This geo-narrative that I have created is about comparing the success of Disneyland theme parks around the world with other theme parks such as Warner Bros and Universal Studios. In the map, I have used different color coordination to represent theme parks. I used blue to represent Disney, yellow to represent Warner Bros, and green to represent Universal Studios.
Each color I have chosen has special meanings to the theme parks. I assign Disney with the blue to match up with the color of its logo which is a castle on top of the cloud.
Warner Bros on the other hand, got yellow to represent itself on the map because their logo is yellow and it has a bright vibrant to it. Even though it also got the blue color but yellow is more dominant.
I have chosen green to represent Universal Studios on my map just because green is an enviromentally friendly color and also because the universal logo is earth.
All these mentioned entertainment companies have extended their wings all around the world. Disney has extended to many different cities and the extension goes from California to Orlando (Florida), Tokyo (Japan), Hongkong (Taiwan) and Paris (France). Disney also has some ongoing project in Honolulu (hawaii) which will be completed in 2011 and Dubai (Middle East) which is planned to be complete by 2020. Warner Bros extended from Los Angeles to Gold Coast (Australia), Madrid (Spain) and Essen (Germany).Universal had also extended from Los Angeles to Orlando (Florida), Osaka (Japan), Singapore and has one on going project in Seoul (South Korea) which is planned to be complete in 2014.
On the map I attached graphs in the individual text balloon. The first graph is visitors statistic and the second graph is Google Trends map that shows how often people are searching information for theme parks each year. I created the visitors graphs on Microsoft Excel and upload the graph image onto Flickr. After all got uploaded, I copied the HTML codes for individual image and paste it to HTML box on the map. The same with Google Trends graphs, I print screen the page and crop the print screen image using Photoshop. After that, I uploaded the image to Flickr and followed the same process above.
Although it is interesting and seems easy, I found some difficulties in making this project happened. When searching the number of visitors of each theme parks, it was really hard to find the official website that shows theme parks visitor's statistics. After long process of searching I finally found the annual report of TEA/ERA (Theme Park Attendance) report. Unfortunately, after looking at it did not find all the information I need. TEA/ERA only have Disney and Universal cisitor statistics and not Warner Bros. So I went back onto Google and start searching for Warner Bros visitor statistics. After hours of searching I finally found the official website of Village Roadshow Limited that has lists of Time Warner Annual Reports. But again not all the Warner Bros theme parks are listed in the reports. So I did another research on Google and after all the struggle I found a report of European Theme Parks Report. That is how I got all my data for theme park visitors and as you can see I did not get them easy. :(
Move along to Google Trends, it was also not easy to find the information I want even though it looks simpel. When I type my individual theme park onto it, it did not all come up with the result that I want. Some theme parks such as Dubailand (Disney Dubai), Aulani (Disney Hawaii), Warner Bros Studio (Los Angeles), Warner Bros Gold Coast (Australia), Universal Studio (Japan), and Universal Studio (Seoul, South Korea) just did not come up on Google Trends. I understand some of them might not come up because it has not operated just yet, but how about the others? I just don't understand and this makes me sad! :(
Despite all the difficulties I faced throughout the making process, in the end I am pretty satisfied with my project. I hope my informations will be useful to the public and it will also bring a good mark for this class. I hope you enjoy my "Famous Theme Parks Around the World Map"
