandora - AK (2017): +16%
Toy Story Land - DHS (2018): +5%
Galaxy’s Edge - DHS (2019): +2%

Although there are plenty of variables to try and explain differences (and not just that RotR hadn’t opened), the fact that Galaxy’s Edge generated a fraction of the attendance increases of comparable lands is still somewhat shocking.

My biggest question would what would’ve it been like had RotR opened with the land. DHS obviously needed more and it got it with TSL and SWGE. I wonder if there was any sort of impact with building two. Would have the west coasters come to WDW if they only built it at DHS or vice versa?

 

[skeeter31]

My biggest question would what would’ve it been like had RotR opened with the land. DHS obviously needed more and it got it with TSL and SWGE. I wonder if there was any sort of impact with building two. Would have the west coasters come to WDW if they only built it at DHS or vice versa?

Agree and seeing a full 2020 would have been so important in fully seeing the bump it would have provided. Now it could be years before we really see if SWGE provided the bump they were going for.

 

[rteetz]

Agree and seeing a full 2020 would have been so important in fully seeing the bump it would have provided. Now it could be years before we really see if SWGE provided the bump they were going for.

And likely more changes than SWGE will impact that.

 

[Upatnoon]

I think part of the issue for SWGE was people avoiding it in fear of massive crowds.

Another issue is that one attraction can't really drive big crowds to a Disney park because they already draw big crowds, especially with the economy strong. It's just harder to point to one thing moving the needle on attendance.

 

[rteetz]

I think part of the issue for SWGE was people avoiding it in fear of massive crowds.

Another issue is that one attraction can't really drive big crowds to a Disney park because they already draw big crowds, especially with the economy strong. It's just harder to point to one thing moving the needle on attendance.

Flight of passage has done just that. People aren’t going to Pandora for NRJ lol.

 

[ShadeDK]

My biggest question would what would’ve it been like had RotR opened with the land. DHS obviously needed more and it got it with TSL and SWGE. I wonder if there was any sort of impact with building two. Would have the west coasters come to WDW if they only built it at DHS or vice versa?

Agreed - no doubt opening the land as a complete whole would have closed the gap significantly (having watched and been part of those increased crowds once RotR opened). Not too worried about DHS going forward - but it does raise some interesting questions. Not the least of which is whether Disney should have built a $1B land (twice!) or just a really, really good ride. I like GE and glad they built it, but on its own without RotR it didn’t seem to draw attendance.

 

[Upatnoon]

Attendance is just one part of the Disney equation. it's part of the overall plan to keep the Star Wars brand relevant for years. Plus they have their plans for the Star Wars hotel.

 

[CastAStone]

Disneyland didn’t move at all with SWGE being added. I guess I didn’t expect big increases there but surprised it didn’t move at all.

It didn't but I'm not sure that was the goal. I think the goal was to increase revenue, not attendance. Signature APs are 20% more expensive than they were in early 2019 (and 41% more than 12 months before that, after SWGE was announced). Deluxe increased 34% since early 2018. Merch sales had to be way up. IDK but I think they're probably happy with it.

 

[Upatnoon]

It didn't but I'm not sure that was the goal. I think the goal was to increase revenue, not attendance. Signature APs are 20% more expensive than they were in early 2019 (and 41% more than 12 months before that, after SWGE was announced). Deluxe increased 34% since early 2018. Merch sales had to be way up. IDK but I think they're probably happy with it.

You make an excellent point. Many of the moves Disney makes isn't to boost attendance, it's to boost revenue. Maintaining attendance while charging more for everything from tickets to food to merchandise.

The want to maximize profit and guest experience without have to spend too much on capital project to expand the parks to hold more people.