The Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM have issued their attendance estimates for the 2015 calendar year. All six Disney parks located in the United States fared well with attendance increases of up to 9% year-over-year, while the international destinations struggled to keep up.
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The 2012 opening of Cars Land drove impressive growth for Disney California Adventure
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom remains the most-attended park in the world. TEA estimates place the Florida park's total attendance at 20,492,000 guests, up 6% over 2014.
The other three Walt Disney World parks were slotted sixth, seventh and eighth overall. At number six, Epcot attenance rose 3% to 11,798,000 guests. Disney's Animal Kingom took the seventh spot with a 5% increase to 10,922,000 guests, while Disney's Hollywood Studios also rose 5% and finished eighth at 10,828,000.
Out west, Disneyland park in Anaheim finished second overall with an impressive 9% increase to 18,278,000 total visitors. These attendance numbers were likely bolstered by the summer 2015 celebration of Disneyland's 60th anniversary. Meanwhile Disney California Adventure finished with the 11th best attendance in the world, rising 7% to 9,383,000.
In the U.S. alone, Disney took six of the top seven spots on the attendance chart with Universal Studios Florida edging out Disney California Adventure for 6th place.
Abroad, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea finished third and fifth respectively, while seeing their attendance numbers decline from 2014. Tokyo Disneyland dropped 4% to 16,600,000 guests and Tokyo Disney Sea was down 3.5% to 13,600,000.
Hong Kong Disneyland saw a greater drop losing 9.3% of its 2014 attendance, down from 7.5 million to 6.8 million guests.
Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris Resort bucked the trend, rising 4.2% and finishing 9th worldwide. The Disney Studios theme park in Paris did not make the top 25 worldwide. In 2014, Disney Studios Paris was estimated to have welcomed around 4.2 million guests, placing 25th worldwide. For 2015, the 25th rated park managed to draw about 4.6 million guests.
Overall, Walt Disney Attractions finished as the #1 entertainment group worldwide drawing nearly 138 million guests, up 2.7% from 2014.
The Walt Disney Company does not provide detailed attendance figures. However, in its quarterly and annual reports to shareholders, Disney exectutives frequently cited rising attendance at its parks located in the United States.
In June, Disney will open its Shanghai Disneyland in mainland China. The project has recently come under fire due to its cost overruns and delays. However, the TEA report expects impressive returns from the new destination:
"Disney Shanghai will be a watershed event. It is expected to do very well and have a positive e ect on the region. The Asian market really likes the Disney product."
The Asian markets are experiencing explosive growth in themed entertainment destinations with Universal Beijing also under construction. TEA estimates that the Asian market will overtake The Americas by the year 2020 if not sooner.
While these attendance numbers are not definitive, TEA and its parterns at AECOM gather information from a variety of sources including park operators, financial statements, historical numbers, tourism associations and more. The complete report can be found at www.teaconnect.org.
