Park Attendance Reports Show that Walt Disney World Attendance Was Down for 2016

Reports focused on park attendance across all major theme parks has been issused by Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM.  These reports show that Walt Disney World saw a decreased number for visitors for 2016 from the year prior.  This decline was experienced all four of Walt Disney World’s major theme parks:  Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.  The overall market share that Disney held slipped a little bit, too.  We have the numbers for you all to check out below:

Magic Kingdom:

• Down 0.5%
• 20.4 million visitors for 2016

Epcot:

• Down 0.7%
• 11.7 million visitors for 2016

Hollywood Studios:

• Down 0.5%
• 10.78 million visitors for 2016

Animal Kingdom:

• Down 0.7%
• 10.84 million visitors for 2016

The overall market share for Walt Disney World also slipped from 70% to 69.3%.  Disneyland in California also saw a decline in overall attendance for 2016.   The only theme park franchise to see an incline was Universal Studios.  This could be related to the Harry Potter additions and the guest craze for themed lands.  There could also be other economic factors that would have to be reviewed and assessed.  It is a bit surprising to see a decline in attendance at Walt Disney World, especially after the opening of a few major attractions like Frozen Ever After and Soarin’ Around the World.  We might have thought that Epcot would at least see an increase in visitors.

Disney is already working on the next wave of attractions and immersive lands to attract the guests.  Pandora – The World of Avatar just opened and it is proving to be an extremely popular and impressive addition to the Disney family.  Disney is also actively working on Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which will be a major overhaul for that park.  There are also rumors of new attractions and updating theming coming to Epcot.

We don’t have official dates yet for some of the newly planned attractions at Walt Disney World, but as always we will keep you posted as we learn more.