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Summary of our market study
The French leisure park market is estimated at around 2 billion euros.
The global theme park market is growing strongly, with some 501.2 million visitors a year. The sector is an important part of the tourism and entertainment industries.
The French leisure park market, which includes amusement and theme parks, water parks, animal parks and indoor playgrounds, is a dynamic sector. France is one of Europe's leading destinations.
With a strong presence of international players such as Disneyland Paris, Parc Astérix and Puy du Fou, the market is thriving thanks to ongoing investment in existing facilities, innovation through new technologies such as virtual reality. Digital transformation is essential, and parks are increasingly adopting mobile applications to enhance the visitor experience.
The market faces seasonality, with efforts to diversify the customer base through professional events.
Indoor play areas such as bowling and escape games are developing rapidly, with a trend towards franchising.
The French leisure park market
The French leisure park market is a thriving sector in the country's tourism landscape. It attracts between 65 and 75 million visitors a year and generates revenues of around 2 billion euros.
Disneyland Paris, which welcomes some 15 to 20 million visitors every year, accounts for around half of the sector's sales.
The key to the industry's success is innovation and technological advances. Parks are investing in infrastructure expansion and digital transformation. Virtual reality experiences and mobile applications to facilitate visitors' stay are commonplace.
Annual spending by players is in the order of 300 to 400 million euros on new attractions and facility improvements.
players offer accommodation options to extend visitors' stays.
Public bodies see these developments as opportunities for regional economic growth and employment.
Revenue streams range from ticket sales to food, beverages, merchandise and professional services.
Competition in the sector is fierce, and the number of theme parks is very high.
Some players in the French theme park market
- Disneyland Paris
- Parc Astérix
- Puy du Fou
- Futuroscope
- Ok Corral
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Definition
The leisure park market includes :
- amusement and themeparks
- water parks
- animal parks
- indoorplaygrounds for children.
Thanks to its attractiveness and the popularity it generates among tourists, France is one of Europe's leading destinations for the amusement park market, despite strong competition from neighboring countries such as Germany and Spain.
Competition is fierce in France, where there are major international players, both foreign and French, such as Disneyland, Parc Astérix and Puy du Fou. With a large number of parks in the country, the market's growth drivers lie inongoing investment in existingfacilities.
Innovation is one example, and many parks are betting on new technologies to renew their offering, such as virtual reality. Similarly, to enrich the consumer experience before, during and after their visit, and thus boost their sales, many players are investing in the digital arena through the creation ofmobile applications.
We also need to take into account the increasing complexity of the offer, and in particular the "resortization" of the parks, which offer stay packages, i.e. including more or less upmarket accommodation to extend the length of stay, as well as ancillary services such as the increased presence of restaurants, parking lots and stores.
Given the highly seasonal nature of the market, leisure park operators are also targeting business customers , who can use the facilities to organize seminars or team-building workshops, for example.
In parallel with the large-scale leisure park segment, indoor playgrounds are growing fast. Requiring much lower initial investment, they are rapidly expanding in the form of franchises, offering activities such as bowling, go-karting, laser games and escape games.
List of charts presented in this market study
- The size of the global theme park market
- Sales trend (excl. VAT) for naf code 93.21Z
- French people's favorite types of leisure activities by Yougov
- French theme park selection criteria
- What's the budget for a day out... at an amusement park?
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Latest news
Puy du Fou in the starting-blocks in China - 28/03/2024
- In Spain, its park has already reached 1.1 million visitors in 2023, two years after its creation.
- Saga park opens in Shanghai
- Chinese show features Shanghai in the 1930s
- puy du Fou Asia's Chinese partners (Cyts and Chengxin) invest 80 million euros.
- The Puy du Fou subsidiary, 51%-owned by the French park, employs 300 Chinese staff
- Group workforce: 3,850 (2,500 in France, 1,000 in Spain, 300 in China, 50 in the Netherlands);
- Visitor numbers: 3.7 million by 2023 (2.6 million in France and 1.1 million in Spain);
- Investment: 420 million euros in the last four years
Compagnie des Alpes: Parc Astérix's crazy projects - 12/12/2023
- Spring inauguration of the Toutatis Festival, 36 million euros of investment
- Asterix broke its all-time attendance record with 2.8 million visitors, consolidating its position as France's second-largest park, behind the giant Disneyland Paris (15 million by 2022) and ahead of Puy du Fou (2.6 million by 2023).
- On average, 20% of sales (170 million euros in 2022) will be reinvested each year.
- Target: three million annual visitors
- The site's hotel capacity has increased from 100 to 450 rooms in five years.
- A fourth hotel is planned for the end of 2026
- Parc Astérix is the flagship of its owner, Compagnie des Alpes, which also owns Futuroscope, Walibi and the Musée Grévin.
- Sales of Compagnie des Alpes' leisure park business (526 million euros in fiscal 2022-2023) have surpassed those of the group's historic ski resorts (489 million euros).
Leisure parks, Compagnie des Alpes' magic potion - 06/12/2023
- For the first time, the Group broke through the symbolic one-billion-euro sales barrier (1.13 billion, up 10.6%). Operating income was also up, by 3.6% to 139.6 million, as was net income (90.4 million, up 5.2%).
- The Group's leisure parks (Parc Astérix, Futuroscope, Walibi Rhône-Alpes) were in excellent health. With sales of 526 million euros, they outstripped for the second year running its ski area and outdoor activities division (489 million).
- More visitors to the parks (+5.2%)
- Parc Astérix broke its attendance record with 2.8 million admissions. They also spent more (+7% per visitor).
- In skiing, the energy bill more than doubled - from 35.1 million to 72.1 million - and affected all 10 ski areas (including Tignes, La Plagne and Les Arcs).
- In a ski market down 5% according to Domaines skiables de France, CDA sites reported a 1.8% increase in the number of skier-days.
Disneyland Paris plans to recruit 8,500 employees, including 1,500 on permanent contracts - 28/11/2023
- Disneyland Paris plans to hire 8,500 additional employees, including 1,500 on permanent contracts.
- The park already employs almost 16,000 people.
- The park laid off around 1,000 employees during the health crisis.
Compagnie des Alpes and Eurostar expand their offer to Europe - 10/11/2023
- Two years ago, Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) set up Travelski Express, rail links serving a dozen ski areas.
- 4% of travelers to Alpine resorts take the train.
- Eurostar, which used to provide the Travelski Express service, has reduced its services this year to five weeks in winter, and no longer serves Paris, but Lille.
- From 2024 to 2026, Compagnie des Alpes plans to operate twice-weekly services between London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and the French Alps, from mid-December to mid-April.
- Travelski Express carried 12,000 passengers to the Alps last year.
- Every year, almost half a million Belgian skiers, over half a million Dutch skiers and over 1 million English skiers travel to the French Alps to ski.
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