2008 Attendance Reports

[BP317]

The Themed Entertainment Association has released the 2008 industry analysis attendance reports.


2008 AMUSEMENT/THEME PARK ATTENDANCE (BY COMPANY)

1. Disney Parks
2. Merlin Entertainment
3. Universal
4. Six Flags
5. Anheuser-Busch


2008 TOP AMUSEMENT/THEME PARK ATTENDANCE

1. Magic Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista, FL
17,063,000

2. Disneyland
Anaheim, CA
14,721,000

3. Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo, Japan
14,293,000

4. Disneyland Paris
Marnee La Vallee, France
12,688,000

5. Disney Sea
Tokyo, Japan
12,498,000

6. Epcot
Lake Buena Vista, FL
10,935,000

7. Disneys Hollywood Studios
Lake Buena Vista, FL
9,608,000

8. Disneys Animal Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista, FL
9,540,000

9. Universal Studios Japan
Osaka, Japan
8,300,000

10. Everland
Geyongg-Do, South Korea
6,600,000

11. Universal Studios
Orlando, FL
6,231,000

12. Sea World
Orlando, FL
5,926,000

13. Disneys California Adventure
Anaheim, CA
5,556,000

14. Islands of Adventure
Orlando, FL
5,297,000

15. Ocean Park
Hong Kong
5,030,000

16. Universal Studios Hollywood
Los Angeles, CA
4,583,000

17. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
Yokohama, Japan
4,555,000

18. Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong
4,500,000

19. Busch Gardens Africa
Tampa Bay, FL
4,410,000

20. Lotte World
Seoul, South Korea
4,236,000

21. Sea World
San Diego, CA
4,147,000

22. Europa Park
Rust, Germany
4,000,000

23. Tivoli Gardens
Copenhagen, Denmark
3,972,000

24. Nagashima Spaland
Kuwana, Japan
3,734,000

25. Port Aventura
Salou, Spain
3,600,000

26. Knotts Berry Farm
Buena Park, CA
3,565,000

27. Canada's Wonderland
Ontario, Canada
3,380,000

28. De Efteling
Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands
3,200,000

29. Cedar Point
Sandusky, OH
3,198,000

30. Kings Island
Kings Mills, OH
3,126,000

31. Gardaland
Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy
3,100,000

32. Busch Gardens Europe
Williamsburg, VA
3,094,000

33. Liseberg
Gothenburg, Sweden
3,050,000

34. Hersheypark
Hershey, PA
2,842,000

35. Six Flags Great Adventure
Jackson, NJ
2,761,000

36. Six Flags Great America
Gurnee, IL
2,669,000

37. Disney Studios Paris
Marnee La Vallee, France
2,612,000

38. Alton Towers
Staffodshire, England
2,520,000

39. Six Flags Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
2,020,000



2008 TOP WATER PARK ATTENDANCE

1. Typhoon Lagoon
Lake Buena Vista, FL
2,059,000

2. Blizzard Beach
Lake Buena Vista, FL
1,891,000

3. Chimelong Waterpark
Guangzhou, China
1,600,000

4. Carribean Bay Everland
Gyeonggi-do, Korea
1,500,000

5. Wet N' Wild
Orlando, FL
1,300,000

6. Sunway Lagoon
Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
1,100,000

7. Wet N' Wild
Gold Coast, Australia
1,025,000

8. Aquatica
Orlando, FL
950,000

9. Ocean World
Gangwon-do, Korea
900,000

10. Summerland
Tokyo, Japan
898,000

11. Schlitterbahn
New Braunfels TX
882,000

12. Wild Wadi
Dubai, UAE
825,000

13. Deoksan Spa Castle
Chungcheong, Korea
800,000

14. Water Country USA
Williamsburg, VA
758,000

15. Seorak Waterpia
Gangwon-do, Korea
670,000

16. Adventure Island
Tampa Bay, FL
603,000

17. Schlitterbahn
Galveston, TX
558,000

18. Noah's Ark
Wisconsin Dells, WI
533,000

19. Hyland Hills Water World
Denver, CO
533,000

20. Splish Splash
Riverhead, NY
500,000

For full analysis visit
http://www.teaconnect.org/etea/TEAERA2008.pdf

[Ilovthevu']

In 2005 for SFGAm, the park according to these reports was around 2.8 million. Now, they are at 2.6 million. -8% the year after Shapiro came into office!! Magic Mountain was -10%.

I feel the reason for higher attended parks is lower admissions (Pay kids prices - Kings Island was around $30 too.). Disney isn't that low to what people say it should have been. The experts were saying that people are staying home, and they aren't going Disney. Sure. California Adventures is a mess, and people are going to go there less if everything is being chopped up.

[onyxhotel08]

Not even in the top 35?! That sucks...

[Goku1910]

attendance sure did suck....BUT SFGAM is SMALL In caparison to ANY Disney Park! (Or Universal)

Universal is based on thrills and look at the attendance, and they say big thrills don't attract a lot of people?

[rct2wizard360]

I dont get why you're all so disappointed.

I mean the first twenty parks are pretty much set there every year, and they've been getting those numbers for a long time. It's really not a big surprise.

[BP317]

attendance sure did suck....BUT SFGAM is SMALL In caparison to ANY Disney Park!

SFGAm is about the same size as Disneyland park which is #2 on that list.

[Ilovthevu']

Not even in the top 35?! That sucks...

In North America, it's somewhere around number 18. He put them altogether (with other continents). It's kind of unfair to judge other continents compared to North American parks because other continents probably don't have as many parks as North America does. What does that mean? You get one's population going to some parks, but North America probably has hundreds of parks. I was looking on Screamscape at some foreign parks (I think Africa), and some of those parks looked really horrible. They looked like they had 10 rides, and it was quite a bit of parks.

Rcdb.com has 731 amusement parks in the US alone (with roller coasters) even though some of these are defunct.
http://rcdb.com/pr.htm?location=59

[bobbinbop20]

where is Magic Mountain placed in all of this?

[onyxhotel08]

^Exactly!

[FParker185]

Disney is basically open 365 days a year though which helps their attendance. Also the year Hurricane Harbor opened SFGAm broke 3 million I believe.

[Ilovthevu']

where is Magic Mountain placed in all of this?

When it was on the list, it was somewhere like 22 . This list only goes up to 20 North American Parks.

[Coaster Justin]

Yeah, I Wish they did the top 40-50 parks instead of the top 20.

[bobbinbop20]

so sfgam gets more attendence then sfmm? how can that be

[Chitown]

^It's very simple. More people visited SFGAm than SFMM.

How is that so hard to figure out? Just because SFMM is open year round doesn't mean squat. They have alot of competition out there.

[Ilovthevu']

^^Problems with Magic Mountain:

1) Not a problem, but when you think open all year, you automatically think everyday. That's not true, as the off times they are open on weekends only.
2) Not enough other stuff besides roller coasters. Cedar Point has so many roller coasters (even though I don't think all of them are great), but they also have a lot of flats. Don't get me wrong. I really, really like Magic Mountain, but there aren't enough flats. They been taking them out of that park even. They built so many roller coasters that they cut back on the flats.

3) I have heard horror stories of times in the summer when Batman was 2 hours long, and they were only running 1 train. Now, maybe they were having problems with that train, and it happens, but having 1 train for a really packed park is not a smart idea to keep customers in the park.
4) The off season (the season they are open) isn't always as great as you think it is. There is no new ride at the beginning this year (Doesn't open till May probably), rides could be closed anytime (for refurbishments), or run 1 train only.
5) In my opinion, it's a poorly lit park at night when going by, and you wouldn't even notice it if you didn't know it was there.

6) There are these rumors that it's gang-related park, or something along that nature. They had 1 fight in there somehow I heard about or something. - From wikipedia, it says in 1998 they had a gang shooting, and someone was dead in parking lot.
7) Waterpark is not "free" with paid admission like SFGAm.

I kind of believe that Great Adventure should be doing a lot better than it is because that place seems to me like a resort with the 3 parks (Great Adventure, Safari, Waterpark). In order to get more people to these parks, what they should have done was not put so much in each park. Really, they could separate Great America into 2 parks (6 roller coasters for each), and they could get more attended like Disney, or Universal.

[BP317]

/\ Yes SFMM has a big image problem socal which hurts their attendance a lot, after they built DejaVu/X they started running into major budget problems because of the astronomical maintenence costs (especially with X) and way too many things started getting cut under the old premier management. There was one point during 2003 where X, Goliath, Batman, and Riddler were all running 1 train during the summer because the other trains were tagged out as unsafe to operate by DOSH (California's amusement safety division of OSHA) and they did not have a budget to fix them and pretty much all their flat rides were standing but not operating. This led to desperate attempts to get people in to the park by basically giving away season passes and only adding more roller coasters which led to more teens and gangs in the park and the place became very poorly operated and not a good place for families to visit.

That being said they have been doing lots of work to the park to repair its image. Lots of coasters/buildings have been getting painted, the old SBNO rides were either removed or repaired, and overall the place is way cleaner. I was just there today and thought it was fairly clean and all the rides in the park except Roaring Rapids and Sky Tower (both were being rehabbed) were open and had decent load times. The park was also extremely well staffed, all the coasters had like 4 people checking the restraints on the trains so they loaded pretty fast (even though the person who was crowd controlling at RRV was an epic fail, and DejaVu's crew was just inexcusibly slow). Thats very good considering what the operations used to be like though.