2007 Attendance Report

I've submitted this to news as well...

http://www.inparkmagazine.com/2007report.pdf

Interesting to see Knott's attendance compared to seasonal parks in Ohio and Canada. Pretty pitiful.

Griffon brought in a +12% boost in attendance. Impressive. I wonder how much actual revenue that equals out to. *** Edited 3/14/2008 3:10:58 PM UTC by eightdotthree***

That's quite a jump, regardless of how spectacular the coaster really is. Did anything else happen in Williamsburg to result in that kind of surge? Did the city expand its marketing or hold some kind of special event?

I think Colonial Wmbg made a big to-do about Jamestown's 400th anniversary last year...

Is the 2X attendance at Magic Kingdom as compared to Animal and MGM simply due to the fact that people spend two days at MK versus one at AK and MGM? Or do that many people simply not go to AK and MGM?

Then I suppose it's possible an increase in Williamsburg traffic led to an increase in BGE traffic, regardless of the new coaster. Not that I'm not happy for the park either way.

Man, I wish a couple of you guys listened to the Podcast. We just talked about this very thing two shows ago (#105):

"New ride introductions don't seem to have the impact they did a decade ago. People barely noticed Griffon at Busch in Williamsburg. But speaking of which, how does that park get away with not constantly building new rides. Is it the historical area? Jeff doesn't think so."

I'm HUGE on the idea that certain parks do well based on their locations in or near other tourist areas. In particular we talked about BGW and my logic was that the park benefits from visitors to Williamsburg.

I think it's no coincedence that two of the seasonal parks on that list (BGW & Hershey) sit right in the middle of areas where people may be visiting for other things and stop at the park as part of a greater plan rather than visit just for the park.

Plus, if they hadn't changed the way they list the parks on the attendance report, Morey's would be on there and I'd include that with BGW and HP as well.

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Brian Noble said:I think Colonial Wmbg made a big to-do about Jamestown's 400th anniversary last year...

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Which only made the installation an even SMARTER move. ;)

I was one of the detractors when SheiKra was built, and even though I don't have the tallies for BGT/A's attendance, it seems like I *might* have underestimated the impact on the drawing power of the dive coaster. That being said, Griffon is a WAYYYYY better ride overall, and combining that with BGW/E's terrain, it's pre-existing lineup, and this major historical anniversary...can't say I'm too surprised. Of course, we hit the park on a midsummer Saturday, so.... ;)

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Lord Gonchar said:I think it's no coincedence that two of the seasonal parks on that list (BGW & Hershey) sit right in the middle of areas where people may be visiting for other things and stop at the park as part of a greater plan rather than visit just for the park.

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If you're NOT in Orlando or SoCal, those are the "next best locales"....oh, and can I throw DW into your list (along with Morey's)?

Yes, DW would be another that would fall into that category.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Man, I wish a couple of you guys listened to the Podcast. We just talked about this very thing two shows ago (#105):

I'm HUGE on the idea that certain parks do well based on their locations in or near other tourist areas. In particular we talked about BGW and my logic was that the park benefits from visitors to Williamsburg.

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Busch and Colonial Williamsburg are heavily marketed together in the same t.v. spot. I continuously see the ad in Baltimore.

When I was younger, my Dad had a rule of sorts. He's a history buff, so if we went to a amusement park, we also had to go to a battlefield, battleship, or the like. Busch Gardens the Old Country (as it was known then) was no exception.

I don't recall how many days we spent at Colonial Williamsburg, but we definitely spent a whole day at BGE back when BBW was the new coaster.

On a sidenote Pat, I would like to listen to the Podcast more, but I just don't have time--or make time. My job got increasingly more busy during the summer and it hasn't let up since.

I don't have the luxury either of downloading the podcast and then listening to them later like my friend. I don't have an iPod or similar device and that's the last thing I want in my ears being a sound-technician.

I think the last Podcast I listened to was the one with Richard talking about why Europeans don't want to travel to America anymore.

Edit: Sidenote 2: Griffon definitely brought in a huge amount of people to the park based on the week-early soft opening last year. With the narrow pathways in some areas of the park, I found it to be uncomfortable sometimes.

What will be interesting to me is to see if Griffon's popularity is sustainable. The feeling I got from a lot of people is that it's interesting, but it's short and doesn't do all that much.

And with the new big dog in town--Dominator--it'll be interesting to see if the numbers spike at KD at all. Afterall, this is their first major coaster since 2001. *** Edited 3/14/2008 4:45:44 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

On the other side of the world, Ocean Park HK: +12%. Disney HK: -20%.

Interesting.

No new attraction along with scaled back marketing, and Canada's Wonderland maintains it's hold on the title of most attended seasonal themepark. Having Behemoth and all it's buzz should prove interesting for Wonderland this year.

Maverick cost $21 million and netted only 1.5% increase? FireHawk at Kings Island, and no increase... wow... must be tough to see some of these results.

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ApolloAndy said:
On the other side of the world, Ocean Park HK: +12%. Disney HK: -20%.

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That is interesting. I figured that HKDL would absolutely bury Ocean park.

It is very interesting that new attractions will not bring in more peeps. It may, however, bring extra revenue by selling more new ride merch.

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eightdotthree said:
Interesting to see Knott's attendance compared to seasonal parks in Ohio and Canada. Pretty pitiful.

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...Except that Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Canada's Wonderland are some of the most attended seasonal parks in the country.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Man, I wish a couple of you guys listened to the Podcast.):

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I'd rather participate in a discussion than listen to people I disagree with on a regular basis having one amongst themselves.

Colonial Williamsburg and BGE compliment each other perfectly, much like Dollywood and the Smokey Mountains. There is more to do than just go to an amusement park, and in the case of Intamin Fan's early years, he got some education and some fun on the same trip.

Thats one reason I don't get why the heck SFA doesn't do better. There are all of those people in DC vacationing, no one wants to go to Six Flags as well?

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LostKause said:
I'd rather participate in a discussion than listen to people I disagree with on a regular basis having one amongst themselves.

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I didn't say I wished you listened to it. ;)

Seriously though, here's a conversation taking the same direction as something on the podcast. Like literally the same jumping off point for fun conversation/discussion.

I wish the podcast inspired more threads/discussion...and I think it would if the right people were listening regularly.

Right here's a group of people I dig talking with (Brian, Gator, 8.3, Dex, Andy, Rob, IF) discussing something in a very informative/entertaining/enlightening way that almost never came up.

I guess the point is, that even if you disagree, then jump on the forums and say so...voila! Instant participation!

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eightdotthree said:
Thats one reason I don't get why the heck SFA doesn't do better. There are all of those people in DC vacationing, no one wants to go to Six Flags as well?

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Ooooh! That's a good one. Why isn't SFA doing higher numbers?

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the Six Flags execs discuss how a park in between Toledo and Cleveland and a park outside of Cincinnati consistently outperform their parks near the three largest metropolitan areas in the country.

Magic Mountain must have not picked up any attendance because you can't even see it on the list of parks. Will X^2, and Thomas Town bring the people in? I really doubt it.

For SFGAm, they say it has to do with Wiggle's, and Operation Spygirl. I don't agree whatsoever. I think it has to do with booking more schools, and groups towards the beginning of the year. You should have went on a Friday in May, and you would see chaos. V2 had a 40 minute line. I stood it (not on a weekend). It was crazy because of these buses in the parking lot!! You would come those days before, and it was completely empty. These weren't little kids for Wiggle's Worlds either.

In my opinion, it has to do with better group sales! I imagine that's why they are making the season longer this year because of there group sales they can score in May.

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eightdotthree said:

Thats one reason I don't get why the heck SFA doesn't do better. There are all of those people in DC vacationing, no one wants to go to Six Flags as well?

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Because they can take a 2 hour trip and go to Williamsburg/VA Beach. This is what my family did all the time when I was younger. We lived in NH, so DC was a days drive away, we would drive down spend a few days in DC and then cap off the trip in Williamsburg with the "Revolutionary Fun" Pass. BGE is in my opinion hands down the best regional park in the US, WCUSA is also a fantastic (and looking at the ranking quite popular) waterpark. Six Flags does not compete with either of them (nor does KD in my opinion but it at least comes closer.)