Record numbers of Chinese and American visitors to Australia in the March quarter

Record numbers of tourists from China and the United States of America visited Australia in the March quarter.

By comparison, just released figures in the annual Themed Entertainment Association (TEA)/AECOM Theme Index show that visits to North American attractions rose by 3.6% to 131.5 million visitors, while Europe registered a 0.3% slide to 58 million attendees.

Having crossed the 100 million mark in attendance for the first time in 2011, Asia now represents more than a third of the global visitor attractions market with Asia starting to pull ahead of traditional market leader North America.

Introducing the report, AECOM Senior Vice President - Economics John Robinett referred to "double digit growth on the part of leading international and domestic operators (in Asia, with) Hong Kong Disney and Universal Studios Japan ... up 14% (while) LotteWorld, Chimelong and other major parks saw tremendous growth."

Robinett also highlighted that the top ten global theme and water park operators had performed particularly well, experiencing a 6.7% rise in visits during the year.

Disney topped the theme park attendance list with the world's top eight most attended theme parks from the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Florida, USA with 17,536,000 (a rise of 2.3%); through Disneyland in California; Tokyo Disneyland (14,847,000, up 8.5%); Tokyo Disney Sea (12,656,000, up 8.5%); Disneyland Paris; Epcot at Walt Disney World, Florida; Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Florida; Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, Florida.

Beyond Disney's theme parks in the region, Asian theme parks in the top 20 most visited attractions included:

• Universal Studios Japan (9th most visited theme park in the world) - 9,700,000, up 14.1%

• Ocean Park, Hong Kong (12th) - 7,436,000, up 6.9%

• Everland, South Korea (13th) - 6,853,000, up 4.3%

• Hong Kond Disneyland (14th) - 6,570,000, up 13.6%

• Lotte World, South Korea (15th) - 6,383,000, up 10.4%

• Nagashima Spa Land, Japan (18th) - 5,850,000, up 0.5%

Further discussing the report's Asian findings, AECOM Vice President - Economics (Asia-Pacific) Chris Yoshi adds that "solid growth (in the region) was led by the post-tsunami recovery of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea, as well as significant new attractions added to major parks.

"Big gainers for the year include Universal Studios Japan showing an impressive 14% jump in attendance with 9.7 million visits on the back of Universal Wonderland; Hong Kong Disneyland (13.6% increase) with the Grizzly Gulch themed zone opening, and Soncheng Park in Hangzhou (14.2% increase) which also opened a large new attraction zone."

"As a driver of global tourism, the mainland Chinese tourist is fast becoming the most sought-after visitor in the world, and will continue to be so for many years to come. This vast market sector is still at the very early stages of growth ... (and) 10 years from now all numbers will be significantly higher."

International Visitors in Australia: March 2013 Quarterly Results of the International Visitor Survey can be viewed at www.tra.gov.au

6th June 2013 - ASIA LEADS GLOBAL GROWTH IN THEME PARK AND WATERPARKS ATTENDANCE