The Orlando Sentinel reports that Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter continues to set record attendance levels for their Florida theme parks.
Gaining just a little over 1 million (yes, 1 million!) more visitors in this year’s first quarter versus 2010 attendance levels, Universal must be overjoyed. Especially when this translates to a $45 million profit in this year’s first quarter instead of the $36 million loss from last year’s first quarter. Wow! You’re talking an $80 million swing!!
Since that essentially pays for the construction of the Wizarding World, do you think they’ll start giving out free Butterbeer? Ha! I wouldn’t hold my breath. Nonetheless, this is a huge impact for Universal and the Orlando vacation market. When we went on tours of the Universal hotels, last month, we were told that they’re essentially booked up through the end of the year. This time, last year, they were just starting to see some increases with the anticipation of the new park, but still plenty of hotel space available.
There’s now talk of a 4th resort being added, shortly and of course the constant rumors of Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansions.
Here’s an interesting break down of where Universal saw increases in sales from the Sentinel:
Ticket sales rose 85 percent to $159.3 million. Food-and-beverage sales leapt 104 percent to $33.6 million. And merchandise sales skyrocketed 156 percent to $42.7 million.
You can see that Butterbeer and those $30 Harry Potter wands certainly had a “magical” effect on the bottom line.
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Want to get all our tips and tricks for visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? We wrote a travel guide for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade! We included all our tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the last year to make your visit to the Wizarding World as magical as possible. Be sure to check it out!
Get your Harry Potter theme park souvenirs from the official Harry Potter shop, the WB Shop!