Attendance to the biggest waterparks in the world continues to increase, with almost 31 million people visiting the world’s top 20 waterpark venues in 2018.

This was the finding of the latest TEA/AECOM Theme and Museum Index, which shows attendance to waterparks increased in 2.5 per cent during 2018.

According to the Index, with 2.74 million people visiting the park in 2018, a 1.9 percent increase on 2017, Chimelong Water Park in China continues to be the world’s most visited waterpark.

Disney’s waterparks also enjoyed strong visitor growth last year, with Typhoon Lagoon in Florida witnessing a 5 percent rise and Blizzard Beach also in Florida, enjoying a 3 percent increase in visitor numbers in 2018.

Volcano Bay, Therme Erding and Wuhu Fantawild, also saw significant increases in the number of visitors coming through their doors last year.

John Robinett, senior vice president of economics at AECOM, spoke of the rising popularity of waterparks around the world.

“In an unusual alignment, theme park attendance grew by roughly 4 per cent in all major markets, while waterparks’ attendance rose at 2.5 per cent globally.

“We’ve observed a number of phenomena that have led to this and other strong years’ performance in the business. These include the addition of second gates, the continued leveraging of blockbuster IP’s, and the building of resort hotels adjacent to park properties,” Robinett commented.