SoCal amusement park attendance stays flat in 2007
Attendance at Southern California amusement and theme parks remained flat for 2007 with Disney’s California Adventure experiencing a significant decline in visitors, according to figures released by Themed Entertainment Assn. and Economics Research Associates.
Disneyland in Anaheim continued to rank second worldwide with 14.9 million visitors in 2007, a 1% increase over the previous year. Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, retained the international crown with 17.1 million visitors, a 2.5% increase. As usual, Disney theme parks claimed the top eight spots worldwide.
In Southern California, the major amusement and theme parks saw attendance remain flat or decline — except for Disneyland, which added the Finding Nemo submarine ride last year.
Universal Studios Hollywood (4.7 million) and SeaWorld San Diego (4.3 million) saw no change in attendance. Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park (3.6 million) experienced a 1% decline despite adding a family coaster in 2007.
Disney’s California Adventure (5.7 million) — which added no attractions in 2007 but announced a major five-year expansion plan — dropped 4.5% in attendance.
Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia and Legoland California in Carlsbad did not crack the North American Top 20 in attendance.
Raging Waters water park in San Dimas (650,000 visitors) also remained flat.
Worldwide, attendance at the Top 25 amusement parks inched up a slight 0.5%. The Top 20 North American and European amusement parks and the Top 15 U.S. water parks experienced modest 2.5% to 3% increases. Disneyland Paris (12 million) and Walt Disney Studios Paris (2.5 million) lead the way in Europe with substantial 13% attendance increases.
Attendance at Asian amusement parks proved a mixed bag — with Hong Kong Disneyland (-20%) and South Korea’s Lotte World (-53%) registering major declines and Hong Kong’s Ocean Park (+12%) and China’s Happy Valley (+10%) showing significant increases. Hong Kong Disneyland suffered a massive sophomore slump from its opening year and Lotte World closed for six months for major renovations.
Attendance at the Top 10 amusement park chains (in millions):
1. Disney 116.5
2. Merlin 32.1
3. Universal Studios 26.4
4. Six Flags 24.9
5. Busch 22.3
6. Cedar Fair 22.1
7. Parques Reunidos 12.0
8. Compagnie des Alpes 9.6
9. Herschend 8.9
10. Everland 8.6
Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland.
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5 Comments on “SoCal amusement park attendance stays flat in 2007”
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March 14th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Ummm… yeah! Maybe it’s because their admission prices are overpriced!
March 14th, 2008 at 8:59 am
[...] Attendance at Six Flags Magic Mountain flat in 2007: As is usual for Magic Mountain, no hard numbers are given, but the LA Times reports today that our theme park enjoyed no growth (and no decline) in 2007. Worldwide, some 25 million people visited Six Flags theme parks. Disneyland, Universal Studios and other SoCal parks give out attendance numbers, but not Magic Mountain. Link [...]
March 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I wouldn’t really say that it’s price because in Florida they’ve had attendance increase quite a bit. All them parks actually,not just Disney. But WDW had great growth last year. DL and DCA had great growth over the last few years with California Adventure shrinking a little bit last year. This was after two and a half years of growth, so that has to be taken into view as well.
March 16th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
corection to Dailey Brief.
The Walt Disney company does not give out attendance numbers. Those numbers are complied by outside companies by using certain standards that they feel are relevent.
Also all theme parks or resorts use diferent ways in maintaining attendance numbers.
As an example, the Disneyland resorts only counts the first click (first park entered) even if the person entered one park then less than half day hopped over to the other one.
park hours signifcantly alter attendance counts. In reference to Disneyland resort, Disneyland park opens two hour earlier than California adventure park. Therefore tourist enter Disneyland first then sometimes hop over to California adventure soon after to be able to take advantage of a full day. California Adventure therefor does not get the attendance count
March 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am
After a record attendance year in 2006, Legoland California in Carlsbad saw a 0.5% decrease in 2007 to 1.65 million visitors, according to TEA/ERA.
Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia remained flat in 2007 at 2.55 million visitors, a vast improvement over a 10% drop in 2006.
— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times staff writer + theme park blogger