The Japanese Theme Park Bubble

Japan in the 1980s was a legendary time. The country experienced a stock market and property boom the likes of which has never been duplicated.  The Nikkei stock index hit a peak of over 37,000 in 1989 and a trailing P/E ratio of 60x.  It was an explosive boom, followed by a long bust: 30 […]

Managing Extremes: Seasonality & Peaking of a Theme Park

Variability causes chaos.  And variability when it comes to the attraction world, is perhaps nowhere so present or prominent as it is when designing and operating a theme park. Compared to other types of real estate or property, theme parks might be the most extreme in terms of variability.  Compared to commercial properties that provide […]

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 First-Ever Malaysian Attractions Benchmark Study

On occasion, we have the opportunity to partner with truly collaborative and forward-thinking organizations to bring you analytics and data beyond the structured form of our public-facing database. A few months ago, the Malaysian Association of Amusement Themepark & Family Attractions graciously offered to co-produce a benchmark study surveying the various performance measures of attractions […]

Potential Theme Park Development in Myanmar

We were recently invited to present a paper on the potential of a theme park in Myanmar, at the Myanmar Infrastructure Summit on March 30th. At the Park Database, we often draw comparisons between theme parks and infrastructure projects due to their long-term impacts, involvement of the government, and public benefits, and so we were […]

The Business of Theme Parks (Part I): How Much Money Do They Make?

Our mission with this website is to illuminate the economics of the theme park business, and better inform potential clients, industry outsiders, or any other interested party about the feasibility of attraction development.  We intend to become, and remain, the industry’s source for theme park and attractions data and knowledge. During the past decade, I’ve […]