What theme park won the spot of the most visited in the world?

in Disney, Entertainment, Theme Parks

Pandora - The World of Avatar

Credit: Disney

Theme parks are some of the most visited places in all of the world as they attract guests with their film and TV based entertainment in the forms of thrilling attractions, in your face theater experiences, wandering characters and so much more. As one might imagine, some parks are visited much more than others and with the recent attraction additions to some of the world’s most famous theme parks, including a few found at Walt Disney World, it seems some parks might be on the up!

In a new report by TEA/AECOM, it seems our big winner of 2018 with the highest visitation of any theme park in the world, who has been the winner for some time, goes to Magic Kingdom. According to the report, the famed theme park’s visitation totaled over 20,859,000 visitors in 2018, growing 2% from 2017 – 2018.

Cinderella Castle
Credit: Disney

Keeping in the Disney realm, it seems a Disney Park also saw one of the largest increases in visitation in comparison to most other theme parks between 2017 – 2018 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park saw a growth of 10% in just one year and now sits at the 6th most visited theme park in the world as of 2018.

Other Walt Disney World parks close to the top include Epcot at number seven with 12.4 million visitors and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at number eight with 11.2 million visitors. Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw an increase of 5% while Epcot only a 2% increase between 2017 and 2018.

Universal Orlando
GET Sports Travel

Also found in Florida, Universal Orlando theme parks made it to the top of the list as well. Universal’s Islands of Adventure came in at number fourteen with 9.7 million visitors, up 2.5% from 2017. Universal Studios Florida came close to top ten at number eleven with 10.7 million visitors, only 122,000 visitors short from being number ten on the list.

In a win for Universal Orlando, its new water park Volcano Bay saw a 15% increase in attendance, making it the third-most popular water park in North America with 1.73 million visitors. Aquatica came in right behind it at number seven with 1.56 million visitors.

Universal's Volcano Bay
Credit: Universal Orlando

Although, Walt Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks still sit higher than Volcano Bay. Typhoon Lagoon came in at number two for the highest visited water park in the world with 2.2 million visitors and Blizzard Beach came in at number three with a little over 2 million.

What are your thoughts on Disney’s Animal Kingdom seeing a massive increase of over 10% in visitation between 2017 and 2018? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: TEA/AECOM, Orlando Sentinel 

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