Disneyland, California Theme Parks Led World In Lost Attendance

ANAHEIM, CA — Disneyland, Disneyland California Adventure Park at Disneyland Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood suffered the largest drops in attendance of any of the world's top 25 amusement/theme parks in 2020 according to a report released Wednesday by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and consulting firm AECOM. The annual report measures attendance at the world's most-visited attractions.

COVID-19 shutdowns obviously were to blame for the worldwide fall in theme-park visitors, which saw attendance decline 67 percent at the 25 most-visited theme parks in the world from 2019, according to the TEA/AECOM report.

Attendance at California theme parks declined the most because they were among the last to reopen after the government-imposed shutdown that lasted from March 2020 to April 2021, according to the Orange County Register.

That is why Anaheim's Disneyland - which was the second-most visited theme park in the world in 2019 - with 18.7 million visitors - saw its attendance fall 80.3 percent to just 3.7 million visitors in 2020.

Disneyland California Adventure Park at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim had been the 13th-most visited theme park in 2019 -with 9.9 million visitors - but its attendance fell by 80.5 percent in 2020, to 1.9 million.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City experienced the largest percentage attendance drop -81.4 percent - of any of the top 25 theme parks, going from 9.1 million visitors in 2019 to 1.7 million in 2020.

Among the other top 25 theme parks, No. 1 Magic Kingdom Theme Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, saw attendance fall by 66.9 percent, though attendance at No. 10 Shanghai Disneyland at Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, fell by just 50.9 percent.

Prior to the global pandemic, worldwide theme park attendance had reached a record high of 521 million in 2019, according to TEA/AECOM, which now has compiled its report for 15 years.

"The 2020 attendance numbers are largely due to regulatory restrictions limiting parks' operating days and capacities and not park popularity and management," said John Robinett, senior vice president of economics for AECOM. "We are already seeing a surge of pent-up demand. The speed with which guests returned to parks and museums once they reopened attests to the vital role these leisure outlets play in people's lives."

But Robinett predicted the return of fans to theme parks will be gradual.

"We can't expect recovery to equal an instant return to 2019 numbers: those represented an economic peak, the best in five decades," Robinett said. "A more realistic expectation would be to achieve a level comparable to an average of several years pre-COVID.

"Following the steep drop of 2020, we can expect that 2021 will manifest as a bounce-back year and that 2022 will usher in real recovery. In 2023, guest expectations will rise, and operators should plan and budget for reinvestment accordingly."

Though not among the top 25 theme parks in the world, Knott's Berry Farm, located in Buena Park, was ranked No. 11 among U.S. theme parks in attendance in 2019. But its attendance fell 80.9 percent in 2020, dropping to 811,000 from 4.2 million in 2019.