SeaWorld San Diego was the only other North American park to score a double-digit percentage attendance increase, with a 13 percent jump that pushed the Southern California theme park to 11th place on the North American list and 22nd in the world.
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom continued to land in the top spot on both the North American and world lists, with 17.1 million visitors last year, up 1 percent from 2010.
Here are the North American Top 20, according to TEA/AECOM, with 2011 attendance and change from 2010:
And the World Top 25:
As we mentioned last week, the top 25 parks in the world drew 198.1 million visitors in 2011, up 4.8 percent from 2010. The top 20 theme parks in the United States last year drew 127 million visitors, combined, up 2.8% from 2010.
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The Magic Kingdom greets an average of more than 46,000 a day.
That's ... incredible!
BLIZZARD BEACH AT DISNEY WORLD is listed as SECOND and the attendance is 1,891,000
CHIMELONG WATER PARK is listed as THIRD and the attendance is 1,900,000
What the what?
It's also nice to see my home state represented in the top 20 for the first time in a while. Sea World San Antonio made it to spot number 20. That is a fantastic and underrated park and hopefully its attendance starts to rise constantly.
As Universal regulars, the discrepancy between the two parks is totally believable. USF is like a ghost town compared to IOA. There's so much more to do at IOA - Potter, kid rides, bigger coasters, Spider Man!, water rides. USF can't compete...without Potter, at least.
Not sure what the implication is upthread. Why are the industry attendance numbers suddenly suspect because IoA is doing so well? I would've thought that would be expected!
Will Cars Land finally make DCA a respectable park by Disney standards (near 10m a year), and will the Magic Kingdom hit 18m once New Fantasyland is complete?
Good to see that the industry is bouncing back.
There's always some strange things about these reports. I'm always amazed that Hershey has a higher attendance than Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Six Flags Great Adventure. Hershey just much have more to do than I realize beacuse Six Flags always seems so much more crowded. Hopefully Verbolten can help turn around BGW's recent attendance slump. It's also a bit funny that all of the WDW parks saw a 1% increase except Epcot. Strange.
And as a final note, if the Magic Kingom has a higher attendance than Disneyland and they both grew by the same percentage, didn't the Magic Kingdom actually widen the lead over Disneyland?
Maybe they do and it's located somewhere on the net.
I am also trying to figure out why BLIZZARD BEACH AT DISNEY WORLD is listed as SECOND and the attendance is 1,891,000 and CHIMELONG WATER PARK is listed as THIRD and the attendance is 1,900,000
Kinda sloppy.
I give HUGE credit to Mr. Moody for reminding me that "These are numbers for 2011, the first full year of WWOHP." That makes sense.
But (again) In 2010, when Potter made IOA jump, it affected the clicks at Sea World -- which experienced (allegedly) a dramatic drop of more than 12%. In 2011, that did not happen. Potter did not gobble up the ticket sales of another park.
And again, while IOA's numbers supposedly skyrocketed by 1.75 million its sister park USF (located right next door) added only 70,000 guests.
Make no mistake I am certain that IOA's numbers increased significantly in 2011. There just seem to be some holes in the study.
My guess, and it is just a guess, is that WDW is still unbeatable for families with children, specially do to the fact that it has 4 parks and uses very well its pricing tactics to lock the customers inside its gates. That would explain why AK and DHS beet IOA. By the other hand, IOA could be steeling Disney’s late teenagers and “adult with no children” customers. That impact could explain why Epcot had no growth while all the other 3 WDW parks had some.
Disneyland Paris grew 4.7% in attendance but went down on revenues. Price discounts may have played a big role on that growth.
It is wonderful to see Tivoli Gardens on the top 25. It is a very old, traditional and low tech park, but it is lovely and full of live!!!
I have so many family and friends who are employed (both directly and indirectly) by the tourism industry. Speaking as someone who has a career building hotel resorts and theme park attractions, I pleased with the success of the industry.
I am just interested in the methodology of the survey -- as there are a few numbers that seem askew.
Islands of Adventure's numbers are impressive, but expected. As a Universal Orlando passholder I've seen first hand what HP has done for that park. Universal has also repeatedly shared stats in various reports that makes it easy to figure out their attendance.
The suspect is Disney California Adventure. I've got close friends in the parks who say the numbers were wrong last year and they're wrong again this year. After 11 years of visiting (20 year DLR passholder) I can say from first hand experience that there has been a tremendous increase in attendance at the park over the past three to four years, especially on weekdays that used to be very slow. I doubt DCA will see a huge attendance boost with Cars Land though as the franchise doesn't have the same following as Harry Potter. DCA is not going to be a 10 million a year park. The market in California is so different from Orlando.
One last point. SeaWorld Orlando's decline in attendance last year had more to due with bad publicity surrounding the trainer accident and less to do with Harry Potter. The park also offered nothing new that year.
Being Dutch, I wanted to point out that number 24 is called ' De Efteling '.
:-)
Kind Regards
Erwin
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In 2010, when Potter hit, the attendance (predictably) popped by 30%. The assertion that it experienced an increase of 29% during the year after is ... questionable.
This claim is especially dubious when one considers that all of the Orlando parks did not see a decrease in attendance. In 2010, when Potter made IOA jump, it affected the clicks at Sea World -- which experienced (allegedly) a dramatic drop of more than 12%.
This year all of the Orlando parks jumped or maintained -- including Sea World (+2%). And now we are to believe that IOA rocketed by 29% after a 30% increase the year before?
Of course I may be wrong