After publishing the analysis of the state of the theme park and amusement park sector in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it is now the turn of Latin America. Let’s take a look at the state of health of the market in this sector, according to the five-yearly report updated every year by IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions). In a first general approximation, the report points out that, like all regions of the world, Latin America suffered the onslaught of the pandemic at the end of 2019 and in 2020, a blow from which it has not yet fully recovered. In fact, according to IAAPA, “theme parks were among the first industries to close and among the last to open in Latin America”. At the same time, the “declines in international tourism” hurt the sector in the region.
Indeed, both theme park and amusement park attendance and revenues in Latin America suffered the second largest drop globally in 2020, after North America. Therefore, a 75.8% drop in visits to the parks compared to the previous year (from 30.6 million to 7.4 million people), meant a 69.7% loss in revenue (from around €284 million to around €86 million). Nevertheless, in a geographic area of the world seemingly prone to extremes, IAAPA forecasts that “Latin America will be the second fastest growing region” for this market until at least 2025. However, while compared to 2020 the compound annual increase in revenues is projected to be 36.8%, if 2019 is taken as the baseline instead (which is a perspective that softens the impact of the pandemic), that compound annual increase will be a modest 6.4%.
In any case, theme park and amusement park attendance in Latin America will grow at a compound annual rate of 33% from 2020, but only at a compound annual rate of 0.1% from 2019. Therefore, while attendance will only reach 2019 figures in 2025 (with 30.8 million visits expected), the revenue tally will nevertheless recover during the current year of 2023 (with €308 million, compared to almost €284 million in 2019). This implies that growth in per capita spending will offset the relatively slow recovery in visitor numbers.
Looking at the countries that make up the region, Mexico, with 43% of the share of theme park and amusement park revenues, according to 2019 figures, would be the largest market for the sector in Latin America. It is followed by Brazil, with 15% share, and Chile, with 14%. Colombia accounts for 7.5% of the Latin American market, Peru shares 6.5% and the rest of the countries, excluding Argentina, share 11.5% of the revenues. Argentina deserves special mention, as the high inflation rates it suffered caused large drops in the value of the Argentinean peso, which means that theme and amusement parks have lost much of their value. However, according to IAAPA, the country’s market “would be nine times higher“, and not insignificant as the data show (just under €3 million in 2019), “if the exchange rate (…) remained at its 2015 level”.
In any case, Mexico recorded the steepest decline in the region in 2020 (from just over €123 million in 2019, to just over €23 million a year later, or a drop of around 81%). At the same time, IAAPA expects Mexico to be “the fastest-growing country over the next five years, with its market share rising to 46% in 2025″. In fact, according to forecasts (pending final data), Mexico equalled 2019 revenues over the past 2022, and by 2023 will surpass the latter by 17.5%.
You can return to the reviews we have written on other regions here: Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Source: IAAPA.
