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TEA Attendance Report - 2015

Dar

Dar

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Taron
This year's attendance report has been released and it makes for mixed reading for Merlin.

Alton Towers attendance was down 25% on 2014 and down 1% over the last 10 years
Thorpe Park was down 11%
BUT
Chessington was up 2.5%
Heide was up 3.4%
and Gardaland was up 3.6%

As a group, Merlin remains 2nd only to Disney™ but with slower growth at only 0.2%.

So The Smiler's accident seems to have had an effect on the thrill seekers and teen families but not so much the young families that visit Chessington. It also seems to have been a very localised reaction with most parks in Europe reporting increases.

Europa Park was up 10% on 2014!
Phantasialand was up 3%
Efteling was up 6.4%!
Interestingly, Parque Warner was also up 12.4%!

In America, Disney dominated as usual but Universal Orlando posted a 16% increase too. The wonders of Potter :p

Seaworld Orlando was up 2% but Seaworld San Diego was down 7%.

In Asia, Disney was actually down an average of 5.6% across the three parks in the region. Universal was up 17.8%. The wonder of Potter :p

http://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_159_241229_160525.pdf
http://www.aecom.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2015_Theme_Index__Museum_Index.pdf

Edited to add new link after the original broke
 
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It’s crazy to think that Legoland is Britain’s most visited theme park when it’s so light on ride hardware. A decent family coaster, a reasonable kiddie coaster, an OK log flume, an OK rapids and a couple of mediocre dark rides. But some of the children’s rides are very inventive and the stunt show’s a lot of fun.

It’s interesting that Legoland Germany must get significantly fewer visitors than Windsor or Billund.
 
I'm not surprised that Towers and Thorpe have had a massive drop attendances. The former shows how hard it's been hit by the Smiler's crash and I though it'd be lower. Surprised Chessie's gone up though.

Pleased for Europa however. And nice to see Parque Warner get a decent increase!
 
Funcone said:
It’s interesting that Legoland Germany must get significantly fewer visitors than Windsor or Billund.
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It feels like the unloved child of the Merlin family, somewhat. Also I don't think its location is especially helpful.

The 'lost' Lego park, now Hansa Park has come a long way since then, of course.
 
Given the size of the park, it's hotel occupancy, it's prime location, and it's long opening hours for much of the year, does anyone feel PortAventura's numbers are unusually small?

For reference, I've heard from multiple sources that Disney's numbers are very loose...
 
I don't know, PA is in the heart of a busy holiday resort, so outside the summer months I'd be surprised if they have many guests. Arguably there's not a whole lot on the PA resort that warrants staying there for a few days, most people bundle it up as a part of visiting Catalonia rather than reaching out to go there solely for PortAventura. Plus the fact PA make reduced opening times, close a lot of rides and make the park pretty unappealing outside the peak summer months.
_

I know 25% loss for Alton doesn't sound much. When you look at figures they've lost 650,000 guests... when you account all the spending and the fact a percentage of these might have been staying on resort. Just shows that it is a huge impact on the park and resort.
 
James said:
I know 25% loss for Alton doesn't sound much. When you look at figures they've lost 650,000 guests... when you account all the spending and the fact a percentage of these might have been staying on resort. Just shows that it is a huge impact on the park and resort.
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Exactly. If you assume on average each guest spends roughly £80 on their visit (including ticket) then that's a revenue loss of £52 million straight up. That's not taking into account additional factors such as hotel stays and all the extra revenue they bring. I also have a feeling that Towers attendance figures may have been slightly worse than shown in this report.

On the whole it looks like 2015 was very successful indeed for the theme park industry worldwide. Europa-Park go from strength to strength, an extra 500,000 guests in a year when there was no major new attraction is quite phenomenal for a regional theme park.

Interesting to see what has happened in Japan, on the face of it you could say that Universal have taken visitors away from Disney thanks to Harry Potter. I'm sure it is not as simple as that though.

A brilliant year for the US, I'm pleased to see that industry thriving and in my opinion it is no surprise. A great mix of different parks with some sensible operating models in place at the likes of Six Flags and Cedar Fair.

:)
 
Rob said:
Interesting to see what has happened in Japan, on the face of it you could say that Universal have taken visitors away from Disney thanks to Harry Potter. I'm sure it is not as simple as that though.
:)
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Apparently Disney only count the first entry, so if someone bought hopper tickets they're only counted as one guest regardless of how many times they visit the parks

:)

(I've just added a new link to the report in the OP, since the TEA link seems to have been taken down)
 
Is this the first time ever that Alton Towers hasn't been the UK's most visited theme park?
 
Doesn't Blackpool Pleasure Beach get more than Towers but is never included?
 
TedTheHuman said:
Doesn't Blackpool Pleasure Beach get more than Towers but is never included?
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Pretty sure it used to get far more visitors when it was free, for obvious reasons. Was under the impression numbers had plunged to well below Towers' levels since they introduced the admission fee though.
 
AstroDan said:
"Europe's theme parks have many examples of success that don't depend on licensed IP"

Amen.
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Although the UK's most dominant Theme Park (Legoland) is entirely based on an IP.

That probably says a lot about the UK vs. Europe
 
Because the Disney IP is one that people want and like. Universal is an IP park, compared to other parks that just have just the one IP-based ride in the middle of other, more fantastical themes.

Disney and Universal also own nearly all the IPs they put into their parks, so they can spend millions on the rides themselves, instead of the licences.
 
While Disney is always used as the obvious example of a park using pre-existing IPs, I think it's worth pointing out that historically, most of their best loved and most popular attractions were actually based on original stories and characters. The trend of Disney basing areas and e-ticket attractions almost exclusively on cinematic releases is a fairly recent trend.

Haunted Mansion, POTC, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Small World, Matterhorn Bobsleds as well as some newer ones such as Test Track and Expedition Everest are all original IPs.

Even Tower of Terror, while technically tied to an IP doesn't lean too heavily on its Twilight Zone connections.

Historically, the areas in all of the Disney parks were never tied specifically to any one film or franchise and provided more of a backdrop to fit a variety of rides into, some attached to a pre-existing Disney property, others not.

Obviously, there is a long history of Disney using existing IPs in their attractions but I find it interesting that when I think of Disney, the rides that spring to mind tend to be the originals.

People always use Disney as an example in the argument for IPs and while it's true in some ways, it's far from the whole story.
 
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