United Parks reports down quarter, year
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From the press release:
Fourth Quarter 2025 Results
- Attendance was 4.8 million guests, a decrease of approximately 126,000 guests or 2.6% from the fourth quarter of 2024.
- Total revenue was $373.5 million, a decrease of $10.8 million or 2.8% from the fourth quarter of 2024.
- Net income was $15.1 million, a decrease of $12.8 million or 46% from the fourth quarter of 2024. This includes a one-time non-cash write-off of bad debt expense of $7.6 million dollars.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $115.2 million, a decrease of $29.3 million or 20.3% from the fourth quarter of 2024. This includes a one-time non-cash write-off of bad debt expense of $7.6 million dollars.
- Total revenue per capita decreased 0.2% to $78.56 from the fourth quarter of 2024. Admission per capita decreased 2.2% to $42.67 while in-park per capita spending increased 2.1% to a record $35.89 from the fourth quarter of 2024.
Fiscal 2025 Results
- Attendance was 21.2 million guests, a decrease of approximately 378,000 guests or 1.8% from fiscal 2024.
- Total revenue was $1.7 billion, a decrease of $62.7 million or 3.6% from fiscal 2024.
- Net income was $168.4 million, a decrease of $59.1 million or 26.0% from fiscal 2024.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $605.1 million, a decrease of $95.0 million or 13.6% from fiscal 2024.
- Total revenue per capita decreased 1.9% to $78.54 from fiscal 2024. Admission per capita decreased 4.3% to a $41.73 while in-park per capita spending increased 1.0% to a record $36.81 from fiscal 2024.
"Our fiscal 2025 results did not meet our expectations. While the consumer environment was uneven and our results were impacted by negative international tourism trends and volatile weather during certain peak visitation periods, we should have delivered better results, particularly on the cost side of the income statement. We have moved decisively to address our less than optimal cost management and have updated and focused our plans and investments for 2026 designed to drive attendance and guest spending across our parks. These include a compelling lineup of new rides, shows and attractions, an updated events calendar, an expanded concert lineup, new and upgraded food and retail locations, a revamped and enhanced marketing plan and strategy as well as other investments that we expect will drive demand and spending across our parks," said Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer of United Parks & Resorts Inc. "Combined with disciplined operational execution and an additional heightened focus on cost management and efficiency, we are confident these initiatives position us to deliver strong financial performance in 2026."
"Our fourth quarter performance was impacted by lower international visitation and fewer operating days compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. The net impact of weather was essentially flat compared to last year, as the recovery from hurricanes in the prior year was offset by unfavorable weather during certain peak visitation periods, particularly in San Diego and Williamsburg as well as Florida in the peak last few days of the year. Excluding the impacts of international visitation and operating days, underlying attendance trends would have been approximately flat for the quarter. Importantly, we reported record in-park per capita spending in the quarter, underscoring that guests continue to respond positively to our offerings and spend when they visit our parks."
I live 35 minutes from Seaworld Orlando and anywhere between 90 minutes and 3 hours from BGT depending on Champions Gate traffic. I'm currently on year # 3 of no longer having any type of annual pass for the chain and other than the occasional moment of craving a ride on Mako or Iron Gwazi, I barely even remember the parks are here.
Now if the ride operations and uptime returned to the way Busch ran the parks, I'd go back in a heartbeat. I don't want to have such a strong dislike for such beautiful parks with fantastic rides. They've just made the idea of spending any money or making any effort to drive down I-4 incredible unappealing for the experience they're offering.
Yeah, it's really a shame. Fantastic attractions can't trump crappy operations. Not just crappy, but dismal. My kid is finally a Mako fan, but I can't justify passes when even he's frustrated with single trains and glacial crews.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
The experience just keeps getting worse and worse at the parks.
I was at Busch Gardens Tampa on Thursday . Kumba, Sky Ride, Rapids all open an hour after park opening and also close an hour before the park closes. Wild Oasis closes 2 hours before the park closes.
Iron Gwazi is basically an up charge ride now with a metal detector and mandatory paid lockers, $4 for 2 hours or $12 for an all day moveable locker with rumors other rides will be getting the same policy. There is no way around it unless you have a non rider you can leave your phone and keys with.
Removing 3 rides since mid 2023 and only adding 1 low capacity roller coaster to replace one of the rides and down to 1 water ride.
1 train operations are fine on a slow weekday when everything is a short wait but they rarely add a second train to a coaster even if the line gets up to 45 minutes on a more crowded weekday.
Ride closure page on the website was removed about a year ago as well as the boards outside the entrance gate that lists the closed ride. Cheetah Hunt was just closed for over 3 months with no communication from the park. Same with Falcon’s Fury, it’s been closed for over 2 months with most seats missing restraints. Even if you call the park, you get told everything is open because it goes to an outsourced call center that is not up to date with what is open and closed.
If your first response to poor results is cutting cost in a hospitality business, you've already made the wrong decision.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
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