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| Wizarding World - Universal Studios Theme Park |
Dear Mr. Theme Park,
What’s your take on
how the industry did after most of the 1st quarter results were
announced? Better or worse than last
year?
-
Barry
Well, Barry, quite bullish!
The first quarter reports put out by 4 of the “big 5” have shown
impressive results.
Based on our discussions with people in these organizations,
it is fair to state that operators are quite pleased with their numbers when
comparing first quarter results of 2016 with those of 2015. We saw that Disney and Universal had
tremendous performance. While Disney’s
revenues were up 9% (Q1 ending January 2, 2016), itself a huge accomplishment, Universal’s revenues
increased by a whopping 57.5% (Q1 ending March 2016).
Cedar Fair and Six Flags have also reported good first
quarter results, with Cedar Fair’s revenues up by 25% and Six Flags’ revenues
up by 36% (Q1 ending March 2016). These operators have reported
that 2016 season pass sales, group sales, and season dining passes have been
well received and are ahead of last year. |
| Mako - Seaworld Orlando |
SeaWorld, who as you know continues to face scrutiny and
image issues, just announced today that it had an uptick of attendance by about
83,000 guests. A portion of this
increase was due to the opening of Aquatica in Texas. The company reported a revenue increase of
roughly 3%, although they still experienced a greater net loss than the
previous year. It will take a bit more
time before SeaWorld sees the true results of their turnaround plan. (Orlando is down due to a decrease in Latin American visitation and season pass sales. Mako opens in June and visitation should improve in late Q2 and Q3.)
Barry, when you consider the price increases that we have
seen in our industry over the last 5 to 7 years, one must stop and think that
the American public truly enjoys our product offering.
If you took all of the professionally played sports -
baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer – and add their attendance
together, theme parks still outdraw these sports by a substantial amount. Last year, it was estimated that over 380
million people visited theme parks, water parks, FECs, and location-based
entertainment facilities. I ask…….what
is the national pastime for Americans?
It’s overwhelming “visiting themed attractions.”
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| Valravn at Cedar Point |
When considering the great new capital investments coming on
line in the way of attractions in 2016, I would have to say we are in for a
great season. It’s a little too early to forecast the percent increases, but we
believe the industry is in store for another year of attendance and revenue
increases.
As a whole, we have not hit the “pricing wall” yet. The experimentation and introduction of
Dynamic Pricing is going to help the per capita and revenue yields.
We will have more to say about your question, Barry, around
the second week of June, 2016. Stay
tuned and thank you for contacting us.
(Note: Disney's 2Q Earnings are released on May 10, 2016, and expected to have positive results.)
