Theme park visitors rebound nearly to pre-pandemic level: report

Government data showed Monday that the number of visitors at major theme parks in South Korea has rebounded, approaching pre-COVID-19 figures.

The annual headcount for those who visited Everland, the largest theme park and zoo here, marked 5.88 million in 2023. In the same year, 5.19 million people visited Lotte World and 1.33 million went to Seoul Land, according to the Tourism Knowledge and Information System operated by the state-run Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.

Both Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and Lotte World in Jamsil-dong, southern Seoul, saw an increase in annual visitors from 2020. Everland went from 2.75 million in 2020 to 3.7 million in 2021 and 5.77 million in 2022, while Lotte World went from 1.55 million in 2020 to 2.46 million in 2021 and 4.51 million in 2022.

Seoul Land in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, marked a slight decrease compared to 1.38 million in 2022, but its annual visitors had also been on an upward trend since 648,945 in 2020.

All three parks in 2023 recorded around 90 percent of the visitors they had in the pre-COVID-19 years.

Numbers suggest that Everland and Lotte World may see a further increase in visitors. About 1.17 million people visited Everland in the first quarter of this year, marking a 20.1 percent increase compared to the first quarter of last year.

An outdoor park like Everland conventionally has far fewer visitors in Q1, as people are less inclined to visit during the winter. But the theme park saw a boost in visitors in the first three months of the year due to increased visits by fans of Fu Bao, the first giant panda born in South Korea. She returned to China in April as per the loan agreement between the two countries.

The on-year increase for Q1 for Lotte World was far less at 3.6 percent, but the number of foreign visitors surged 38.3 percent in the same period.