The Experience Economist

The Experience Economist: Europe Edition 2025

The Experience Economist: Europe Edition 2025 is Leisure Development Partners’ second regional report on the volume, value and impact of theme parks and waterparks. This edition covers mature Western markets and still-developing markets further east, with country comparisons of population, income, visits, spend, economic impact and jobs.

What the 2025 Europe report covers

Europe was long treated as a stagnant attractions market and is now a source of formats — immersive entertainment, competitive socialising, indoor waterpark hotels — that other regions copy. Global benchmarks are useful, but regional and sub-regional cuts are what operators actually need.

Western Europe has spending power and tourist depth; the task is to find gaps inside mature supply. Eastern and some southern markets still have obvious product holes, but lower incomes mean schemes have to be scaled to the local wallet.

Key findings from the 2025 Europe edition

• About 174 million theme park and waterpark visits a year across Europe.
• 325 visits per 1,000 residents.
• €17 billion estimated total economic impact.
• 157,000 estimated jobs.
• Europe’s economic impact per visit is about 65 percent above Asia; impact per resident is about five times greater.
• Between 2010 and 2023, Europe’s top 20 theme parks grew by an average of 1.3 percent a year — similar to North America and well below Asia.
• Tourism volumes had recovered, or were recovering, toward pre-Covid levels in most countries; staycation filled the gap where international arrivals were slower.
• The UK has one of the lowest park visitation rates per 1,000 residents in Western Europe. Economic impact per resident is less than a third of France and also sits behind Germany, which LDP reads as an underserved market.

Market snapshot from the 2025 comparison

Country figures below are from the 2025 Europe comparison graphic (Eurostat population; LDP park databases; OECD multipliers). 

France is the scale and yield benchmark (Disneyland Paris plus a dense domestic system). The Netherlands shows high visits-per-capita in a smaller high-income market. The UK’s population is in the same band as France; park intensity and impact per resident are not.

United Kingdom in the 2025 edition

Britain is the clearest “gap” story in the Western European set.

Universal Destinations & Experiences’ first fully owned European resort is the news item of the year in that chapter: a 190-hectare former brickworks in Bedford, just under 100 km from central London, due to open in 2031, with a theme park, RDE zone, hotels and a new rail station backed by about £500 million of government transport funding. Universal estimated nearly £50 billion of UK economic contribution by 2055.

A destination park of that scale can grow the whole UK market if other operators invest in a distinct niche. Some near-term dilution is expected; longer stays and a larger leisure trip market are the base case, as in other multi-park destinations.

Who should read this report

• Operators benchmarking a European site against France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
• Investors deciding whether a Western European scheme is a gap or an overbuild.
• UK developers using the 2025 underserved-market case before reading the 2026 pipeline update.
• Destination agencies measuring jobs and visitor-economy impact from parks and waterparks.