The year 2022 promises to be full of celebrations for amusements parks, with Disneyland Paris turning 30, Puy du Fou reaching 45 and Efteling celebrating 70 years. A sector that is reaching a certain maturity in different parts of the world, but which nevertheless continues to evolve and reinvent itself to continue to amaze young and old alike. New attractions, new equipment, new shows and new hotels are all major items of expenditure for the parks. In the meantime, the health crisis has hit the sector hard, forcing these major amusement destinations to close their doors for many months. How is the sector faring after two up-and-down years? Which parks have proved to be the most resilient and have continued despite everything to develop? What changes have been made to cope with increased competition and to meet the new expectations of visitors?
Find here the link to the first part of this analysis on amusement parks.
A competitive market that is constantly evolving
With such a concentration of players in one market, competition is becoming increasingly fierce. This is why parks are constantly investing in new products. On the one hand, they must stand out from their competitors, but they must also arouse the interest of visitors by refreshing themselves as regularly as possible. This is a very costly necessity for the parks, in fact the Banque des territoires estimates the amount of annual investments by the parks at between €300 and €400 million. And the price of attractions can sometimes approach or even exceed €1 billion. It is estimated that parks open a major new attraction every two years.
The parks' development plans are all being maintained despite the consequences of the health crisis on the sector. Europa Park is continuing its expansion with the development of a new zone dedicated to Croatia. The creation of this future zone has been planned for several years and was recently made official, but for the moment very little information has been revealed. Visitors should be able to discover this new area by 2023, and a large-scale roller coaster will form the heart of this future zone. This expansion, the largest since the opening of the Rulantica water park, should enable Europa Park to pass the 6 million annual visitor mark. To pique visitors’ interest, the park has just renovated its area dedicated to Austria, with a new attraction that immerses them in the world of Sissi – The Young Empress.
In the Netherlands, Efteling is also planning to expand with the construction of a new 17,000 m² theme area by 2024. Work on this new area, estimated at 25 million euros, will begin...
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