5 Top Theme Park Trends Dominating the Season
Photo Credit: Guests are shown at Pandora - The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom in this promotional photo. Theme parks owners have been investing in new rides and attractions to draw visitors. Disney Parks & Resorts / David Roark
Skift Take
From water parks to overseas investment, theme park operators are coming up with new ways to grow their business. One common thread: Find brands that have a built-in customer base and use them to attract new visitors.
The world's largest theme park operators are on a spending spree as competition for visitors grows ever more fierce.
Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and Six Flags have all announced new plans to add rides, attractions, and entire lands in the past few months — on top of expansions already in the works.
That kind of investment is crucial for operators to hold onto their fans, Dennis Speigel, president of consulting firm International Theme Park Services, told Skift earlier this year.
"Our industry is a mature industry now, over 60 years old, and the hardest thing for us to maintain is market penetration," he said. "And you do that through managing attrition, introducing new programs, season passes, capital investment."
This year has presented challenges for the industry, and some operators have managed better than others.
In August, SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby told analysts he was "not satisfied with our results" for the quarter that ended June 30 after attendance was disappoi
