Though attendance is down at Disney parks in the US, it looks like one of Walt Disney World’s neighbors is actually seeing a bit of an attendance boost during this slow season: SeaWorld. Though this park has been going through a very public rough patch since 2012, with some aggressive special deals and a heavy investment in new attractions, SeaWorld has been fighting its way back slowly but surely, posting moderate attendance gains over the last year, and now it looks like they’ve made even more progress with both attendance and guest spending on the rise in 2019!
Attendance continues to grow year over year
Image: SeaWorld
Though attendance at SeaWorld parks saw steep attendance declines from 2013 through 2017, it looks like SeaWorld’s recovery, which began in 2018, is continuing into 2018, as attendance once again increased year over year, hitting 6.5 million visitors, a 0.8 percent increase from the same quarter last year. So far, for the year, SeaWorld parks have had 9.8 million visitors, which is also up from 2018 as well.
According to SeaWorld CEO Gus Antorcha, these gains were in large part due to special summer entertainment at the parks, as well as new attractions and events like SeaWorld Orlando’s new Sesame Street area, which opened this past March, as well as the new Tigris Coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa.
Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)
Another factor that could be contributing to higher attendance is lower admissions prices, as SeaWorld continues to market itself as a budget alternative to Disney and Universal and draws in guests with free guest tickets for annual passholders and Fun Card deals.
Guests are spending more in-park
Image: SeaWorld
Of course, the increases in attendance are certainly good, but what is even better for SeaWorld is that in-park spending by guests is also up 6.4% to $27.57 per person, a moderate increase over the $25.90 that was reported last year. Total revenue for the parks group was also up in the second quarter at $406 million, an increase of 3.6 percent from 2018. Adjusted earnings for the quarter also rose 33.6 percent to $166.1 million, which is all very good news for the formerly struggling theme park group. Here’s what CEO Gus Antorcha had to say about the results in a prepared statement:
“As you know, we featured a new ride, attraction and/or event at almost all of our parks this year and guest reception has been positive. Our exciting summer events are currently in full swing including our one-of-a-kind Sesame Parade in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio, our award-winning Electric Ocean event at each of our SeaWorld parks and our Summer Nights event at each of our Busch Gardens parks, giving our guests even more reasons to visit.”
Expect even more investments next year
Image: SeaWorld
SeaWorld plans to continue to invest in new rides, attractions, events and more are expected to continue into 2020 and beyond, with the company pledging to open at least one new attraction every year. This is of course, an expensive plan, which has led to the company’s capital expenditures for the first six months of this year growing 15.8% to $112.7 million, up from $97.3 million from the same period in 2018. However, with guests coming back to the parks in bigger numbers (and more importantly, spending more money) it seems like this strategy is a winning one, and will hopefully ensure that SeaWorld continues to grow.
Though 2017 was a bad year for SeaWorld Orlando, which saw an attendance downturn of 10% of guests, year over year, SeaWorld Orlando came back in a big way in 2018, growing a massive 16.0% year over year and attracting 4.6 Million guests over the course of the year. And though 2019 isn’t over yet, it’s looking like SeaWorld is keeping this growth up this year, and will hopefully be continuing this positive trend into 2020 and beyond.
