Cars Land drives 22.6 percent visitor spike at Disney’s Adventure Park
Photo Credit: A father and son on Luigi's Tire Ride at Cars Land in Disney's California Adventure Park. Flickr / Ashley Fitting
Skift Take
Although overall theme park attendance grew 3.6 percent in 2012, the visitor boom at Disney’s Adventure Park is the direct result of Cars Land and the all-or-nothing $1.1 billion makeover last year.
Cars Land has put the pedal to the metal on attendance numbers at Disney's California Adventure Park.
The once-struggling theme park adjacent to Disneyland in Anaheim drew 7.8 million visitors in 2012, a 22.6% increase over the previous year, according to an attendance estimate released Tuesday by the engineering and consulting firm Aecom and Burbank-based Themed Entertainment Assn., a trade group for designers of theme parks, casinos, restaurants and zoos.
Theme park experts attribute the attendance surge to Disney's $1.1-billion makeover last year of California Adventure, including the addition of the 12-acre Cars Land, the biggest expansion since the park opened in 2001.
"It was worth every penny," said longtime Disney watcher Dave Koenig, author of "Mouse Tales," a book on the park's history. "I'm only surprised that the numbers were not bigger, considering how crowded it is there."
California's most popular park, Disneyland, welcomed nearly 16 million guests, a 1.1% dr
