Theme Parks

Traditionally, Theme Parks are Amusement Parks that follow a particular theme. Some examples would be marine-themed parks such as Sea World and Sea Life, water parks such as Splish Splash and Schlitterbahn or even brand or product themed parks such as Disneyland and Hershey Park. Today, the terms theme park and amusement park are used interchangeably.

Theme park safety has always been an important issue that visitors are concerned about at when planning a visit to a theme park. The recent Sea World Killer Whale Attack that killed a trainer brought this issue to the forefront once again. In 2008, 292.1 million people visited a theme park. Out of all those people, there were only 1,664 ride related injuries reported for the year.http://downloads.nsc.org/pdf/fap_906.pdf

Although Disneyland is generally considered the nation's first theme park, Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen is the oldest theme park that is still in existence today.http://www.napha.org/LIBRARY/FactsFigures/GreatMoments/tabid/69/Default.aspx Disneyland opened in 1955. It cost 17 million dollars to build it and the park attracted 3.8 million visitors in the first season.http://www.napha.org/LIBRARY/FactsFigures/GreatMoments/tabid/69/Default.aspx

Six Flags opened their first park in Texas in 1961.It was the first regional based theme park. Six Flags, Inc now operates 19 parks across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. They are also expanding outside of North America, with theme parks being built in Dubai and Qatar.http://investors.sixflags.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=61629&p=irol-irhome

In the 1970s, the era of corporate backed theme parks began. Corporations like Marriott Corp., Penn Central, Anheuser-Busch, Taft Broadcasting, Mattel, and Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich started making investments into theme parks. This competition causes the demise of many family owned theme parks. While others took this opportunity to expand in order to keep up with the competition.http://www.napha.org/LIBRARY/FactsFigures/GreatMoments/tabid/69/Default.aspx