Amusement parks, amusing visitors to beat competition
• How crucial are the number of visits and investments?
• The sources of revenue
• An analysis of the leading international amusement/theme park operators
The amusement park industry is broadly categorised into amusement parks, theme parks and water parks and is a ~43 billion-dollar market presently [Source: International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), Global Amusement Park Outlook 2015-20 and Wilkofsky Gruen Associates]. The global leisure and entertainment industry doesn’t complete with amusement park industry. Furthermore, in addition to mechanical rides, water rides and theme attractions, amusement/theme park companies also offer games, shows, refreshment stores and other
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High entry level barrier: Amusement/theme park industry is dominated by few players globally due to the high entry level barriers as developing a new amusement or theme park or adding new attractions and rides in a current set-up require a major capital investment.
Highly competitive: Amusement/theme parks face major competition as visits solely depends on attendees interest, intellectual property rights of major brands, special rides or park related area modified in accordance with current popular theme or portrayal of popular films and characters. Moreover, other modes of leisure give a tough competition to the industry.
Internationally, there has been a healthy growth in the sector, especially in the past few years. The visits to theme parks in last five years rose at 3.9% compound annual rate (Source: IAAPA- Global Amusement Park Outlook 2015-2020). According to the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) 2016 report, attendees at the top 10 amusement/theme parks group grew from 271.6 million (2006) to 438.3 million (2016), at a CAGR of
It’s no doubt that creating a family oriented theme park based on popular, beloved cartoon characters and imagination was a good idea. From Cinderella’s castle to the famous Main Street, U.S.A, there’s something extraordinary lying around every corner. Walt Disney World, other wise known as “the happiest place on earth”, or the place “where dreams come true”, was founded by a man with a dream of creating a place where children and parents could spend time together while making amazing memories. However, this extravagant amusement park is only one of the major accomplishments of Walt Disney.
Two of the biggest theme parks in Orlando, Florida are Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida. Both of the theme parks are huge competitors when it comes to getting customers and money. In this essay I will show you which of the two theme parks is better than the other, by using multiple different categories that theme parks use when making their parks.
The external environment of the theme park industry on the Gold Coast plays a significant role in determining if the industry is profitable. According to Hubbard, Rice and Beamish (2008), the external environment is the factors outside the organisation that influence strategy and is made up of two environments; the macro-environment and the industry environment. The macro-environment includes the general factors that affect growth of an industry, whereas an analysis of the industry environment determines the profitability of an industry. An analysis of the Gold Coast theme park industry environment will determine the industry’s profitability by analysing the strength of the following five forces; the threat of new entrants, bargaining
In this case there has been a recognition of a trend, which is the trend of people going to theme parks during the weekends for entertainment of them as well as their children. Also here is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists
You wait in line for what seems like forever and finally you take your seat. You pull the paddle bars so they fit snug against your shoulders. You reach the top and then comes the big drop. You start screaming or if you're daring you put your hands up and enjoy the ride. I'm of course speaking of roller coasters. Today I'm going to go over the history, the different types of roller coasters, the mechanics, and the most important part, safety of roller coasters.
Amusement parks are in the umbrella of the hospitality industry. One of its goals is to provide entertainment for all guests. It has been that way since the beginning and has been advancing ever since. If anyone had to say it the best, it will have to be the father of the amusement parks, Walt Disney. “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy” (GoodReads). He understood that how important amusement parks are, how keeping the original charm that the guest grew to love and advancing that park to make the guests continue to enjoy the park for years to come. Understanding the past, present and future of the amusement park will show how these parks have lasted for years and years.
The Walt Disney Company has seen their share of success in taking their parks and resorts into global markets. “60 years ago, the first Disney theme park opened, in California and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself, who was motivated by the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters.” (Forbes, 2016). Disneyland California penetrated the market rapidly, and its popularity led to the opening of Disney World in Florida, followed by global expansion in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. Their latest expansion came in June 2016, on a 963 acres’ site in Shanghai, China (Xu, 2012). After one year in operation, Shanghai Disneyland is outpacing their most optimistic projections, and the park’s
According to the President of Economic Research Associates (ERA) in the TEA/ERA Amusement Park Attendance Report (2007) John Robinett
It is not seen as an amusement park with thrill rides, it is seen as a completely different world in the eyes of the consumer. If a new business spent the capital to create a theme park, it still has to build a brand to compete with a global media giant with more than 50 years of experience.
Competing amusement parks has upgraded their attractions to attract more consumers and Disney is has recently strategizing this approach to a more concentrated perspective. This can ultimately lower their revenues until the plan is complete.
After Eisner invested tens of millions of dollars to update and expand attractions and park facilities, Disney recovered its investment with attendance-building strategies. By creating a range of complementary services and entertainment at the park, customers stayed longer and spent more money. A plan was also put in place to develop Disney’s unused acreage and further maximize the profitability of these assets. One result of the above measures was that attendance at Tokyo Disneyland increased by 50% from 10.2m in 1983 to 15.8m in 1991.
First this includes theme parks, hotels and resorts, and Disney’s cruise lines. Disney has parks, in numerous global cities. In 2014 Disney had an 18% increase in operations (Gamble & Turnipseed 2014).
Even in the United States, Disneyworld (Florida) and Disneyland (California) vary in there social forces. Cast Members (Disney’s term for employees) in CA are trained to be friendly and greet every guest, while in FL they are trained to only greet guests who seek them out. The political, legal, and regulatory factors again, vary from theme park to theme park. The parks in the United States have more restrictions than say those of Hong Kong, China. In the U.S, minors (age 15-17) are only allowed to work 20 hours a week. In Hong Kong, young persons (ages 15-17) are allowed to work up to 48 hours a week. Regulatory factors such as this differ in each region. The Walt Disney Company Parks and Resorts has quite an extreme variety of natural environments. The weather in Florida for example can get in the 100’s regularly whereas in California it can get as cold as the low 50’s. These weather conditions actually are a big factor in guests determining which park they want to visit. Technology seems to stay consistent between most of the theme parks. In fact, many of the theme parks have some of the same rides at their parks. The global forces actually can create threats to the company. The addition of the newest theme park to the company, Shanghai Disney, took several years to become accepted. This has been common throughout the duration of The Walt Disney Company. Many people vote against a new theme park or resort because of the crowds that it
Given that a vacation to a theme park is more of a luxury good and not a necessity, people will not spend their money on it unless they have extra disposable income or high purchasing power for they would rather use the money on basic necessities first. As such, demand for a vacation at a theme park is highly price elastic. This means that when prices increase, demand for the product will decrease more than proportionately and the organization will experience a decline in profits. On the other hand, when prices decreases, demand for the product will increase more than proportionately and the organization will experience an increase in profits. As such, theme park organizations need to be very careful about their pricing strategies for they can result in drastic effects on total revenue and profits which the organization can earn.
Yes, they have. In some countries, where land was scarce, governments limited the area of the land that the developers could take up for theme parks. Park administration was dependent on the government for utilities such as power, gas and water. A typical period required for arranging government approval for a theme park could be as high as two to five years,depending on the country.