Cedar Fair attendance up 3% for July over last year

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Cedar Fair reported that combined attendance at its properties for the month of July increased 3% from a year ago. Over the same period, average in-park guest per capita spending was down 2%, in part due to the overall mix of attendance among the parks.

Read the press release from the official Cedar Fair site.

I know their hotels are doing great at Cedar Point. I hope that translates into higher attendance and spending. *** This post was edited by wahoo skipper on 8/2/2002. ***

I think it is interesting that we're seeing with these results once again that bigger dings = smaller per-caps.

I wonder if parking fees are included in the per-caps...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

If I recal in the CF 2001 anual report, parking was included in per-capital spending.

I guess this just proves that higher prices don't always mean more revenue.

It also has to do with the way that 3% increase is distributed across their parks. When you take out Michigan's Adventure, per capita spending is down only 1%. This is proably due to the fact that the average guest at MIA spends a lot less than a guest at CP or Knotts. If attendance at some of the bigger spending parks is down (say Knotts and Dorney) while the attendance at the smaller spending parks (MIA, VF, WOF) is way up, this could explain why overall attendance is up, but overall spending is down.

I agree though that higher prices doesn't always mean more revenue. Obviously, you can't give your product away, as there have been too many businesses that have come and gone for trying to do just that. But I think per capita spending is a stat that should increase slowly and steadily with time. Cedar Fair might have been a bit too agressive in trying to pad their numbers this year with all their price hikes and it backfired a bit.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

How does Valleyfair fit into this? I think our attandance has been average or maybe up a little this year.

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Valleyfair Security 2002! 8Years working at Valleyfair :)! Goal: All New Parks in 2003! Awaiting NITRO!

*** This post was edited by The Beast on 8/3/2002. ***

This is great to here. I am sick of turning on the news and hearing about what a bad day wall street has had. Although CF's stock has been down of late they are still up in revenue. Hopefully this will lead to more spending of that extra cash.

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"Enjoy your voyage to the sun on the wings of Apollos Chariot" *** This post was edited by Brendan w on 8/3/2002. ***

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