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How far do theme parks and attractions contribute to social and economic sustainability of destinations?
Edited by Ady Milman, Fevzi Okumus, Duncan Dickson
Introduction
In this issue of Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes , we examined whether and how theme parks and attractions contribute to the sustainability of destinations. This issue included seven unique papers and the aim of this current paper is to discuss key themes emerging from this issue, provide conclusions and offer recommendations for practitioners and researchers.
Emerging themes
Overall growth and contribution of the theme park industry
As illustrated by [13] Milman (2010), the theme park industry has grown rapidly for the last three decades globally with the development variety of parks ranging in size, capacity, products, and entertainment offerings. In 2008, over 186 million people visited the top 25 worldwide parks ([17] Rubin, 2009). It is worth noting that this figure is higher than the number of international tourists that visited Spain, China, Italy, and the UK combined in 2008 ([21] World Tourism Organization, 2009). Furthermore, according to [16] PricewaterhouseCoopers (2007) both destination and regional theme parks are projected to witness a compound annual attendance growth in the 2008-2012 periods.
Governments often support the development of theme parks in their destinations since theme parks and attractions can provide leisure and recreation facilities for their local communities as well as for tourists. Theme parks and attractions provide opportunities to gain political advantage, locally, nationally, and in some cases internationally. Consequently, many destinations provide incentives for developers. On the other hand, large corporations invest in theme parks and attractions because they are motivated by profit, diversification of their product portfolio, achieving a particular rate of return on investment, and increasing the corporation's market share. New theme parks and attractions can also improve the image of a destination, increase tourism and hence economic benefits for the local community, and provide education and entertainment opportunities to the public. They can further contribute to the sustainability of a destination by providing an opportunity for employment for all segments of the labor market. For example, the US amusement park industry provides jobs for approximately 500,000 year-round and seasonal employees ([8] International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), 2009a, [9] b). As noted by [7] Holcomb