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Letter to the editor

Busch Gardens bucks growth trend

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published December 15, 2004

Funny how $500,000, a bunch of trained birds and 15 acres could make an entertainment splash 45 years ago.

The original Busch Gardens happened to be next to owner Anheuser-Busch's new brewery that served free Budweiser to visitors. (Sorry, the brewery was shut down in 1995.) Back then, just getting to Busch Gardens was tricky. Nearby Interstate 275 did not exist.

Now Busch Gardens is a densely packed, 300-acre complex theme park of zoo animals, live shows and ever-wilder rides. And increasingly, it must compete for the stretched entertainment dollar of tourists and the Tampa Bay area's residents.

How stretched? Busch Gardens saw 2004 attendance slide 5 percent to 4.1-million, according to an annual survey of estimated theme park visitors released by the industry publication Amusement Business and the research firm Economics Research Associates.

Busch Gardens was the only Florida park among North America's top 50 to experience a decline this year. In contrast, 2004 attendance was up in Orlando at Walt Disney's multiple theme parks, along with Universal Studios and even Anheuser-Busch's SeaWorld. Visitors at Disney's Magic Kingdom rose 8 percent to 15.2-million, making it again the world's most-visited park.

Is this cause to worry in Tampa? Not yet. But it is a reminder that Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay's sole premier theme park, sits a good hour west of the thick cluster of Orlando theme parks. That means Busch Gardens must fight extra hard to capture its fair share of Florida tourists, as well as stay fresh to keep attracting the critical local market.

Busch Gardens ranks 12th this year in attendance among the big theme parks. It ranked No. 7 in 1989.

The theme parks do not release their attendance figures. Though the Amusement Business survey estimates are sometimes contested by one theme park or another, over the years the attendance figures have become the industry standard of comparison.

Busch Gardens places most of the blame for an attendance dip this year on Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. The park closed for three days. Two of those days were during the popular Labor Day weekend.

That's not the complete answer. While the Orlando theme parks faced similar hurricane weather and closed days, Disney's Magic Kingdom and Epcot attendance in 2004 was up 8 and 9 percent, respectively, while Universal Studios was up 14 percent.

"Busch Gardens Tampa has not had an attendance increase since 2000, when its draw of 5-million represented an increase of 28 percent," says James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business.

That huge bump in visitors was largely because of Busch Gardens' success with the Florida 2000 Fun Pass. The pass gave Florida residents admission for a year for $46, the cost at the time of a one-day ticket.

Busch Gardens has never topped the 5-million-visitor mark of 2000. Here's a quick look back at Busch Gardens' attendance swings:

Before this year's 5 percent decline to 4.1-million, attendance dropped 4 percent in 2003, 2 percent in 2002 and 8 percent in 2001 - the year of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (In 2001, all eight big Florida parks had declines in attendance.)

If hurricanes were to blame in 2004, Busch Gardens attributed its 2003 drop to the mysterious SARS virus threat, the war in Iraq and the "lingering softness" in the economy. In 2002, the sharp drop in Latin American tourists to the United States was cited.

In the latter half of the 1990s, annual attendance wavered modestly from 3.8-million in 1995, up to 4.2-million in 1997, then back to 3.9-million in 1999.

Busch Gardens attributed the 1999 decline to its strategy of cutting back on consumer discounts and charging more visitors full price. The result was record earnings for the theme park in spite of fewer visitors.

In 1998, Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park opened, which was expected to sap Busch Gardens because of the overlap of zoo themes. While Busch attendance was flat that year, Animal Kingdom dropped Busch Gardens from No. 8 to No. 9 in the annual ranking.

In the first half of the 1990s, attendance hit a low of 2.8-million in 1991. Visitors later flocked to the theme park in 1993 and 1994, reaching 3.7-million each year, thanks to the introduction of the Kumba roller coaster.

Amusement Business' Zoltak says Busch Gardens simply has to work harder because Orlando is a "destination" market. Tampa is not.

"Orlando has a much greater critical mass of attractions than does Tampa, which lacks theme park brands and the marketing muscle of Disney and Universal," he says.

"Destination markets depend less on local and regional draw," Zoltak adds. "And those who plan and go on vacations in Orlando will usually go anyway, despite the weather."

The good news is Busch Gardens might benefit from its new high-profile thrill ride, its first in several years. Next spring, the theme park will unveil the first diving roller coaster, called SheiKra, that features a 70-mph, 200-foot plunge.

The new ride might just be the ticket to boost visitor blood pressure - and attendance.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.

[Last modified December 15, 2004, 00:30:19]