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Oakwood Discussion

I think it's both true that Aspro's woeful neglect of the park caused it to decline, and that the current difficult business conditions have pushed the park from limping along into permanent closure.

If Oakwood was the only park affected I'd look at things differently, but the culling of rides and parks closing is industry-wide at the moment. UK parks have all been hit hard, and much like Oakwood, I'd say it's a combination of years of neglect and current conditions being tougher meaning the former is coming around to bite them harder.

Looking at the bigger picture, many 'non-essential' businesses are struggling - this isn't limited to just theme parks. I think the biggest issue is the current cost of living crisis, meaning families in particular are much more careful with their money. When the majority of UK parks offer an inconsistent (or, often, poor) experience, this becomes a big problem. Imagine saving up hundreds to visit a park, only to find many rides closed, slow queues, etc. You wouldn't exactly feel inclined to go back.

It's both mismanagement and a symptom of larger economic issues IMO; it doesn't have to be one or the other. Sadly it's a situation I can't see improving for some time, as with every cutback the parks make, the worse their guest experience becomes.
 
Plastic Person said:
I'm going to have to disagree here. Those activities listed are all health-conscious physical pursuits, which are soaring in popularity with families and young people, whereas Megaphobia is a rickety old wooden coaster, albeit a good one. Looking at the number of lodges and other accommodations available at Bluestone, there are probably around a maximum of 2000 people on-site at peak times throughout the season. It's a broader range of clientele than a theme park, so let's estimate around 500 of those would want to ride a thrill coaster. That's just twenty trains' worth of guests across a week.

I would honestly love to be wrong in this case, and would personally book a stay at Bluestone in order to ride Megaphobia again. Although according to policy, I still wouldn't be able to take my dog. :(
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It isn't a healthy activity, but the also don't have just healthy activities, they have a wide range but all of them are active.

My point was that Bluestone is activities based, and is an active holiday. Compare it to a beach in Spain, you won't be doing anything other than sit on the beach.

It may not be as healthy as biking but most people don't think about that when on holiday, they see a ride and if it looks good may want to ride it (or their kids may want to). The people at the park are seeking out a holiday where they bike arround and do activities such as zip wiring, they are not planning on having a sit at a beach all day
 
There have been a number claiming that location is a big factor in the failure of the park, and I agree this has to be one of the top contributors. Having been about 4 times to Oakwood while holidaying in Tenby, the drive even from Cardiff feels incredibly long.

To back it up with some data, I’ve included a list of UK theme parks. This represents the population living in a 100km radius of each park. You can clearly see that Oakwood is the most remote theme park in the UK.

You could even argue that there is a pattern in terms of park performance (or lack of) and population within its 100km radius:

  1. Thorpe park - 22.8 million
  2. Chessington - 22.3 million
  3. Universal studios (future Bedford site) - 22.1 million
  4. Alton towers - 19.8 million
  5. Adventure Island - 18.9 million
  6. Drayton Manor - 14.3 million
  7. Lightwater valley - 12 million
  8. Blackpool pleasure beach - 10 million
  9. Paultons park - 9 million
  10. Flamingoland - 7.2 million
  11. Blackgang chine - 5.6 million
  12. M&Ds - 4.3 million
  13. Fantasy Island - 3.4 million
  14. Crealey theme park - 3.3 million
  15. Pleasurewood hills 2.1 million
  16. Oakwood - 1.3 million

Source:
 
I think most of the observations here are true: -

- the park isn’t in a heavily populated area, however it is in a tourist location.

- Aspro clearly weren’t the best owners.

- Most rides can be relatively easily moved. The exceptions being Megafobia and the bobsled and the boating lake.

- Megafobia would be an expensive maintenance item.

- Bluestone is the most obvious buyer for the land and there is a possible fit into their offering.

- Equally it’s not totally in keeping with the natural, secluded image they portray. Albeit they do have some large indoor play areas, so it’s not too far a stretch.
 
Visma said:
There have been a number claiming that location is a big factor in the failure of the park, and I agree this has to be one of the top contributors. Having been about 4 times to Oakwood while holidaying in Tenby, the drive even from Cardiff feels incredibly long.

To back it up with some data, I’ve included a list of UK theme parks. This represents the population living in a 100km radius of each park. You can clearly see that Oakwood is the most remote theme park in the UK.

You could even argue that there is a pattern in terms of park performance (or lack of) and population within its 100km radius:

  1. Thorpe park - 22.8 million
  2. Chessington - 22.3 million
  3. Universal studios (future Bedford site) - 22.1 million
  4. Alton towers - 19.8 million
  5. Adventure Island - 18.9 million
  6. Drayton Manor - 14.3 million
  7. Lightwater valley - 12 million
  8. Blackpool pleasure beach - 10 million
  9. Paultons park - 9 million
  10. Flamingoland - 7.2 million
  11. Blackgang chine - 5.6 million
  12. M&Ds - 4.3 million
  13. Fantasy Island - 3.4 million
  14. Crealey theme park - 3.3 million
  15. Pleasurewood hills 2.1 million
  16. Oakwood - 1.3 million

Source:
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Interesting the bottom three parks in this list are the ones struggling the most (though you could add Lightwater Valley)

Pembrokeshire simply doesn't have the infrastructure you make day trips from outside Wales attractive. Cornwall is a pain to get to but it got better infrastructure and is better geared up for the tourists.
 
Visma said:
There have been a number claiming that location is a big factor in the failure of the park, and I agree this has to be one of the top contributors. Having been about 4 times to Oakwood while holidaying in Tenby, the drive even from Cardiff feels incredibly long.

To back it up with some data, I’ve included a list of UK theme parks. This represents the population living in a 100km radius of each park. You can clearly see that Oakwood is the most remote theme park in the UK.

You could even argue that there is a pattern in terms of park performance (or lack of) and population within its 100km radius:

  1. Thorpe park - 22.8 million
  2. Chessington - 22.3 million
  3. Universal studios (future Bedford site) - 22.1 million
  4. Alton towers - 19.8 million
  5. Adventure Island - 18.9 million
  6. Drayton Manor - 14.3 million
  7. Lightwater valley - 12 million
  8. Blackpool pleasure beach - 10 million
  9. Paultons park - 9 million
  10. Flamingoland - 7.2 million
  11. Blackgang chine - 5.6 million
  12. M&Ds - 4.3 million
  13. Fantasy Island - 3.4 million
  14. Crealey theme park - 3.3 million
  15. Pleasurewood hills 2.1 million
  16. Oakwood - 1.3 million

Source:
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Quite interesting how that correlates to park popularity, it’s clearly not the only driver as Towers is 4th on that list but 1st on attendance but it’s clearly a big influencer.
 
Oakwood’s location is sort of unique, because it relies so heavily on tourism. In the early days of Aspro, Oakwood’s marketing seemed to be focussed on thrill rides, with the “Ride the Big Four” campaign. This clearly didn’t work though, and unsurprisingly they moved away from it not long after and instead installed family investments such as Neverland, Circus Land and the peach coaster.

The majority of Pembrokeshire’s tourists will be families or pensioners. For families there’s plenty of superior attractions in the local area (not just Folly Farm), pensioners aren’t going to want to visit a theme park, and that just leaves the thrill seeker market, who won’t be holidaying in Pembs and there isn’t a big enough local community of thrill seekers to prop the park up.
 
Visma said:
There have been a number claiming that location is a big factor in the failure of the park, and I agree this has to be one of the top contributors. Having been about 4 times to Oakwood while holidaying in Tenby, the drive even from Cardiff feels incredibly long.

To back it up with some data, I’ve included a list of UK theme parks. This represents the population living in a 100km radius of each park. You can clearly see that Oakwood is the most remote theme park in the UK.

You could even argue that there is a pattern in terms of park performance (or lack of) and population within its 100km radius:

  1. Thorpe park - 22.8 million
  2. Chessington - 22.3 million
  3. Universal studios (future Bedford site) - 22.1 million
  4. Alton towers - 19.8 million
  5. Adventure Island - 18.9 million
  6. Drayton Manor - 14.3 million
  7. Lightwater valley - 12 million
  8. Blackpool pleasure beach - 10 million
  9. Paultons park - 9 million
  10. Flamingoland - 7.2 million
  11. Blackgang chine - 5.6 million
  12. M&Ds - 4.3 million
  13. Fantasy Island - 3.4 million
  14. Crealey theme park - 3.3 million
  15. Pleasurewood hills 2.1 million
  16. Oakwood - 1.3 million

Source:
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I think you missed off legoland which is about 22.5million. It looks like 22million is about the absolute maximum number you can get in the UK and shows why the universal studios location is such a good choice.

I think adding to this would be the distance from the motorway network.

M&Ds 1 miles / 2 minutes
Paultons 1.8 miles / 4 minutes
Crealy 2.2 miles / 4 minutes
Chessington 2.7 miles / 7 minutes
Blackpool 3.3 miles / 8 minutes
Legoland 3.5 miles / 8 minutes
Drayton 3.5 miles / 10 minutes
Universal 7.2 miles / 10 minutes
Thorpe park 5 miles / 13 minutes
Lightwater valley 7.6 miles / 16 minutes
Alton 17 miles / 30 minutes
Adventure Island 21 miles / 30 minutes
Flamingoland 40 miles / 45 minutes
Oakwood 39 miles / 50 minutes
Fantasy Island 51 miles / 73 minutes
Pleasurewood hills 84 miles / 100 minutes
Blackgang chine 23 miles / 104 minutes

It's easy to see which parks are struggling, although shows that parks like lightwater valley could do so much better than they are. I would say the parks that are further from the motorway network need to try harder than those within 20 minutes. Oakwood suffered from being near the bottom of both of these lists.
 
MrTowers said:
I think you missed off legoland which is about 22.5million. It looks like 22million is about the absolute maximum number you can get in the UK and shows why the universal studios location is such a good choice.

I think adding to this would be the distance from the motorway network.

M&Ds 1 miles / 2 minutes
Paultons 1.8 miles / 4 minutes
Crealy 2.2 miles / 4 minutes
Chessington 2.7 miles / 7 minutes
Blackpool 3.3 miles / 8 minutes
Legoland 3.5 miles / 8 minutes
Drayton 3.5 miles / 10 minutes
Universal 7.2 miles / 10 minutes
Thorpe park 5 miles / 13 minutes
Lightwater valley 7.6 miles / 16 minutes
Alton 17 miles / 30 minutes
Adventure Island 21 miles / 30 minutes
Flamingoland 40 miles / 45 minutes
Oakwood 39 miles / 50 minutes
Fantasy Island 51 miles / 73 minutes
Pleasurewood hills 84 miles / 100 minutes
Blackgang chine 23 miles / 104 minutes

It's easy to see which parks are struggling, although shows that parks like lightwater valley could do so much better than they are. I would say the parks that are further from the motorway network need to try harder than those within 20 minutes. Oakwood suffered from being near the bottom of both of these lists.
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Never thought I'd see M&D's at the top of a list but I have said that M&D's has been one of the best UK parks in terms of accessibility by transport...just a shame the park is such a disgrace.
 
rob666 said:
Speak for yourself matey!
Two years ago, I was pretty much the youngest git on Icon one weekday...solid train of silver surfers.
Oakwood died through a combined lack of investment and poor management.
Everything else could have been managed.
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I definitely agree that lack of investment and lack of direction from Aspro was the main cause.

Like I say, families was Oakwood’s main demographic. If they’d invested as heavily and consistently as Folly Farm, and kept the place clean/ well maintained, the competition from other local family attractions wouldn’t have been an issue. Let’s not forget out of Oakwood and Folly Farm, Oakwood used to be the bigger attraction of the two. Folly have invested, Oakwood have stripped back.
 
Interestingly on the location front, the top hypothetical park location, hitting just over 23 million within the 100km radius, is the intended location of Puy du Fou near Bicester! That one is really doing well location-wise!

On the topic of Oakwood, I think the location didn’t help, but general sustained underinvestment was the bigger factor. Let us remember that Drayton Manor, which was towards the top of the location list, still reached the verge of closure in 2020. That park is in an excellent location, but would still potentially have closed had it not been for Looping Group’s intervention.
 
Matt N said:
Interestingly on the location front, the top hypothetical park location, hitting just over 23 million within the 100km radius, is the intended location of Puy du Fou near Bicester! That one is really doing well location-wise!

On the topic of Oakwood, I think the location didn’t help, but general sustained underinvestment was the bigger factor. Let us remember that Drayton Manor, which was towards the top of the location list, still reached the verge of closure in 2020. That park is in an excellent location, but would still potentially have closed had it not been for Looping Group’s intervention.
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On the topic of Drayton Manor - whilst a closure could've happened, I doubt it that it would've stayed closed as I think it'd easily have been bought out by someone with the location and the park line up being significant.

In addition, the Thomas licence is a significant license at that point and even now despite moving into All Engines Go.

I think we're lucky that Looping picked them up as it could've easily been Aspro.

I think my "What if scenario" would've been what if Mellors operated the park.
 
Value for money is a big issue too.

Ticket prices for Oakwood in 2024 were £36 online (£46 on the day) compared to Folly Farm at £26 (£28 on the day). You're paying at least £10 more for Oakwood, for abandoned areas, decaying rides, SBNO attractions/food outlets. Folly Farm is clean, presentable, feels like it's being cared for. Oakwood was very expensive for what you're paying for, which was likely a factor in that nail hitting the coffin.
 
James said:
Value for money is a big issue too.

Ticket prices for Oakwood in 2024 were £36 online (£46 on the day) compared to Folly Farm at £26 (£28 on the day). You're paying at least £10 more for Oakwood, for abandoned areas, decaying rides, SBNO attractions/food outlets. Folly Farm is clean, presentable, feels like it's being cared for. Oakwood was very expensive for what you're paying for, which was likely a factor in that nail hitting the coffin.
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Folly Farm doesn’t include rides in the admission price though so can’t really compare. You’d probably still fill most of a day out, but just zoo animals is a different day to riding megaphobia. Folly Farm ride wristband is £15 (or four for £50) or can get tokens. So if rides are important to you then the prices are comparable.

I get the general point around upkeep though.
 
KolonelKlink said:
Away from the “is the NI increase responsible/not responsible for Oakwood’s closure” debate for a moment, it’s worth saying tourism in Wales is suffering more than other parts of the UK - take a look at this report from the Welsh government at the end of last year:

A struggling attraction like Oakwood is therefore put in a doom spiral - fewer visitors to Wales means less passing trade for days out, reduced income, less money to invest in the park, a lack of new attractions and reason for lapsed customers to return or new visitors to give it a go. Rinse and repeat.

Combine that with Aspro’s general poor management of their park portfolio. Nobody seems to have a good word to say about them - their European theme parks seem to have been run into the ground with minimal investment and their water parks (the more successful arm of the business) are all second-tier attractions. Case in point: TPW have just been to Aqualand in Tenerife which was a ghost town compared with the much more popular Siam Park down the road - the video shows rusting slides, a lazy river falling to bits, exorbitant food prices and chargeable loungers (which other water parks charge you to use a lounger?!)



The current economic conditions are not particularly conducive to running leisure businesses which are being buffeted by all sorts of factors, but the park might have stood a chance of survival if it hadn’t been in the soggy grip of Aspro.
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Maybe if they stopped renaming national parks to be more eco. (Can't call them Breacon Beacon's because it's not eco sounding.)

Shame about the park, but the group run the parks into the ground. In Hastings they run 3 sites including smugglers adventure where the tech is almost steam powered to run the show as they never invest.
 
The Folly Farm price comparison is even more complicated (and in honesty isn’t comparable at all).

The entry price for Folly allows re-entry within the week. As has been said, it doesn’t include the rides, but it does include the tractor ride and play areas.

As a direct comparison, it’s really not apples with apples. As a general comparison, it demonstrates that good quality, well kept atttractiions in that area can be successful.

Oakwood used to be that, but it wasn’t for the last few years. Folly Farm is that, and it’s currently thriving.
 
My point in comparison was more in light of where Oakwood and Folly Farm are positioned in a tourist hotspot. If you're a family on holiday in the area, Folly Farm is (was) better value for money than Oakwood.

My partner and I had a holiday in Tenby two years ago, and as two adults, we decided against Oakwood and went to Folly Farm for these reasons.

They are both of course completely separate attractions.
 
owenstreet7 said:
On the topic of Drayton Manor - whilst a closure could've happened, I doubt it that it would've stayed closed as I think it'd easily have been bought out by someone with the location and the park line up being significant.
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You mean like Camelot, Belle Vue and Morecambe...Granada Studios even?
All well located with significant attractions, all dead.
Parks have to invest and evolve or they lose custom, Oakwood didn't, it stagnated for years.
It whiffed of corpse for years before the actual death, which was well predicted.
 
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