InPark Magazine: It’s that time of year when journalists, industry professionals and park fans are eager to read the latest attractions attendance report. Produced by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) with presenting sponsor Storyland Studios, the TEA Global Experience Index (formerly the Theme Index and Museum Index) serves as both a mirror and a map – reflecting where the industry has been and helping to chart where it may be headed.
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I like reading about the Global Experience Index because it’s nice to know where people are focusing their spending on different forms of entertainment. The numbers have been especially interesting in the years following the pandemic as they took a nose dive and then climbed back up. As the article points out, it’s a new take for Disney to stop targeting volume, and instead focus on targeting the upper middle to upper class attendees. Prices are record high for entrance tickets, food, and merchandise. By outpricing the original target consumers, the average American family, Disney is focused on enhancing the experience to affluent guests who overall will spend more money on on-property hotels, and with bigger parties. The museum attendance mentioned towards the end caught my attention. My grandparents are avid museum attendees, and from what I’ve noticed, Museum’s push from renovations is a result of necessity to incorporate interactive technology to draw people in. Museums nowadays fall victim to making the experience as trendy as possible at the expense of losing information and comprehensive displays.
I read this report whenever it came out, sometime in the past few weeks I think. I hadn’t read the TEA report previously, but it just about met my expectations with where the themed entertainment industry was right now. I’ve been fortunate enough to go to Disney frequently enough to watch their business model evolve in real time, and the renewed focus on the more affluent visitors, both by Disney and Universal, certainly rings true in the parks today, as prices continue to rise at a meteoric rate. It was interesting to see that museums were still strong, as that hasn’t often been my anecdotal point of view here in the United States, where it seems that museums haven’t been recovering well in the post-COVID economy. Though, that is an anecdote, one in the United States at that, so it’s not an unreasonable proposition that museums are doing well globally. Next year will be even more interesting, as Epic Universe will begin to really make waves, and maybe the stories of 2025’s slow summer will be confirmed.
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