Demand-based pricing in the US theme park industry

Abstract

Even as revenue management practices spread from the travel sector to other industries, the US theme park industry practiced static pricing. Highly visible demand-based pricing introduced by Disney and Universal highlights the relative lack of research on theme park pricing. We surveyed the research and gathered pricing information from 70 different US theme park websites in 2012 and 2016 and found that US theme parks in our sample added online ticket sales, discounts for advance sales and differential daily pricing during that period. We also report the proportion of US theme parks offering queue products and meal plans as ticket add-ons. Characteristics of theme parks may prevent true dynamic pricing, but the US theme park industry has begun moving away from its traditional static pricing model towards demand-based pricing.