Source: Themed Entertainment Association Photo: WDWKingdom.com
This past week, Themed Entertainment Association, unveiled their annual theme park attendance, Theme Index, for 2017. This is an annual look at attendance within the global theme park industry. How did the Walt Disney World Resort and its individual theme parks fare in the attendance wars in 2017? Let’s just say, they are standing pretty strong.
“GLOBAL ATTRACTIONS ATTENDANCE REPORT The definitive annual attendance study for the themed entertainment and museum industries. Published by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and the Economics practice at AECOM.”
Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom continues to hold the top spot in the world for its 2017 attendance with 20,450,000 guests. According to Themed Entertainment Association the Magic Kingdom increased attendance by .03% over its 2016 attendance. Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom holds the top spot by just over 2,000,000 guests over Disneyland Park, which holds the second spot.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort holds the number 6 spot in attendance with 12,500,000 guests up 15.3% from 2016. This jump in attendance is directly tied to the opening of Pandora – The World of Avatar in May of 2017.
Epcot is right behind Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the 7th spot with a 2017 attendance of 12,200,000 which was up 4,2% from 2016.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the only Walt Disney World Resort theme park to see a fall in attendance from 2016 to 2017 with a .5% decrease in attendance. Attendance fell from 10,776,000 in 2016 to 10,722,000 in 2017. The decrease and overall lower attendance can be directly tied to the parks lack of current attractions and entertainment due to the construction of Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disney’s Hollywood Studios should see a good jump in attendance in 2018 due to the opening of Toy Story Land and a much larger jump in 2019 when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is slated to open.
Another area of attendance that Themed Entertainment Association tracks is worldwide water parks. This is where things get a little interesting. Both Walt Disney World Resort Water Parks, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s Blizzard Beach, had a fall in attendance from 2016 to 2017. Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon had a loss of 5% from 2,277,000 in 2016 to 2,163,000 in 2017 but holds the number 2 spot in worldwide water park attendance. Disney’s Blizzard Beach also had a fairly significant fall in attendance of 7% falling from 2,091,000 in 2016 to 1,945,000 in 2017 and slides down to the number 4 spot. Why did both Walt Disney World Resort Water Parks attendance fall in 2017? There can be many factors here but one major factor is mother nature. Weather does not typically effect attendance in the theme parks due to indoor attractions, dining locations and other weather safe areas. Water Parks do not have those luxuries as you are there to be in the water and weather will close the parks. I did not go back in 2017 and check the daily weather compared to 2016 but common sense tells us this could be a large factor.
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