The latest TEA/AECOM Attraction Attendance Report shows a relatively stable situation among the world's most popular theme parks for the calendar year 2009, with the top 25 sites attracting 185.4 million visitors - compared with 188 million during the previous year.
In 2009, most of the leading parks saw either flat attendance or a fall, this predominantly due to a reduction in spending and travel by visitors reacting to the recession but also because of the effects of the H1N1 flu virus.
With the top 25 parks worldwide showing a decline in visitor numbers of 0.3 percent from 2008, the top 20 parks in North America saw attendance fall by 1.3 per cent to 121.1 million. The top 10 Asian parks suffered a 3.5 per cent fall to 65.5 million. For the new top 15 Asian parks, total visitor numbers were 77.6m, down 2.9 per cent.
Visitor numbers at the top 20 European parks remained at 2008 levels (at 57.3 million), while the top 10 parks in Mexico and Latin America saw attendance increase 1.3 per cent to 12.3 million.
Waterparks enjoyed a relatively successful year, with the world's top 20 parks attracting a total of 20.7 million visitors (an increase of 2.1 per cent).
Disney retained its position as the world's largest theme park operator, with nine of the ten most visited parks in the world being owned by the US-based group. Florida's Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is the most visited park in the world (17,233,000 visitors), followed by Disneyland, Anaheim (15.9m); Tokyo Disneyland (13.6m); Disneyland, Paris (12.7m; DisneySea, Tokyo (12m); Epcot, Florida (11m); Disney's Hollywood Studios, Florida (9.7m); and Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida (9.6m).
Universal Studios in Osaka comes in at number 9 with 8,000,000 visitors, followed by Disney's California Adventure at number 10 (6.1m).
Of the world's 25 largest parks, the largest falls in attendance were seen at Islands of Adventure, Florida, down 13.8 per cent; SeaWorld, San Diego, down 12.6 per cent; and Busch Gardens, Florida, down 12.3 per cent.
The De Efteling park in the Netherlands was a clear winner when it came to an increase in attendance numbers, at 4,000,000 a jump of 25 per cent on the figure for 2008. The next highest was the 9.5 per cent rise seen at Disneyland's California Adventure.
Breaking the parks into sectors, the top five parks in North America were the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Florida; Disneyland, Anaheim; Epcot, Florida; Disney's Hollywood Studios; and Disney's Animal Kingdom, also in Florida.
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea headed the top five Asian/Pacific Rim parks, followed by Universal Studios, Osaka; Everland, South Korea; and Ocean Park in Hong Kong (4.8m visitors).
The top five European parks were shown to be Disneyland, Paris; Europa Park, Germany (4.25m visitors); De Efteling, the Netherlands; Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen; and Liseberg in Sweden (3.15m).
Walt Disney Attractions was an obvious winner among the theme park operators, with 119.1m visitors for the year. Some way behind was Merlin Entertainments on 38.5m, followed by Parques Reunidos (24.8m), Six Flags (23.8m), Busch Entertainment (23.5m), Universal Studios (23.4m), Cedar Fair (21.1m), Oct Parks China (15.8m), Compagnie Des Alpes (10m) and Aspro Group (8.2m).
Announcing the report, TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) president Steve Thorburn said: "The figures reflect an industry coming off a challenging year due to the global economic recession.
"But they also reflect the resilience and creativity of the industry and show us the way to future growth. Under the circumstances, in 2009 the major theme parks did remarkably well."
