Growth and evolution in the leisure industry
To help guide the leisure and cultural sectors, industry expert, Brian Sands runs down the latest insights, trends and analysis from the market-leading TEA/AECOM 2017 Theme Index and Museum Index.
It’s been a good year for the top theme-park operators and there’s innovation in the museum sector, but others such as the world’s largest water parks are finding the going tough.
According to the TEA/AECOM 2017 Theme Index and Museum Index, almost half a billion people visited attractions run by the world’s top 10 theme park groups last year. This is more than double the numbers attending major sport league events.
Leading insight and research
The annual Theme Index and Museum Index, produced by AECOM’s Economics practice in collaboration with the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), is the definitive, global attendance study of industry trends and calendar-year visitation numbers for theme parks, water parks, museums and the top theme-park group operators.
The study assesses the sector by region (The Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA), the overall global picture and leading market players. In doing so, it builds on AECOM’s decades of experience in leisure-orientated developments, working to deliver some of the most innovative, challenging and widely-recognized recreation, entertainment, tourism, and arts and cultural projects around the world.
Here are five major trends identified in this year’s report:
- Back to growth
Following weak performance in 2016, the world’s top 25 theme parks ended 2017 on a high, increasing attendance by 4.7 percent.
The big 10 theme park groups boosted their visitor numbers by 8.6 percent. While the top 20 water parks globally were up 1.6 percent.
The leading 20 museums across the world achieved a restrained 0.2 percent rise in visitors, very slightly up on 2016.
- Star power matters
With global competition so fierce, the big theme parks operators including Disney, Universal and others are leveraging the power of well-known intellectual properties (IPs), such as Star Wars, the Fast and the Furious and Asterix to pull in the public. For example, Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World grew attendance by 15 percent in 2017, largely due to their new ‘Pandora – the World of Avatar’ land.
Similarly, the Louvre, a globally-recognised icon among cultural attractions, regained its lead as the world’s most attended museum with 8.1 million visitors. And the National Museum of African American History, a high-profile newcomer, stood out by attracting 2.5 million visitors in its first year.
- China and Asia grow
China is emerging as the powerhouse behind much of the global market’s growth, generating around 25 percent of attendance at the top 10 theme park operators.
It’s a similar story across much of South East Asia, where a rapidly expanding middle class, continued economic success and greater exposure to cultural trends through globalisation are all making theme parks an increasingly popular and affordable choice for more people.
Museums in Asia also recorded the fastest growth in the 2017 Museum Index. One-quarter of the world’s 20 most popular exhibitions happened in Tokyo. This includes the year’s most popular single exhibition, which was held at the Tokyo National Museum for Japanese artist Unkei.
- Mixed fortunes elsewhere
Beyond Asia-Pacific, the picture for more established markets was mixed.
North America’s theme parks posted strong performances. But visitor numbers at the leading parks in Latin America fell by over 2 percent, following, in part, the three-month closure of Brazil’s popular Hopi Hari attraction due to financial issues.
Despite falling consumer confidence hampering British parks, the story across Europe was largely positive. Most significant was the growing popularity of smaller parks and indoor entertainment centres — offering, perhaps, a more cost-effective option to families on a budget.
In the Middle East, although new attractions are yet to deliver on their promise, the market has some exciting developments in the pipeline.
- Investment and innovation
As shown by the success of interactive experiences like Secret Cinema in the UK and Ghost Town Alive! At Knott’s Berry Farm in the U.S., the public increasingly want to be at the heart of the action. In response, the industry is investing in attractions that offer innovative and immersive role playing opportunities, as well as focusing on guest hospitality, with developments such as themed hotels, to help improve and prolong guest visits and stays.
Museums are also using social media and other tools to not only attract visitors, but also engage them in exhibits. This includes creating digital content, like the “.zip FUTURE RHAPSODY?|XIAOMI – FUTURE OF TODAY” exhibition in Beijing, which showed artworks featuring digital files only, that the audience where invited to ‘unzip’ as they moved from piece to piece.
Finally, the lower capital costs and higher operating margins of water parks continued to prove popular with investors across regions.
To find out more about the latest global and regional trends, read the full 2017 Theme Index and Museum Index report.