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Broome Era Towers

Yes didn't think about that. Then again if you are talking about tiger rock all they did was take the old dragon river rip out the old theming and bung in some lions can't have cost much. I suspect the most expensive thing would have been the lions.
Tiger Rock was done on the cheap then two years later they added another second hand log flume next door
Just realised how far off topic we've gone now
 
Sorry to bump this thread but I have a few questions that I was thinking about the other day and noted them down to ask in here.
The year Broome made the one price to everything entry to Alton Towers how was this reported in the media and was it a particularly strange/alien concept because surely lots of places charged one entry fee?
The way I understand it was that it was a big deal on something no one had ever done with theme/amusement parks in this country.
Why do you think Broome was the first to do the one entry ticket for a theme/amusement park? Why had no one tried it before? Or had they and it's just not well documented?
From what I understand Alton Towers was the first attraction of it's type to do it but I maybe wrong.

Sorry to ask what might seem like stupid questions but I couldn't come up with an answer for either of them. Thanks.
 
They're not stupid questions at all.

Someone with a bit more rock solid info will probably add something more worthwhile but I expect that Broome probably saw similar business models being used in the USA and thought they could be used over here. Our business people have a long history of successfully copying American trends and getting in early with the idea over here. I could be wrong though.
 
The above matches my understanding too. Broome was quite candid about his desire to turn the place in to a British Disneyland.
That's true, but I think he beat Disney on the all inclusive front by a year.
 
So from what I can gather it was really just the speed in which Broome did the one ticket price that he was the first. Does anyone know of any press releases from when he did it I would like to know how it was reported in the media?
 
I didn't think Disney parks were ever pay per ride? I thought they invented the concept as Walt's original vision for Disneyland was basically to create a clean, safe and restricted access park to counter what he saw as the major problems with fun fairs? Could be wrong.

All this has since been eroded however in recent decades with paid queue jumping systems (which Disney seem to have gone from non offenders to the very worst offenders in just a few weeks) and extortionate car parking charges (you think £6 at Towers is bad, try taking a car to Universal).
 
I think visitors got a book of a,b,c and d ride tickets, (Bit like old Blackpool) then any more had to be paid for individually.
Complaints of high prices from day one, apparently.
 
Disneyland and Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World were originally opened under a pay per ride model. You paid a small entrance fee and then purchased books of ride tickets.

Each ride was categorised as A,B,C,D or E with the tickets being progressively more expensive. That is why large ride installations at Disney parks are still referred to as ‘e-ticket attractions’ to this day.

It switched to a pay one price model in the early 80s.
 
I imagine it was about wanting his visitors all around the estate, and not just all around the Corkscrew.
Yes I hadn't thought of that. What year was it he made it all one ticket price? If i'm correct it was the same year he added the corkscrew and a few other rides.
 
Yep the downside with pay-per-ride is that guests can pay admission/parking and then just do one ride if they wanted to. Whereas with pay-one-price even if all someone wanted to do was the one headliner, they need to pay the full price.

I think that is why ticket books/sheets were used at Disney and Blackpool, you were then encouraged to ride some smaller rides as well as the headliners (D/E tickets at Disney, A and AA at Blackpool), the A/B ticket at Disney was almost "free" when buying a book compared to just buying E tickets only.
https://yesterland.com/disney-world-tickets-1973.html
 
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