The strength of Knott's unique regional brand and our introduction of seasons of fun have turned this park into the most visited regional amusement park in the United States. Carowinds in the growing Charlotte market is another great example of what can be achieved when this brand positioning strategy is successfully executed. Its unique brand position of where the Carolinas come together has helped this park already achieved its third consecutive year of record attendance in 2017.
So, as we continue to think about the issues that you’ve pointed out, I think we focus back on the guest experience providing the – a really compelling reason to come visit early and often and really jump into that advanced purchase commitment.
Matt Ouimet
So, Barton, this is Matt. Look I think we are not maybe a visionary to think about climate change in terms of our decisions. But I do think we've positioned all of our parks to be responsive to whatever the weather conditions are, an example is the water parks with the major renovations we've made to almost all of our water parks across the system, so if we have an unseasonably hot summer we can accommodate that more and more Richard and the team are creating indoor dining facilities of scale much like the harmony hall, we have Carowinds, et cetera, which work both in hot weather and cold weather, etcetera.
James Hardiman
So, let me ask the question in other way. I mean, you were hoping to get to $500 million this year. Obviously, it looks like we're going to come in a little bit short of that. I guess, in absence of knowing sort of how this year compares to last year, are you seeing and obviously you talk a lot about your CRM system and understanding your customer better than ever.
Are you seeing particular parks that are maybe underperforming others exclusive of weather? Are there particular demographics that are maybe outperforming others, whether it's age, race or geography? Is there anything you can tell us from a consumer perspective or from a geographical perspective that might help shed light on sort of what has been, I think a little bit worse than most we’re expecting this year?
Richard Zimmerman
James, this is Richard. One of the challenges we have is, we can't always talk averages. Matt has said this forever. When we look at some of the components. I reference Carowinds having a record year for the third year in a row in attendance.
Record at both the water parks where we expanded. We’ve got some very good stories within it. The answer is never in the averages, James but when we look at the things that that we really look to see the consumer response be it in any demographic category or in a particular region. We’re seeing the response that we want.
