Universal sets 12-month attendance record

[At the Universal Orlando Resort,] attendance leapt 41 percent from a year ago.
Nearly 3.6 million people visited Universal Orlando's two theme parks during the second quarter of the year, an increase of more than 1 million from the same period in 2010.
[...] Almost 13.4 million people have visited Universal since June 2010, according to regulatory filings. Universal Orlando's annual attendance record is 12.1 million, set in 2004.
A spokesman for Universal Orlando declined to comment Monday. But executives at parent company Comcast Corp. praised the resort during a conference call last week to discuss the cable-TV company's second-quarter earnings. "We are very pleased with the park's performance," Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis told analysts.
Universal also continued to ring up record sales during the second quarter... Resort revenue jumped 61 percent for the quarter, from $243.5 million to $392.2 million.
Universal gained in every category of spending, regulatory filings show. Ticket revenue rose 57.5 percent, food and beverage sales jumped 53 percent, and merchandise revenue soared 82 percent.
The resort's total profit for the quarter was $97.8 million, up from just $2.8 million a year ago.
Universal, which in May unveiled plans to convert an existing simulator ride into a new attraction based on the animated film "Despicable Me," bumped up its capital budget for the year. Universal now estimates it will spend $100 million on capital improvements in 2011, up from an earlier estimate of $80 million.


So, both the parks and CityWalk have done wonderfully in the past, but Universal seems to understand that they don't have to rest on their laurels like other theme park companies do (cough*Disney*cough), that's why they decided to spend more in 2012 (and that's a really, really great news for guests!). Indeed, as you may have read, they are planning on spending $100 million next year. Yes, that's a small budget when compared to what they have spent in the last couple of years, but it still means that we will see some minor new additions (including the new "Despicable me" ride). Let's see what the resort comes up with!

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