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Despite multiple studies of customer delight in various service industries, limited research exists in the hedonically driven theme park context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the key drivers of customer delight and outrage in theme parks by analyzing TripAdvisor’s comments from visitors to the top 20 North American theme parks.

Following the analysis of thousands of extremely positive and negative comments using MAXQDA qualitative software, keywords drivers of delight and outrage were identified. The researchers applied both thematic and root cause in order to ascertain the sources leading to both positive and negative consumer feedback.

Delighted guests relayed various aspects of their experience including positive affect experience, positive value perceptions, and limited wait times. Root causes that influenced customer delight included: excellent core product, quality food and beverage, servicescape, pricing decisions, and low visitor demand or sensible admissions policies. Outraged guests described various aspects of their experiences such as negative perceptions of value, long waits, poor customer service, and negative emotions. Root causes for customer outrage included low quality or deficient core products, poor quality of food and beverage, poor facility maintenance, aggressive pricing decisions, poor staff selection, training, and working conditions, and high customer demand on any given date or aggressive admissions policies.

The present research is unique in that it exposes the key themes of customer delight and outrage in the theme park setting, presents a conceptual model, and analyzes its root causes.

This paper aims to propose and test a conceptual model of theme park experiences by investigating the relationships among brand experience, self-congruity, flow and brand-related outcomes.

Data were collected from guests who had visited a theme park in the past 12 months. Confirmatory factor analysis, consisting of second-order factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the incorporation of alternative model testing, was employed.

The findings revealed that theme park customers’ internalization of brand experience influenced their attitudinal and behavioral tendency with regard to the brand through self-congruity and flow.

This study provides strategies for theme park designers and marketers under pressure to create a desired experiential setting that motivates visitors to engage in activities through various brand stimuli. Well-designed theme parks can create an optimal state of focus and attention, immersing visitors to the extent that they lose their sense of time and place, affecting their attitude and behavior toward the theme park brand.

Theme parks provide a highly experiential, immersive and personally relevant experience with brand elements. Very few studies have attempted to investigate the consequences of theme park experience from the theoretical perspective of customers’ connection with the brand. This study proposed and validated a conceptual model to capture how theme park experience influenced visitors’ commitment to and active engagement with theme park brands through the mechanisms of self-congruity and flow.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what the top three Orlando theme parks report about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Through content analysis, web sites, annual reports, and CSR reports of the top three theme park companies in Orlando, namely, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment were examined.

The top three theme parks in Orlando mainly reported their CSR activities in relation to environment, community, and customers. Their diversity policies, employee welfare programs and employee volunteerism were also widely reported. Walt Disney World seemed to provide the most detailed CSR reporting in all areas.

In addition to content analysis of web sites and CSR reports, future studies may look at a single company and try to collect data via interviews and surveys. In addition, this paper only offers a view of the theme park's CSR reporting, since, each of the companies do not have any form of verification of their CSR activities. Therefore, it should not attest to the performance of each theme park in such activities.

The research findings suggest that according to their reporting efforts the top three theme park companies in Orlando undertake and participate in various CSR activities and initiatives, which are important for the environment, local community, customers, and employees. However, their reporting and emphasis of certain CSR activities seem to vary. These companies can better publicize and promote their CSR activities. With rising awareness regarding CSR activities, it is important for the theme park industry to begin profiling their CSR efforts as part of their overall corporate and business strategies. Again creating a CSR department to oversee and coordinate all CSR activities would be helpful for theme park companies.

This is perhaps one of the first papers looking at CSR activities of theme park companies. It provides practical implications about reporting of CSR activities for theme parks. It is hoped that this paper stimulates further research into this area in the theme park industry.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dimensions and practices that have shaped the present global theme park industry. The reader is first introduced to the characteristics of the global theme park industry. Following a historical review of the evolution of theme parks, the paper reports on the scope of the global theme park industry, according to major geographical regions. The overview continues with an explanation of how themes are created and communicated to guests and finally, addresses the impact of theme parks on the economic sustainability of destinations.

The paper provides an overview and historical examination of key concepts and phenomena. The paper is more descriptive than analytical.

The paper concludes that continuous growth of the global theme park industry will be influenced by the quality and amount of marketing and advertising campaigns, development of new products and guest experiences, as well as external variables that the parks have no control over like competitors' strategies, weather, economic conditions, gasoline prices, government regulations, and so on.

The paper reports on several secondary research, scholarly as well as industry and government publications. Some of the original research quoted is conducted by the author.

The theme park industry has generated a wide circle of social, economic, and political influences ranging from town planning, historic preservation, building architecture, shopping mall design, and landscaping. Its impact extends further to video and computer‐assisted education, home and office design, exhibit design, and crowd management.

The paper provides a general overview of the theme park and attraction industry.

Theme park experiences ubiquitously unfold in the presence of others. In acknowledgement of this important part of theme park consumption, this research set out to examine if other visitors help create an immersive environment and, in turn, memorable experiences for theme park visitors.

An online survey was distributed to 561 theme park visitors. Structural equation modeling (AMOS 26) was used for testing the hypotheses in the proposed framework.

Results of SEM analyses reveal the positive impact of perceived similarity on visitors' sense of immersion at theme parks and the memorability of the experience. In turn, memorable experiences further drive behavioral intentions (i.e., return intention and willingness to pay premiums).

The findings provide suggestions for theme parks to leverage customer-to-customer interactions in order to create immersive and memorable visitor experiences.

This research marks one of the first attempts to approach customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) at theme parks by empirically examining the impact of the perceived similarity of others on focal visitors' emotions and experiences.

This paper aims to discuss visitor behaviour and net present value (NPV) of the only theme park in Turkmenistan – Turkmenbashi World of Fairytales.

Visitor behaviour, in terms of allocating time and expenditure to different parts of the theme park, is analysed using time and cost blocks. The data from a questionnaire answered by 317 visitors are employed in the descriptive analysis of visitor behaviour. The data on visitor behaviour are also incorporated into an estimation of the theme park’s net present value, as well as its sensitivity and scenario analyses.

The results show that the park is mostly visited by young people, at the time before noon or after 4 p.m. A majority of the visitors do not spend a significant amount in the theme park. Hence, achieving positive NPV may require improved revenue growth.

Turkmenbashi World of Fairytales is one of few publicly owned theme parks in the world. This provides a unique opportunity to test if positive NPV plays any role in construction of a public theme park.

In addition to individual differences, variations in visitors’ motivations may result from temporal variance. The leisure ladder model (LLM) is one of the most representative motivation models, which proposes patterns for an individual's temporal dynamic nature. This study attempts to examine empirically the ageing and experiential variations of the theme park visitors’ motivations, which underlie the model. Using stratified and systematic sampling techniques, survey data were collected from visitors to four leading theme parks in Taiwan – an Asian island nation. Limited support for the ageing variation was found and its changing pattern was also recognized in this study. A relatively more discriminating scale to measure the extent of visitor's experience was also suggested.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the interrelationship between film-induced tourism and visits to theme parks by tourists and examine the most viewed movies worldwide (2010–2022) which are related with theme parks and their attractions.

The methodology used in this study is a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for measuring the most visited theme parks worldwide and the most viewed movies that have allowed to answer the research questions.

This research provides a new contribution to tourism and entertainment industries. Results have shown that film-induced tourism can be the perfect marketing tool to attract more tourists to theme parks through movies and their real or fictional characters represented in films such as Marvel, Minions, Avatar, Harry Potter and Disney, amongst many others. These famous characters are part of theme park’s rides to attract tourists to visit film theme parks These rides allow users to travel in a fantasy experience and interact with film characters of cartoons or fictions. There is a high correlation between film-induced tourism and theme parks’ attractions. Film-induced tourism provides great benefits to the society, theme parks, cinemas and tourist destinations. Indeed, movies help to increase the number of visitors to theme parks. In 2019, 215 million people visited the top 20 theme parks worldwide analyzed in this study, this figure is quite lucrative to entertainment and tourism sectors, local and regional economies where these theme parks are localized.

This study presents the importance of theme parks at tourist destinations because theme parks are an extension of movies, thus is, the end of the physical perfect experience at theme parks which began in a movie seat or on your TV/videogame/PC screens.

本文的主要目的是分析电影引起的旅游和游客参观主题公园之间的相互关系, 并研究与主题公园及其景点有关的全球最受欢迎的电影（2010-2022年）。

本研究使用的方法是一套定性和定量的指标来衡量全球访问量最大的主题公园和观看次数最多的电影, 使我们能够回答本研究中提出的问题。

这项研究为旅游和娱乐业提供了新的贡献, 结果表明, 电影引起的旅游可以成为完美的营销工具, 通过电影及其影片吸引更多的游客到主题公园。通过电影和他们在电影中所代表的真实或虚构的人物, 如漫威、小人、阿凡达、哈利波特、迪斯尼等, 主题公园。这些著名人物是主题公园景点的一部分, 以吸引游客参观与电影有关的景点。这些景点让游客有一个幻想的体验, 并与卡通人物互动。电影引起的旅游和主题公园景点之间存在着高度的相关性。我们必须认识到, 电影引发的旅游为社会、主题公园、电影院和旅游目的地提供了巨大的利益。事实上, 电影有助于增加主题公园的游客数量。2019年, 有2.15亿人参观了本研究中分析的世界前20大主题公园, 这个数字对于娱乐和旅游部门、这些主题公园所在的地方和区域经济来说是相当有利可图的。

本研究揭示了主题公园在旅游目的地的重要性, 因为这些旅游景点是电影的延伸, 也就是说, 主题公园及其基于电影和动画的景点是游客在主题公园生活体验的最后一部分, 而这种体验是从电影院的座位上、电视、视频游戏或电脑屏幕前开始的。

El principal desafío de este artículo es analizar la interrelación entre el turismo inducido por las películas y las visitas a los parques temáticos por parte de los visitantes, y examinar las películas más vistas en todo el mundo (2010-2022) relacionadas con los parques temáticos y sus atracciones.

La metodología utilizada en este estudio es un conjunto de indicadores cualitativos y cuantitativos para medir los parques temáticos más visitados a nivel mundial y las películas más vistas que nos han permitido responder a las preguntas planteadas en esta investigación.

Esta investigación proporciona una nueva contribución a las industrias del turismo y el entretenimiento. Los resultados han demostrado que el turismo inducido por el cine puede ser la herramienta de marketing perfecta para atraer más visitantes a los parques temáticos a través de películas y sus personajes reales o ficticios representados en películas como Marvel, Minions, Avatar, Harry Potter, Disney, entre muchos otros. Estos personajes famosos son parte de las atracciones de los parques temáticos para atraer a los visitantes a visitar las atracciones relacionadas con las películas. Estas atracciones permiten a los visitantes tener una experiencia de fantasía e interactuar con personajes de películas de dibujos animados o ficción. Existe una alta correlación entre el turismo inducido por el cine y las atracciones de los parques temáticos. Debemos reconocer que el turismo inducido por el cine ofrece grandes beneficios a la sociedad, parques temáticos, cines y destinos turísticos. De hecho, las películas ayudan a aumentar el número de visitantes a los parques temáticos. En 2019, 215 millones de personas visitaron los 20 parques temáticos más importantes del mundo analizados en este estudio, esta cifra es bastante lucrativa para los sectores de entretenimiento y turismo, y la economía local y regional donde se encuentran estos parques temáticos.

Este estudio revela la importancia de los parques temáticos en los destinos turísticos, dado que estas atracciones turísticas son una extensión de las películas, es decir, los parques temáticos y sus atracciones basadas en películas y animaciones son la parte final de una experiencia vivida por los visitantes en dichos parques y que comenzó en un asiento de cine, frente a su TV, un videojuego, o pantalla de ordenador.

This study aims to examine technology adoption practices in Chinese theme parks by leveraging text mining and sentiment analysis approaches on actual theme park customers’ online reviews.

The study text mined a total of 65,518 reviews of 490 Chinese theme parks with the aid of the Python program. Further, it computed sentiment scores of the customer reviews associated with the ratings of each categorized technology practice applied in the theme parks.

The study identified two major categories of technology applications in theme parks: supporting and experiential technologies. Multiple statistical tests confirmed that supporting technologies consisted of three types: intelligent services, ticketing and in-park transportation. Experiential technologies further included five aspects of technologies according to Schmitt’s strategic experiential modules (SEMs): sense, feel, act, think and relate.

The study findings contribute to the current understanding of theme park visitors’ perceptions of technology adoption practices and provide insightful implications for theme park practitioners who intend to invest in high technology solutions to deliver a better customer experience.

通过对游客的在线评论进行文本挖掘和情感分析, 本研究论旨在探索在中国主题公园中科技采用的行为。

本研究运用Python 程序一共挖掘了来自490 中国主题公园的65,518 条评论。本研究进一步计算了在主题公园中与科技运用有关在线评论的情感指数。

本研究发现了在主题公园科技应用的两大主要分类：辅助和体验科技。辅助科技包括三种：智慧服务, 售票, 和园中运输。根据Schmitt 战略体验模块（SEMs): 体验科技进一步包括科技的五大方面：感官, 感觉, 思考, 和联系。

本研究对了解目前主题公园游客对科技使用行为的看法提供了见解, 以及对主题公园有意向投资科技来提高客户体验的从业人员提供了深远意义。

The purpose of this paper is to put modern history of theme park developments in Japan in perspective and identify the challenges associated with theme parks in Japan.

Amid the structural lack of theme‐park related operational and financial data, the authors approached the issue from the analyses of limited information on theme parks in Japan, where most, if any, of the available data are in Japanese only. This precluded the authors to conduct quantitative analyses of the parks in Japan.

The authors found that two of the comparable large‐scale theme park developments in Japan led to dramatically different operating results and that continued innovation of the contents of the park is one of the notable differences when the two parks are compared.

The paper highlights the dramatic failure of one park, while in contrast the other thrives; underscoring that theme park investment is subject to embracing high‐risk, high‐maintenance and constant innovation efforts by the operator.

The paper may be valuable to readers in the East Asian region and other nations which have plans to host large‐scale theme park development in the near future, as this presents the rare cases of success and failure in theme park operations in Japan.