Monday, May 31, 2010

World's Most Popular Amusement Parks



Sixty-foot vertical drops and $45 admission tickets are old news. Today, the steepest thing in the amusement industry is the growth of spending in Asia.

The U.S. theme park industry, once a rocketing roller coaster, is looking more and more like a lazy turn on the Ferris wheel. Amusement park sales in the U.S. are forecast to grow from $10.8 billion to $12.9 billion between 2005 and 2009, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. That's an average annual growth rate of 3.9%--sluggish compared to the 5.5% the industry experienced between 1999 and 2000.

Meanwhile, the Asia/Pacific theme park market will balloon from $6.1 billion to $8.1 billion, an average annual growth rate of 5.7%. And the amusement industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined will grow about 5% per year, reaching $5 billion by 2009.

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