When looking back at the annual figures of Dutch and Belgian amusement parks, we regularly read that the rainy days, especially in the summer, have had a dampening effect on visitor figures. According to Weeronline, 2023 was indeed record wet, but at the same time it is also in the top 7 of years with the most hours of sunshine.
Jaco van Wezel, meteorologist at Weeronline, explains that it is difficult to determine to what extent a day can be considered rainy: “It is actually not about the precipitation sum, but about the duration of precipitation. A day on which 20 mm falls in an hour and it is otherwise dry does not fall under the heading of a rainy day. But the duration of precipitation does not say everything either, because if it rained mainly at night, it was not a rainy day for amusement parks either.”
The fact that 2023 has been a particularly wet year is evident from the Weeronline overviews:
From the perspective of the recreation sector, the holiday months of July and August in particular were too wet.
More information on Weeronline about the wet weather in 2023
In the longer term, more and more fair weather days
In addition to all the wetness, Van Wezel also sees a top year in terms of number of hours of sunshine: “On an annual basis it was a very sunny year. In total the sun shone for 1913 hours compared to 1773 normally. This resulted in seventh place in the list of sunniest years. In 2023 it was often warm enough to swim from the end of May, but in the summer this was often accompanied by a chance of showers. So it is also quite difficult to say how good the swimming pool weather was.”
Van Wezel provides further information about attractive weather in the Netherlands: “A parameter that you can use to determine whether the weather has been attractive for recreation are so-called fair weather days. These are days when the sun shines at least 50% of the time, there is hardly any rain and it is warmer than normal. In 2023 there were 63 good weather days compared to 53 on average over the period 1991-2020. If you look specifically at the summer period May-September, when it is warm enough to swim, then 2023 had 51 good weather days compared to 33 normal.”
More information about sunshine hours in 2023: www.weeronline.nl/nieuws/weeroverzichten-2023-zon
It is of great importance for the Dutch recreation sector (both day and residential recreation) how consumers experience the weather. It largely determines the occupancy at a day attraction or holiday park. Models are increasingly being used (now also with AI) to predict the crowds in a park. This allows costs to be saved by tailoring staff and stock to the expected visitor pressure. For the benchmark data you should actually also include weather influences, which you have no control over, as an external factor. Investments in outdoor attractions (e.g. swimming pool) are also influenced by the Nice Weather Days. These are the days on which you can base the payback period.
Explanation Pretwerk.nl
More information: www.weeronline.nl/nieuws/weeroverzichten