2010 Theme Park Attendance Report Released

We've been waiting since last January for an official attendance report for our favorite theme parks in the world, and we finally got it! Let's take a look together at this year's figures. Some numbers may seem very obvious (like Islands of Adventure's), while others may be very, very surprising (like Animal Kingdom's):

We'll start from an overview of the overall attendance of theme parks in general, all around the world:

- 189.1 million: Total attendance for the top 25 parks worldwide, an increase of 1.9 percent from 2009.

- 123.6 million: Total attendance for the top 20 theme parks in North America, an increase of 1.8 percent from 2009.

 - 83.3 million: Total attendance for the top 15 Asian theme parks, up 7.3 percent from 2009.

- 56.3 million: Total attendance for the top 20 European theme parks, a decrease of 1.8 percent from 2009.

- 22.2 million: Total attendance for the top 20 worldwide waterparks, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2009. (Since 2006, total attendance for the top 20 worldwide waterparks has grown by 27.4 percent.)

- 13.3 million: Total attendance for the top 10 theme parks in Mexico and Latin America, up 8.2 percent from 2009. (Since 2006, total attendance for the top 10 Mexico and Latin America theme parks has grown by 20.5 percent.)

As you can see, Europe is the only continent that has seen a decrease in theme park attendance, and that's very strange, especially because they've got some of the best parks, like Efteling, Europa-park, Phantasialand, etc... Another thing that looks very strange is the sudden increase in theme park attendance in Latin America, especially because they have got very few major theme park. The only ones I know are Beto Carrero World, in Brazil, and Six Flags Mexico...

With that being said, let's see the percentage regarding attendance for the major theme parks in the world:

As we can see from these figures, the Magic Kingdom still rules as the "king" of all theme parks of the world, but... what about the next few years? Indeed, the only thing that divides the Magic Kingdom here in Florida (16,972,000 visitors) from Disneyland Park in California (15,980,000 visitors) is only one million people...

Also, Disney's Animal Kingdom's attendance is the only one that  was positive, when talking about Florida's Disney theme parks? Really? This is extremely bad, as this may mean that Disney may decide not to add anything to the park, when in reality that's the park that needs the most attention! I wonder what made more people go there. Even Epcot lost some visits.

On a positive note, I'm really happy to see Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay gain visits. That's a really good thing. SeaWorld Orlando didn't do so well, but that's because of the very sad accident of the death of one of the park's trainers, Dawn Brancheau, and also due to the lack of new attractions. This year the park should do better.

To find out many more interesting facts about last year's theme park attendance, download here the 2010 Global Attractions Attendance Report by TEA, the Themed Entertainment Association.