The Mouse is still mighty, but there’s a dragon rising in the east.
That’s the top-line takeaway from the latest edition of the 2023 TEA/AECOM Theme Index, an authoritative yearly survey of trends in the theme park industry. The Index is compiled by the Themed Entertainment Association and infrastructure consulting firm AECOM. It shows Disney Entertainment still firmly atop the list of theme park attendance per operator in 2023, with a Chinese company leaping into the No. 2 spot.
Business is good across the board, according to the report, with “the top 25 attended theme parks around the world collectively increased attendance by an impressive 23% over 2022’s figures.” Of course, many parks were shut down in 2022, so the success is relative. Compared to 2019, “the industry has basically returned to its pre-pandemic position,” notes AECOM senior analyst Francisco Refuerzo.
That return to pre-pandemic attendance worldwide was powered largely by Chinese parks, which were most impacted by Covid shutdowns.
“The largest jumps in year-over-year [attendance] figures (78%) came out of parks in China, which saw the most restrictive operating environment throughout nearly all of 2022. The Americas saw a small 3% increase, with some major parks in the Orlando area slightly down – the result of soft demand for international travel to the United States. Europe remained relatively strong, with a 5% increase driven largely by parks that have invested in more expansive resort offerings.”
Chief among Chinese operators is the burgeoning Fantawild Group which has added a staggering 10 new venues between 2020 and 2023, despite the pandemic. Fantawild had some help, however.
Its “asset light” model “relies on government entities to fund new parks while Fantawild operates them,” according to this year’s Index, which notes that further growth from Fantawild is expected in the years to come.
With that, here’s the breakdown of the top operators worldwide in 2023, according to the TEA/AECOM analysis.
2023 Top Amusement Park Operators Worldwide
- Disney Experiences, up 23% to 142M admissions
- Fantawild Group, up 111% to 85M admissions
- Merlin Entertainments Group, up 16% to 62M admissions
- Universal Destinations & Experiences, up 18% to 60M admissions
- Chimelong Group, up 148% to 36M
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