2015 TEA/AECOM Global Attractions Attendance Report

[malem]

It's that time of year again! http://www.teaconnect.org/Resources/Theme-Index/

Cedar Point up 8%, Kings Island up 3%, BGW up 3%, SFGAd up 9%, Universal Studios Orlando up 16%.

[freaks76]

Man, you go Universal.

[The Interpreter]

Tis important to point out attendance figures listed are unofficial, estimates, and of dubious validity.

Terp, who misses Amusement Business.

[stashua123]

Am I the only one who cannot see the PDF? It says the link is broken.

[thekidd33]

^You are not.

[malem]

The report was updated, resulting in the filename changing.

 

I changed the link to direct to the page where the report can be downloaded from, rather than direct linking to the PDF.

Zoombezi Bay is still spelled "Zoomezi Bay".

[RollerNut]

Tis important to point out attendance figures listed are unofficial, estimates, and of dubious validity.

Terp, who misses Amusement Business.

I wonder where there information comes from.

[The Interpreter]

"Sources."

Given that most companies don't release attendance figures....

[rcwizard13]

Why is it that most companies don't release attendance figures?

[The Interpreter]

They don't want their competitors to know in detail how they are doing.

[rcwizard13]

But it's not uncommon for them to reveal sales or attendance as up or down and by how much at quarterly conference calls, so what's the difference?

[The Interpreter]

The difference is actual park by park figures are rarely released.

[Kenban]

I remember at one point in time there was a company which was hiring people to stand outside the parks and count the number of guests entering through the gates.  They did this several days through the year and then used those number to estimate the rest of the year.  Which I think is the Amusement Business magazine which Interpreter mentioned?

 

Having said that we have no way to validate these numbers or even guess at how accurate they are.  According to the website "AECOM obtains the figures used to create the TEA/AECOM Theme Index through a variety of sources, including statistics furnished directly by the operators, historical numbers, financial reports, the investment banking community and local tourism organizations, among others."

 

It is possible the numbers are accurate, it is also possible the numbers are complete junk.  Personally I view revenue, expenses, and profits as more important, and some of that information is released to investors.  But none of these numbers sound like they are outside of the realm of what is possible.  For example I know that attendance at the parks in Orlando is up over the last few years just from my trips to the parks.  The off season is disappearing and they are becoming crowded year round.

[malem]

The 2016 report has been released. (KI+1.5%, CP+2.8%, CW+2.9%, IKBF+3.8%, SFGAm+5.6%, NJFTP+5.5%) As usual, it's best taken with a grain of salt.

The link at the top of this thread still works.