{"id":170189,"date":"2026-02-26T15:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170189\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:48:06","slug":"united-parks-seaworld-orlando-owner-reports-attendance-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170189\/","title":{"rendered":"United Parks, SeaWorld Orlando owner, reports attendance drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Parks & Resorts<\/a>, the parent company of SeaWorld Orlando<\/a>, reported declines in attendance, revenue and net income for its most recent fiscal year, which ended in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fiscal 2025 results did not meet our expectations,\u201d CEO Marc Swanson said on Thursday. \u201cWhile the consumer environment was uneven and our results were impacted by negative international tourism trends and volatile weather during certain peak visitation periods, we should have delivered better results, particularly on the cost side of the income statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendance was down 1.8%, about 21.2 million visitors, for the company. The report does not break out attendance figures for its 13 individual parks, a lineup that also includes Aquatica<\/a> water park, Discovery Cove<\/a> day resort and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay<\/a> theme park.<\/p>\n

Total revenue for the year was $1.7 billion, a drop of 3.6% from fiscal 2024, and net income was $168.4 million, a decrease of 26%.<\/p>\n

A brighter spot was an increase of in-park per-capita spending by 1%, including a 2.1% increase in the fourth quarter, which set a company record, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuests continue to respond positively to our offerings and spend when they visit our parks,\u201d Swanson said.<\/p>\n

The company has taken measures to improve its results, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have moved decisively to address our less-than-optimal cost management and have updated and focused our plans and investments for 2026, designed to drive attendance and guest spending across our parks,\u201d Swanson said. That includes new rides and attractions, expanded concert lineups and enhanced marketing plans, he stated.<\/p>\n

IAAPA Expo: SeaWorld debuts SEAQuest vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2026, SeaWorld Orlando plans to open SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep<\/a>, an undersea dark ride, while Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will introduce Lion & Hyena Ridge, an animal habitat featuring five young lions and a pair of hyenas. Some SeaWorld Orlando enhancements for this year have not been announced yet, Swanson said, and Discovery Cove bookings are up for the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think the lifeblood of giving people a reason to visit is having new attractions and events and shows,\u201d Swanson said during a conference call with market analysts.<\/p>\n

He also repeated that the opening of Epic Universe theme park last year is a positive development for the Central Florida market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re investing in a market that continues to attract high-quality investments from other people as well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think that benefits everyone, and we\u2019ll\u00a0 continue to do our part to drive people to our parks while they\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United Parks & Resorts, the parent company of SeaWorld Orlando, reported declines in attendance, revenue and net income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,740,104,28,29,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,11384,2043,109,76686,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,1316,107,3434],"class_list":{"0":"post-170189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-orlando-headlines","19":"tag-orlando-news","20":"tag-pets-and-animals","21":"tag-seaworld","22":"tag-social","23":"tag-social-business","24":"tag-social-entertainment","25":"tag-social-theme-parks","26":"tag-social-travel","27":"tag-theme-parks","28":"tag-things-to-do","29":"tag-tourism","30":"tag-travel","31":"tag-universal-orlando"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}