While the big chains chase profits, smaller, independently owned parks are investing in attractions and making guests feel valued.
Festivalgoers are seen during Dollywood’s Season Passholder and Media Day on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. If you have visited a theme park — such as Disneyland, Knott’s or SeaWorld — lately and said to yourself, “I don’t think that I am the target customer here,” you might be right.
Those theme parks are profitable and investing in new attractions and operations that make fans feel like guests of honor. But at other regional parks, many of us have been feeling lately like chum being served to Wall Street to boost a stock price. Who’s the real customer here? Over at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, United Parks management has spent more than $200 million buying back the company’s stock. What used to be illegal stock manipulation is now standard practice to pump a stock price without having to actually do anything to win customers. Meanwhile, the company has delayed its new jellyfish attraction that was supposed to open this year at SeaWorld San Diego until next spring.
This should be a simple transaction — we trade money for fun. But complicated pass schemes, upcharges, inconsistent operating schedules and inexperienced workers are draining the joy from visiting a theme park.
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