The Reality of Pen Rates
We have a love-hate relationship with penetration rates. As you might be aware, penetration rate methodology is the predominant method used to forecast attendance at theme parks, and conduct feasibility studies in the attractions field. But, it suffers from almost anything you can imagine about a quantitative method: it’s imprecise, has no standard definition among […]
The Mega Chinese Theme Parks
In the last decade, China has gone from being an attractions backwater to the world’s most significant theme park and attractions market. But perhaps more than in any other market in the world, China’s theme park industry is extremely bifurcated, with what we can call top-tier, world-class theme parks on one end, and government-supported zombie […]
The Definitive Guide to Attraction Concepts
Behold! In our latest post, we’ve taken a pass at categorizing every major type of attraction or amusement facility in the world. What follows is a field guide of sorts for planners, consultants, and designers when considering potential anchor tenants, partners, or developments in entertainment-oriented master plans. These types all have the characteristic that they can […]
Theme Park Signatures
Besides the branding, what makes a Disney or Universal different from a Seaworld or Legoland? Are there true differences to speak of? Well, based on these charts, yes. This is the third installment in our ongoing series where we dissect the economics and characteristics of attractions. Previously, we reviewed the economics and business models of […]
The Business of Theme Parks (Part II): How Much Do They Cost? And Earn?
In the first part of this series, we evaluated the revenue side of theme park business models. In this series, we’ll continue our exploration of the economics of theme parks by reviewing the cost of building amusement and water parks. More importantly, however, we will be looking at what theme park development costs mean for profitability. […]
The Business of Theme Parks (Part I): How Much Money Do They Make?
Revenues: Not Created Equal Revenues are the starting point for all cash flows. While revenues can be disaggregated into its components, attendance and per person spending (subjects of a later post) – for our purposes, a high level view will suffice. Using data from the Park Database, we’ve plotted the distribution of theme park revenues […]
