By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Everland, the country's biggest amusement park, is the world's 10th largest theme park, while Lotte World, another popular theme park in southern Seoul, ranked 15th.
Everland placed 10th in terms of attendance last year, according to data released by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA).
The amusement park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, was visited by 7.5 million people in 2006, excluding those who visited its water park Caribbean Bay.
Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida topped the list with 16.6 million visitors, followed by Disneyland in California with 14.7 million and Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea with over 12 million each, and Disneyland Paris ranked fifth with 10.6 million visitors.
Everland was the fourth biggest amusement park in the Asia-Pacific region after Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Sea and Universal Studios Japan.
Everland said it has turned its defects into merits. Given the world's famous theme parks such as Disneyland and Disney World enjoy warm and fine weather throughout the year, Korea's weather could be a negative for the theme park operator. However, it provides visitors with distinguished festivals each season, offering snow sleighing for winter and water splash shows in the hot summer.
``Our Safari World is especially popular among foreign tourists. More than 50 million people have visited the safari so far,'' said an Everland spokesman. ``We are operating a night safari during summer nights while continuing to renew the zoo.'' The theme park opened in 1976.