Joel Golder, Palace Playland, Old Orchard Beach, USA (pictured): We were very happy with business this season. Our season pass sales were up from the previous year, so we were happy to see more customers taking advantage of what we consider our highest value offer.
Unlike many other parks we do not have a paid admission here, so it can be a bit tricky determining whether our overall attendance is up or down. The general consensus in the area is that the amount of people visiting has been increasing, but they are being more careful with their spending. Most importantly, we had some good weather this summer, and anyone in this industry will tell you that is the biggest factor in a successful season.
Giovanni Modena, PortAventura, Spain: The results were positive, and over the first nine months of the season we achieved all our expectations in terms of numbers and guest satisfaction. We have one 1.5 million people riding Shambhala, our new B&M coaster, and we have been able to weather the economic storm in the domestic market by increasing the number of foreign visitors
Silke Holzner, Bayern Park, Germany: We were hoping to reach 350,000 visitors this season (from 320,000 in 2011), but twe have only had a 5% increase because from Easter onwards there has been very little good weather in Bavaria, or in much of Europe actually. We had a few good weeks in summer, but we lost so many weeks earlier on in the season we can’t get them back.
Nick Laskaris, Mt Olympus, USA: The 2012 season proved to be yet another record breaker for Mt Olympus. We were up just over 20% in revenue and we had over 1.2 million visitors to the park. I feel the main reasons for this solid increase ate because of the superior diverse product we offer to our guests and the hot weather the Wisconsin Dells had this year.
