News: 2006 park attendance estimates released

Posted at 6:49 PM EDT (2249 GMT)

Apr. 4th, 2007 -- TEA Inc. and Economics Research Institute have released their estimated number of guests for the world's theme parks. The numbers, while unofficial, are the most commonly used in the industry since most parks do not release specific figures.

The eight most-visited parks on the list are all Disney properties. Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World was first with over 16 million visitors, followed by Disneyland in California. Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom, which was eighth on the list, experienced an 8.6% increase in attendance during 2006, at least partially attributed to the opening of the Expedition Everest roller coaster.

Overall Disney parks brought in 112.5 million visitors over 2006, dwarfing second-place Six Flags with 28 million. Universal placed third with 25.8 million, followed by Cedar Fair with 24.7 million (including the former Paramount parks) and Anheuser-Busch with 21.7 million.

See the Orlando Sentinel for more or Connecting Industry for the full report in PDF format.