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.

 

[dixhuit]

Sorry to revive an inactive topic, but today is October 24th and we still haven't received anything. It feels like the release gets delayed further every year.

 

[Hyde]

Sorry to revive an inactive topic, but today is October 24th and we still haven't received anything. It feels like the release gets delayed further every year.

Classic Zamperla.

 

[Rein]

It got published:

TEA Global Experience Index™ | Themed Entertainment Association

www.teaconnect.org

 

[Burniel]

Was hoping to see some redemption for Thorpe Park in the 2025 figures after Hyperia's opening year was plagued with issues and, if the 2024 report is to be believed, resulted in reduced attendance. It's certainly felt busy these past couple of years, yet its absence from the EMEA top 20 this time suggests it's still below 2023 figures. And while there's obvious external factors at play (not least the cost of living rises in the UK), it's disheartening to see gate figures shrink and worrying to think of the implications on future Hyperia-scale investments.

Of course, there's the usual disclaimer that attendance measurement is rarely an exact science, let alone the nicely-shaped figures that actually get reported to TEA. I struggle to believe, for example, that Alton Towers is casually up half a million in the same two year period while the rest of the UK industry is clearly struggling...

 

[Matt N]

Was hoping to see some redemption for Thorpe Park in the 2025 figures after Hyperia's opening year was plagued with issues and, if the 2024 report is to be believed, resulted in reduced attendance. It's certainly felt busy these past couple of years, yet its absence from the EMEA top 20 this time suggests it's still below 2023 figures. And while there's obvious external factors at play (not least the cost of living rises in the UK), it's disheartening to see gate figures shrink and worrying to think of the implications on future Hyperia-scale investments.

Of course, there's the usual disclaimer that attendance measurement is rarely an exact science, let alone the nicely-shaped figures that actually get reported to TEA. I struggle to believe, for example, that Alton Towers is casually up half a million in the same two year period while the rest of the UK industry is clearly struggling...

I’ll be honest, I’m highly sceptical of these figures for the Merlin parks.

I struggle to believe that Thorpe gets less than 1.6 million, for a start. They got 1.5 million in 2023, as per the park’s own social media page, and Hyperia was said to have led to a rise in guest figures (again, by Merlin themselves). Unless Thorpe was vastly quieter again in 2025 (which anecdotally, it didn’t feel like), I’d be surprised if they were under the 1.6 million mark as them leaving the top 20 would suggest.

I also know that as per Merlin’s last chart, released in late 2024 as part of the Minecraft planning application, Chessington supposedly hit 2 million in 2023 and matched Legoland, yet TEA says they left the top 20 and never returned at that point or some point before. Unless Chessington’s attendance absolutely plummeted again after Jumanji, which we have no reason to believe that it did, them being below 1.6 million would also surprise me.

The Legoland figure seems believable enough, and 2025’s Alton figure, based on the Merlin chart for 2022 and 2023, would seem more believable than the last few in the TEA, where I do believe they understated Alton for a number of years post-Smiler crash (Merlin’s own chart had 2022 and 2023 at 3 million or so, while TEA had them at the low 2 millions. Merlin’s own data also had Alton over 500,000 higher than TEA reported in 2021 and at closer to 2.5 million in 2019 when TEA were reporting only 2.1 million).

It does depend on how “guests” are defined, I guess, but given the TEA seems to have varied in whether it has over-reported or under-reported the Merlin parks over the years, this wouldn’t seem to be it (if it were a methodological difference in how “guests” were calculated, I’d anticipate the discrepancies being more consistent).

 

[Burniel]

I’ll be honest, I’m highly sceptical of these figures for the Merlin parks.
[...]

Hard to disagree with any of this, in many cases the TEA figures go against reasonable explanation and are undoubtedly not the primary way those actually inside the industry measure attendance or success.

It's interesting to read the FAQ section towards the end of the TEA report, which explains that attendances are generally self-reported unless a park refuses or is unable to provide one, in which case it's basically just an informed estimate. Regarding these estimates, TEA claim:

Park/museum operators are also given the opportunity to review and comment on our estimate before the Index is finalized and published. Of those that don’t provide official figures at the park/museum level, the research team generally receives some form of feedback regarding the individual parks/museums.

Which does beg the question, if Merlin's own published figures (to which I'd assign similar doubt) are so far off from what gets published in this report, why are they either providing inaccurate values to TEA or not providing feedback on the estimates? Do TEA simply have no faith in Merlin's quoted figures and press ahead with their own estimates, or do Merlin consciously provide different figures in their own less scrutinised reporting vs "peer-reviewed" industry publications? In any case, I do feel TEA should more clearly mark which entries in the report are their own estimates.

It does depend on how “guests” are defined, I guess

This interests me as a concept when trying to calculate consistent attendance figures. The obvious one in my mind is concessions (e.g. under 3s) who get in for free. Anecdotally as a guest, I've seen varying approaches at my home parks depending on the year and how busy the entrance is on the day (host carries a set of concession tickets to scan as needed, host manually counts concessions on a clicker, host waves the concession through without counting them, etc). At the more family-focused parks in particular, the approach taken by admissions management and training during a given season could have a non-negligible impact for sure.

 

[Matt N]

Hard to disagree with any of this, in many cases the TEA figures go against reasonable explanation and are undoubtedly not the primary way those actually inside the industry measure attendance or success.

It's interesting to read the FAQ section towards the end of the TEA report, which explains that attendances are generally self-reported unless a park refuses or is unable to provide one, in which case it's basically just an informed estimate. Regarding these estimates, TEA claim:

Which does beg the question, if Merlin's own published figures (to which I'd assign similar doubt) are so far off from what gets published in this report, why are they either providing inaccurate values to TEA or not providing feedback on the estimates? Do TEA simply have no faith in Merlin's quoted figures and press ahead with their own estimates, or do Merlin consciously provide different figures in their own less scrutinised reporting vs "peer-reviewed" industry publications? In any case, I do feel TEA should more clearly mark which entries in the report are their own estimates.

I’d be inclined to believe Merlin’s figures are accurate and correct. The figures for 2023 and earlier in particular were used as supporting evidence for planning applications, where if they provide wrong or misleading info, it could result in legal consequences.

It is also worth noting that Merlin have also had real figures lower than what the TEA estimates as well as higher. If Merlin’s own figures were less robust or we had any reason to believe they were doctored, surely Merlin would try and make themselves look better than TEA rather than worse?

I do seem to remember hearing that Merlin is one of the operators who don’t provide figures to TEA, so they perform estimates. As such, I’d take less stock in Merlin parks’ figures than those of other parks, many of whom are more transparent and do provide figures.

This interests me as a concept when trying to calculate consistent attendance figures. The obvious one in my mind is concessions (e.g. under 3s) who get in for free. Anecdotally as a guest, I've seen varying approaches at my home parks depending on the year and how busy the entrance is on the day (host carries a set of concession tickets to scan as needed, host manually counts concessions on a clicker, host waves the concession through without counting them, etc). At the more family-focused parks in particular, the approach taken by admissions management and training during a given season could have a non-negligible impact for sure.

Concessions are an interesting one that I didn’t consider.

I’d always previously imagined that visitor figures data would always be quite easy to calculate, by simply taking number of turnstile scans or whatever (as regardless of what mode of entry you have, everyone passes through the turnstiles). But I guess if they do sometimes override the turnstiles and have the staff look manually, that makes it more complicated…

 

[Burniel]

I’d be inclined to believe Merlin’s figures are accurate and correct. The figures for 2023 and earlier in particular were used as supporting evidence for planning applications, where if they provide wrong or misleading info, it could result in legal consequences.

It is also worth noting that Merlin have also had real figures lower than what the TEA estimates as well as higher. If Merlin’s own figures were less robust or we had any reason to believe they were doctored, surely Merlin would try and make themselves look better than TEA rather than worse?

Fair. To be clear, I'm not accusing any party of deliberately providing misleading figures. But a park's own internal estimate, a third party estimate, and the figure that comes straight off the turnstiles could be (and clearly often are) wildly different, yet they're all valid, defensible statistics and any operator might reasonably choose to use them interchangeably depending on context and purpose.

It's a slight shame that an organisation like TEA is forced to list these potentially very different measurements from each park alongside each other and I do wish the reports were a little more transparent about this. And as a nerd, I wish we had more consistent data to fascinate over!

 

[Matt N]

And as a nerd, I wish we had more consistent data to fascinate over!

The first rule of statistics is that the data is rarely ever consistent, unfortunately… when you work in data, you grow to realise that most numbers ever released have a list of caveats and assumptions as long as your arm underpinning them!