2012 TEA Worldwide Theme Park Attendance Report

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) has finally unveiled the Worldwide Theme Park Attendance Report for last year (2012). It is not surprising to see that Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom is still the most visited theme park in the world. It is also not surprising to see Universal's Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, and Universal Studios Hollywood continuing to gain more and more visitors, year after year.

What is surprising is the fact that all four Disney theme parks here in Central Florida are continuing to gain visitors without adding really anything major in the past year (with the exception of the Magic Kingdom Park). It is also surprising to notice that Disney California Adventure Park is still the least visited Disney theme park in the United States, despite the recent additions and the 22.6% growth that the park has seen. We (and many others) were expecting it to even surpass Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park this year.

Here is TEA's official list of the top 20 theme parks in the world (all Central Florida's theme parks are there):

The following list includes the top 20 theme parks located around the United States of America:

Even though we usually don't cover the European theme parks (there are some exceptions every now and then, of course), it is important to note that there has been a major attendance drop in some of the most important theme parks in the region, including Gardaland, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Mirabilandia, and Heide Park:

The following is the list of the top 20 water parks in the world. As you can clearly see, most of Central Florida's major water parks are included (with the exception of Busch Gardens' Adventure Island), and all of them are showing an increase in attendance. Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park is still the number one, as always:

What do you think? Are the theme parks performing well despite the current economic conditions around the globe? Or were you expecting a much larger increase attendance-wise? Share your comments with us!

To view the entire official document (in PDF format), click on this link. In addition to that, if you would like to check out last year's TEA Worldwide Theme Park Attendance Report (2011), click here.

Worldwide Theme Park Attendance Report: © Themed Entertainment Association. All rights reserved.