A theme park is a group of attractions, rides, or events in an area made for the amusement of people. It is an amusement park where the rides and attractions are based on a central theme, for example, Disney World, Hershey Park, and Universal Studios. A theme park must have many different types of attractions for visitors for them to travel far from their homes such as parks/gardens, wildlife, ancient monuments, museums, or special events.
The main type of visitor attraction as of recent are man-made structures for the purpose of gathering visitors, or roller-coasters.
Attractions are only one part of theme park, what sets theme parks away from other events of attractions such as ski resorts, beaches, etc. , is single-pay admission, majority of the area is man-made, an atmosphere of a dominant theme, and the requirement of high capital investors. Although beaches and ski resorts also require investment, it is nothing compared to the amount of investments in top theme parks such as Disney.
As stated before, theme parks have a central concept or atmosphere which they base their park, merchandise, rides, food, and entertainment. A theme park must also be able to accommodate any amount of visitors, there must always be enough room. A theme park usually will always be built to hold more people than it normally has, in comparison, on a busy day at a beach people will be unable to find a spot.
My favorite attribute for a theme park is its infrastructure. A theme park must have elements such as water supply, electricity, waste disposal, security, and communications. I find it amazing at the amount of investment into the infrastructure, to the point where some of the top theme parks could become their own country. A theme park must have all these elements and attributes not to keep it running, but for it to attract visitors and guests to their park. A theme park is not a theme park without guests.