Why Six Flags’ attendance fell so much, and what the company plans to do about it

Shares of Six Flags Entertainment Corp. plunged Thursday, to suffer the third-worst performance in the theme park operator’s 12-year public history, after a big miss in attendance led to a surprise drop in second-quarter revenue, even as spending-per-guest jumped.

Click here to read the story at marketwatch.com.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is revenue?
2. Why is revenue important to Six Flags?
3. What are ticket sales?
4. Why are ticket sales important to Six Flags?
5. In addition to revenue from ticket sales, how might a decline in attendance impact Six Flags?
6. According to this story, why did Six Flags see such a big drop in attendance?
7. What is market segmentation?
8. How (and why) did the company shift its segmentation strategy?
9. What is customer satisfaction?
10. What does it mean that guest satisfaction scores have increased at Six Flags? How might the company benefit from that in the future?
11. From a marketing perspective, what can Six Flags do to boost those attendance figures?