Amusement Parks
SIC 7996
NAICS 713110
Amusement parks operate a variety of entertainment attractions on one premises. Popular features include mechanical rides, electronic and conventional games, stage shows, refreshment stands, and picnic grounds. The industry includes such venues as theme parks, water parks, kiddie parks, and similar recreational facilities.
Worldwide, attendance at theme parks was escalating, bringing worldwide revenues to more than US$20 billion, with a whopping 25 percent growth projected into 2008. A new Disney theme park was scheduled to open in Hong Kong in September 2005, and most parks continued to try to outdo each other with the development of new rides that technology was permitting to be higher and faster. U.S. theme parks boasted revenues of approximately US$10.8 billion for 2004, with an estimated 328 million visitors in attendance, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions (IAAPA).
This growth was despite concerns in 2003—affecting the very dynamics of the amusement industry—about the U.S.-led war with Iraq and potential terrorist attacks. According to a 2002 USA Today poll, 10 percent of Americans rated amusement parks and sporting events as the most likely target for a terrorist attack, behind nuclear plants (14 percent), all places (15 percent), and large city downtowns (19 percent). By comparison, Americans were less concerned about terrorist attacks at airports (7 percent), reservoirs (7 percent), national monuments (6 percent), military installations (5 percent), and bridges/tunnels (5 percent).
In 2004, 328 million people around the world visited amusement parks. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), visitors spent approximately US$20 billion and that amount was expected to grow to US$24.7 billion by 2008. International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Vice President of Communication Services Beth Robertson expected the amount to be even more because 100 new attractions opened or had been announced in 2005. Robertson acknowledged, however, that the energy crisis and currency rates would have an impact on actual results.
PWC also stated, as fewer people traveled from afar to visit so-called destination theme parks, such venues attempted to attract more local and regional visitors. This trend had a negative impact on per capita spending. Another trend saw local and regional parks trying to attract more overnight visitors, which had the effect of increasing per capita spending for those venues. In the mid-2000s, the trend was away from roller coasters toward more family-oriented entertainment and enhanced amenities.
The practice of marketing amusement parks to religious groups was becoming more wide-spread. Great America estimated that 2,700 people came for its Sikh Youth Day. Although there were a lot of event planning details involved in carrying off these types of targeted events, it was believed to be well worth the effort. A national trend was gaining momentum for amusement parks to place on their calendar Praise Days, Muslim Unity Days, Jewish Heritage Days and other faith-linked celebrations. They ranged from times where group members might be invited in while the park handled business as usual or days with special activities planned and food ordered just for them. Some parks considered the practice to be an outgrowth of JoyFest events featuring a lineup of Christian acts.
Amusement parks and their thrill rides were regulated in 42 of 50 states by 2005. However, according to Saferparks, a non-profit organization that follows safety issues in the amusement park industry, in the United States only 37 states were required to report ride-related injuries as of 2004. Of these, about half limited their reporting requirements to deaths or the most serious injuries. Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming did not regulate amusement park rides at all.
Of the states that do require amusement parks to report safety data, Saferparks reports that this information is often difficult for consumers to obtain. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, prohibit the public from accessing such information. In other states, reporting requirements are not applied across the board. For example, in Florida—home to such leading destinations as Universal Studios and Disney World—those parks employing more than 1,000 people were exempt from reporting requirements, even in the case of accident-related deaths. State investigators were not allowed to inspect rides or investigate accidents at such leading parks.
A CNN article in August of 2001 indicated that between 1993 and 2000 there was a 57 percent rise in the number of injuries reported on fixed-site rides However, the IAAPA argues that amusement park and attraction rides are among the safest recreation available to the public, based on industry data. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated there were about 3,800 injuries involving amusement rides at amusement parks with fixed sites in 2002. Of those, 76 (0.2 percent) were serious enough to require hospitalization, and there are an average of two fatalities per year. Based on both government and independent data, the IAAPA placed the risk of serious injury on a fixed amusement ride at 1 in 20 million, and the risk of being fatally injured at 1 in 760 million.
Amusement park safety was a global concern as of the mid-2000s. By 2004, the European Union (EU) was in the process of developing a uniform amusement safety standard. According to the IAAPA, the EU was pursuing this "so that all rides located throughout its member countries will be built and maintained to the same exacting specifications. Once this process is complete, the code is expected to be designated as a universal standard which can be adopted by any nation in the world." In addition to the EU's efforts, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) amusement ride standard was expanded during the 2000s, with international input, and made available globally.
The amusement park industry's roots date to medieval Europe. In approximately 1133 A.D., the monk Rahere, a former jester in the court of Henry I, held the first trade fair beginning on August 25, the day after Bartholomew's day, and continuing for 10 days. For 500 years, traders from all over the world came to Bartholomew Fair to display and sell their wares. While designed for commercial purposes, the public came for strolling entertainers, the food, and the atmosphere. During the Elizabethan period, the fair slowly became an amusement with jugglers, puppet shows, freak shows, and dancers among other performers. The last Bartholomew Fair was held in 1855, with unruly mobs, petty thieves, and unsavory characters.
In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pleasure gardens began to appear attached to taverns and inns on the outskirts of European cities. The pleasure gardens featured live entertainment, dancing, fireworks and even primitive amusement rides. By the late eighteenth century, the gardens featured fireworks, tightrope walkers and fees for admission. Political unrest in the eighteenth century forced many of these attractions to close. In the United States, by the late nineteenth century, electric trolley companies began building amusement parks at the end of the trolley line as a way to encourage patronage on the weekends when there were few riders. These facilities consisted of picnic areas, restaurants, dance halls, and a sprinkling of amusement rides. The parks quickly became successful and sprang up across the United States.
The golden era of amusement parks began with the 1893 World's Fair Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. There, the Ferris wheel and the midway were introduced to the world, with a selection of rides and concessions. The midway was a huge success and dictated the design of amusement parks for the next six decades. In 1894, Paul Boynton opened his Water Chutes attraction on Chicago's South Side; the success of that attraction persuaded him to open a similar facility at the Coney Island resort in New York in 1895. Over the next three decades, Coney Island became the center of the industry, which grew tremendously as hundreds of new amusement parks opened around the world.
By 1919 there were more than 1,500 amusement parks in operation in the United States. A decade later, the country entered the Great Depression, and by 1935 the economic downturn had exacted a terrible toll on the fledgling industry. Only 400 parks survived, and they struggled to break even. The ones that did faced a new struggle, World War II, when many parks closed and others held off adding new attractions because of rationing.
After World War II, the amusement park industry enjoyed record attendance and revenues. A new concept, Kiddieland, was born to take advantage of the postwar baby boom and introduced a new generation to the fun that could be had at amusement parks. However, as the 1950s arrived, television, desegregation, urban decay, and...
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