TEA Global Attractions Attendance Report 2024

[spicy]

2024 now out:

Download the 2024 TEA Global Experience Index™ | Themed Entertainment Association

www.teaconnect.org

No surprises that Magic Kingdom tops the chart and DLP tops the Europe parks as usual.

AT with a respectable 10th place and a 6% increase in attendance.

Thorpe Park must be majorly disappointed with -8% attendance in Hyperias opening season.

Not sure why UAE is included within the European parks?

Also find it hard to believe Warner Bros Abu Dhabi has the same attendance as Thorpe Park? Warner Bros seems to be a ghost town whenever I have visited and Thorpe Park always seems pretty busy.

 

[Matt N]

It’s interesting that Hyperia apparently didn’t raise attendance at Thorpe. Merlin specifically highlighted it as a strong performer in their financial results from 2024, so it would surprise me if that was true!

It is worth noting that some quite considerable discrepancies have previously existed between Merlin’s own reported attendance figures and the ones given in the TEA Theme Index. So perhaps this should be taken with a pinch of salt!

 

[cookie]

Not sure why UAE is included within the European parks?

TEA groups EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, and Africa) as one region since the latter two markets aren’t big enough to be counted as separate. It’s common practice in a lot of businesses/organisations.

 

[JoshC.]

I don't know if it's still the case (but I expect it is), but theme parks / companies are under no obligation to be truthful to TEA for reporting their attendance figures. Obviously they can't outright lie, but their numbers don't have to be accurate. I've been aware of some parks' TEA numbers being off by 300,000 in the past.

So definitely take with a pinch of salt. They'll be good ballpark numbers, but obviously could be off by 10-20% in some instances.

In the context of Thorpe, I'm going to outright say I don't believe the 2023 figure. The 2024 figure seems plausible. But just from my visits, I do not see how 2023 ended up being more visited than 2024.
I caveat this by saying I'm just going off my experiences, so I could be completely wrong.

The big question is - if Merlin haven't necessarily been truthfully accurate with their attendance figures - why have they made Thorpe seem like it's had a big attendance dip when they open a big brand new ride? Surely it would make sense to keep the fabrication alive and make it seem like Hyperia had a positive impact?

Few possible factors. Could be that they are now reporting more accurately. Or they could blame 2024's "poor" performance on Hyperia's reliability. Or they could pin it to Hyperia opening in May. It could be part of a narrative they're building that will see increases in 2025 and how Hyperia is a long-term draw. Who knows.

As I say, I simply don't believe that Thorpe's attendance dipped from 2023 to 2024. I could be wrong, and I'm no doubt sounding pig-headed stubborn right now, but that's a hill I'm currently going to stand on right now.

 

[JoshC.]

Sorry for double post, only just saw this part:

Also find it hard to believe Warner Bros Abu Dhabi has the same attendance as Thorpe Park? Warner Bros seems to be a ghost town whenever I have visited and Thorpe Park always seems pretty busy.

Difficult one to know for certain, but Warner Bros being open all year round will certainly help. I don't think it's always a ghost town, and that consistent footfall whilst Thorpe is closed for 4-5 months will help it catch up.

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

We went to Warner Bros in the middle of the off-season and it was easily the busiest park we went to on that trip, at least the kids' areas.

 

[spicy]

I don't know if it's still the case (but I expect it is), but theme parks / companies are under no obligation to be truthful to TEA for reporting their attendance figures. Obviously they can't outright lie, but their numbers don't have to be accurate. I've been aware of some parks' TEA numbers being off by 300,000 in the past.

So definitely take with a pinch of salt. They'll be good ballpark numbers, but obviously could be off by 10-20% in some instances.

In the context of Thorpe, I'm going to outright say I don't believe the 2023 figure. The 2024 figure seems plausible. But just from my visits, I do not see how 2023 ended up being more visited than 2024.
I caveat this by saying I'm just going off my experiences, so I could be completely wrong.

The big question is - if Merlin haven't necessarily been truthfully accurate with their attendance figures - why have they made Thorpe seem like it's had a big attendance dip when they open a big brand new ride? Surely it would make sense to keep the fabrication alive and make it seem like Hyperia had a positive impact?

Few possible factors. Could be that they are now reporting more accurately. Or they could blame 2024's "poor" performance on Hyperia's reliability. Or they could pin it to Hyperia opening in May. It could be part of a narrative they're building that will see increases in 2025 and how Hyperia is a long-term draw. Who knows.

As I say, I simply don't believe that Thorpe's attendance dipped from 2023 to 2024. I could be wrong, and I'm no doubt sounding pig-headed stubborn right now, but that's a hill I'm currently going to stand on right now.

Merlin reported a 10% drop in attendance in Swarms opening year too: https://riderater.co.uk/3165/thorpe-park-visitors-fall-in-2012-despite-swarm/

I believe they used this as a major reason on why there wasn't a new coaster until Hyperia.. Given the current Merlin financial problems, could they have reported a similar drop in attendance knowing the park isn't likely to get another new coaster for 10 years or so and can use the 8% attendance drop as one of the reasons?

Sorry for double post, only just saw this part:



Difficult one to know for certain, but Warner Bros being open all year round will certainly help. I don't think it's always a ghost town, and that consistent footfall whilst Thorpe is closed for 4-5 months will help it catch up.

True, I hadn't taken the extra operating months of Warner Bros into account, it's a good thing to see the Abu Dhabi parks up there though, means the planned Disney park is more likely to go ahead when Disney see the current parks are getting decent footfall, unlike the Dubai parks which seem to be empty all year round.

 

[Matt N]

It is worth noting that some parks don’t report their attendance to TEA and TEA estimate in those cases.

I believe Merlin may be in this group, if I’m not wrong, hence why there have been some notable discrepancies between Merlin’s own figures (when released in the past) and TEA’s figures.

Taking Thorpe as an example, TEA had 2014 down as Thorpe’s busiest ever year, with 2.1m, whereas Merlin themselves only had it at around 1.8m. Merlin’s reported busiest Thorpe years of 2009-2011, which Merlin reports at 2.1-2.2m, are reported by TEA as only around 1.9m or so if I’m remembering rightly.

With regard to 2023, it is also worth remembering that Thorpe themselves revealed 1.5 million on social media, which is different from TEA’s reported figure of 1.712 million. Why TEA did not restate 2023’s figure accordingly, I’m not too sure, but Thorpe themselves publicly revealed a lower 2023 figure than what is seen there.

 

[Burniel]

Always an interesting read, but agree with taking the exact figures with a pinch of salt. Even ignoring reporting inaccuracies, there are plenty of reasons for year-to-year fluctuations in the "true" values that aren't necessarily indicators of a park's performance. For example, the season being one week shorter or longer, it being a particularly nice or wet summer, whether the parent company has pushed the annual passes hard this year, etc.

Assuming the figures shown are true, seeing Thorpe fall while the other UK parks had slight gains is a little concerning, but anecdotally the park definitely had some quiet periods in 2024, especially pre-Hyperia. Then the ride was effectively delayed, and when it finally ran for more than one day it was the midst of one of the wettest school trip/post-exam seasons (a demographic Thorpe in particular relies on heavily) in years, where it continued to prove unreliable to the point where some of those most likely to be tempted in from afar by the big addition were postponing their trips. There were plenty of busy days too, of course, but not necessarily more than any other year. Hopefully the eventual 2025 figures (which has felt a much more consistent season - again, anecdotally) start to show the long term benefits.