Motionworks Placecast™ Amusement Parks Report

Motionworks Placecast™ products provides for Places and Regions since 2019.

Amusement Parks

Motionworks Placecast™ provides visits and occupancy for Motionworks Places and Regions since 2019. These insights are produced with the Motionworks Population Intelligence Platform. Placecast™ is used for investigating visitation trends at locations through time.

The following document provides an overview of the validation of Motionworks Amusement Parks. Motionworks currently measures visitation at 2,659 amusement parks. Places can be standalone or within a larger building or a complex. Out of the total number of places measured, 2,658 are standalone locations where they can be directly measured. The figure below indicates the distribution of all Motionworks Amusement Parks across the United States.

Place Description

A private park or facility with carnival-style rides (e.g., roller coasters), games of skill or chance, pop entertainment shows, and / or food and beverage services. Often these facilities are oriented towards stays of several hours or days. Water-based amusement parks and facilities are also part of this place type.

Place Stats

Place TypeNumber of PlacesMinimum Size* -sq ft-Median Size -sq ft-Maximum Size* -sq ft-
Amusement Park2,6591,33224,516741,172

* Minimum and maximum size represent the 5th and 95th percentile.

Amusement Parks Geographical Distribution
Median Visits per Week 2026Median Visits per Week 2025Median Visits per Week 2024Median Visits per Week 2023Median Dwell Time 2026Median Dwell Time 2025Median Dwell Time 2024Median Dwell Time 2023
V2.24,0324,5894,7415,40760616060
V2.33,8474,3694,582-616161-

Weekly Visit Trends

The figure below shows the trend of weekly visits - median (red) as well as the 25th to 75th percentile band (green) - over time across all amusement parks.

V2.2

Amusement Parks Weekly visits, measured vs. first party data\labeltrends

V2.3

Amusement Parks Weekly visits, measured vs. first party data\labeltrends

Weekly Visit Per 1K SQFT Trends (Standalone)

The figure below shows the trend of weekly visits per 1000 square feet of space (ksf) - median (red) as well as the 25th to 75th percentile band (green) - over time across only standalone amusement parks that can be directly measured or at least have a polygon/size.

V2.2

Amusement Parks Standalone Weekly Visits per 1000 SQFT, measured vs. first party data

V2.3

Amusement Parks Standalone Weekly Visits per 1000 SQFT, measured vs. first party data

Day of Week and Hour of the Day Profiles

The figure below shows the average ratio of the weekly visits that fall within a specific hour of a specific day of the week. The color represents the year, and each band represents the variation over the months of the year.

Amusement Parks Day of Week and Hour of Day Profiles

Weekly Visit Scores

Each Motionworks place is assigned scores that measure how closely its observed behavior matches what would be expected for similar places of the same type, in the same general area, and of similar size and urbanicity. These scores are used internally to identify places with unusual behavior — those places have their visit estimates, dwell times, and hourly profiles produced through the unfocused place estimate methodology rather than direct measurement.

Average Dwell ScoreAverage Trade Area Distance Footprint ScoreAverage Profile ScoreAverage Visit Score
V2.20.490.510.490.46
V2.30.480.520.500.40

What the Scores Measure

Four dimensions are scored independently each month:

  • Visit Score — compares the place's monthly visits per square foot against similar places. A high score means the place sees significantly more or fewer visitors per unit of space than would be expected for its type and location.

  • Dwell Score — compares the average time visitors spend at the place against similar places. Both unusually short and unusually long dwell times result in a higher score.

  • Profile Score — compares the shape of the place's hourly visit pattern across the week against similar places. A bar that is busiest on Tuesday mornings, for example, would score differently than the typical bar crowd pattern.

  • Visitor Distance Score — compares the typical distance visitors travel from home to reach the place against similar places. A neighborhood coffee shop drawing visitors from 50+ miles away, or a major convention center drawing only hyper-local visitors, would both receive elevated scores.

How to Interpret the Score

Scores range from 0 to 1. A score closer to 0 means the place behaves as expected. A score closer to 1 means the place is a significant outlier relative to its peer group.

The table above shows the all-time average score across all Amusement Parks in the Motionworks database. Because scores are centered around the typical place in each peer group, all-time averages tend to settle near 0.5 across most place types — this is expected. The graphs below show how scores have trended month by month since January 2019, including the 25th and 75th percentile band across individual places.

Visit Score Graph

Amusement Parks Visit Score

Dwell Score Graph

Amusement Parks Dwell Score

Profile Score Graph

Amusement Parks Profile Score

Footprint Trade Area Distance Score Graph

Amusement Parks footprint Score

Tradeareas

A trade area is where customers or visitors live and how far they are likely to travel to an establishment or neighborhood. Motionworks Placecast™ Trade Areas documents the home location of visitors by the number of visits to a Motionworks Place or Region every month since 2019. These insights are produced with the Motionworks Population Intelligence Platform.

Verification

Motionworks verifies Trade Area estimates to ensure confidence and illustrate the quality of our data. Motionworks maintains data on expected trade areas by place type from trusted third parties such as travel surveys and academic research. The following tables provide an overview of verification for each Motionworks place type nationally compared to target values Motionworks has identified for each place type. Due to the detail of Motionworks place types, there is not always a one-to-one relationship between Motionworks place types and those identified in studies and research. As a result, some values from studies and research are shared across multiple Motionworks place types.

Tradeareas visits distribution

Motionworks segments trade areas by 1) local, 2) hyper local, 3) non-local. Local is defined as the home to place distance is < 50 miles, Hyper local is defined as the home and place have the same Census block group, and Non-local is defined as the home to place distance is > 50 miles. The figure below illustrates the distribution of visits by trade area segment.

Amusement Parks Tradeareas visits distribution

Local (< 50 miles from home) Statistics

VersionMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (202602)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
v2.226.8 miles26.8 miles-6.25 %7.3 %
v2.315.6 miles9.1 miles18.299999999999997 %8.0 %

Hyper Local (same home and place Census block group) Statistics

VersionMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (202602)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
v2.27.8 miles5.1 miles361.5 %81.2 %
v2.36.1 miles3.4 miles-86.3 %55.9 %

Non-Local (>50 miles from home) Statistics

VersionMean Travel Distance to LocationMotionworks Estimated Mean (202602)Change from prior monthChange from prior year
v2.2343.1 miles487.2 miles-16.85 %35.3 %
v2.3262.7 miles338.6 miles29.1 %16.0 %

Home to place distance distribution

The figure below illustrates the home to place distance distribution by distance bin.

Amusement Parks Device home to place distance weighted device visits