The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and economics at AEGON have released their annual report on major theme park attendance. The reports shows how many visitors have been to the parks, the change in numbers of visitors and it does this on a worldwide basis. This reports therefore includes both the Disneyland Park and the Walt Disney Studios park in Marne-la-Valle.
It looks like bad news for the Paris parks but when looking at the report itself the numbers are not correct.
For the numbers themselves; Disneyland park had 10.5 Million visitors in 2010. That’s a loss of 2,6% in comparison with the previous year according to the report. However when we look at the report of 2009 the changes are no way near the 2,6 % but are down a whooping 17,6%. While this isn’t the best of news for Disneyland Paris, the park is still a top holiday destination and can proudly say that they are in the top 10 of world wide parks visitors total. Disneyland Park can be found in 6th place, behind 5 other Disney destinations.
According to the report The Walt Disney Studios is also down from the previous year. With 4.5 million visitors it also lost 2,6% and can be found on the 19th place on this world rank list.
However this is a another mistake on the report as the previous year the Walt Disney Studios wasn’t in the top 25 and had a lot less visitors as in 2010. In 2009 the park had 2.65 million visitors. Looking at the numbers today that is not a loss of 2,6% but an increase of 69,5%
One need to understand how ticketing counting works at Disneyland Paris. When a guest visits the park he is counted at the gate he enters first. So if you visit Disneyland Park, your ticket will be counted their, once you hop over to the Studios you are no longer a new visitor and the will not be added to the total count. While Disneyland Paris lost 17,6%, and this might look bad, the fact is that more people start their day at the Studios since all the new and cool attractions that have been added their.
It is strange that a company that keeps themselves busy with counting and looking at these numbers can make such a mistake in their report. If they would had looked at the 2009 numbers a little better they would have noticed that the Walt Disney Studios is the biggest increase result of 2010. On the other hand, with the 17,6% the Disneyland Park would be the biggest loss on the report.
Overal, putting the numbers together, the 2.6% loss is therefore correct, but all other parks are calculated as stand alone parks giving an incorrect view of the report for the Paris parks.
Visit our Mousekingdom blog for more on the report, including some amazing numbers for US and Asian Parks
