The Disney magic lost some of its allure last year, with attendance down at 13 of its theme parks around the world – a drop largely fueled by higher ticket prices, The New York Times reported.
Citing an independent report released Thursday, the Times reported the drop in attendance did not affect the bottom line, however. The Walt Disney Company's theme park unit had operating income of $3.3 billion in fiscal 2016, a 9 percent rise over the year before.
The income increase was due in part to the same higher ticket prices that kept attendance down, the Times noted; prices during peak periods at the parks were hiked 20 percent last year.
The attendance drop is rare, the Times reported. Over the last decade, attendance has declined only once before at Disney's flagship park; in the last decade, there has never been an attendance drop around the globe.
The only park where attendance numbers were not an issue was at Shanghai Disneyland, which has not been open a year, the Times reported.
The biggest declines occurred overseas, according to the report, with Disneyland Paris attendance plummeting 14 percent amid terrorism fears across Europe. Hong Kong Disneyland had a 10 percent drop. Attendance at the Magic Kingdom in Florida totaled roughly 20.4 million, down 0.5 percent; California's Disneyland estimated total was 17.9 million, down 2 percent, the Times reported.
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