In the present days, the operators of theme parks have been spending a lot as competition in this industry and for visitors as well grow even fiercer. Some known theme parks like Universal, Disney, Six Flags, and SeaWorld have just announced that they will add new rides, attractions, and entire lands in the past months as well.

As said by the president of the consulting company International Theme Park Services Dennis Speigel, this kind of expansion and investment is critical for the operators of the theme parks to hold onto their fans and visitors. Skift also reported that the hardest thing to maintain in their industry is market penetration.

This year saw the coming of the challenges in theme parks and some operators have managed still to cope with these than the others. Last August, the CEO of SeaWorld shared that he was not satisfied with the results of their theme park after a disappointing number of attendees at parks particularly in Orlando and San Diego.

Meanwhile, for Six Flags Entertainment, their first six months were so much lighter than what was expected. It was added that the Texas-based company was no longer in capacity to meet the financial targets of this year as their net income also fell.

Because of those instances, the trends that have dominated the last few months for theme parks were revealed. These factors include the weather, intellectual property matters, immersion innovation, higher demand for water parks, and the presence of overseas parks.

With regards to the weather, Travel Channel reported that most operators were forced to close their theme parks when Hurricane Irma hit Florida. Most popular theme parks in the affected areas all shut down for at least two days. Even if the theme parks escaped the damage from the storm, the closures hurt their business for the quarter.

Last July, Disney announced its extensive plans at D23 Expo like revealing new details about its upcoming Star-Wars themed lands in Orlando. Further, the company also said that new additions of theme parks will be based on the Marvel superheroes and Guardians of the Galaxy and thee things which came from intellectual property fueled expansion.

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