2025: General Discussion

[Mick]

Numbers being down doesn’t automatically mean finances are down too - think of the savings they will have made on things such as axing the entertainment staff, removing events, replacing staffed games with claw machines and the like.

Full disclaimer I have no idea how either their numbers or their finances are looking this year compared to others

 

[Hid]

Seriously don’t get why people think attendance is down. Merlin would not have given them budget for Friday of fireworks if attendance was down. It was around the same time last year that Merlin cut the opening times for Towers mid season because attendance was poor, if anything the mood music suggests the opposite.

Its more due to the fact look on the pathways they are a lot emptier than they used to be. Used to be people everywhere

Full disclaimer I have no idea how either their numbers or their finances are looking this year compared to others

Do Merlin even display their finances in reports

 

[AT86]

Do Merlin even display their finances in reports

Yes.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Its more due to the fact look on the pathways they are a lot emptier than they used to be. Used to be people everywhere

That's only because every ride now has FIVE queues to soak up the crowds.

 

[tayspru]

Also ride availability is much improved meaning there’s less guests wandering from one broken ride to the next

 

[Matt N]

Its more due to the fact look on the pathways they are a lot emptier than they used to be. Used to be people everywhere

There’s every possibility that attendance is spread better than it used to be. The peaks might not be as high, but I wouldn’t be surprised if midweek lows were busier to compensate. The midweek days have certainly seemed busier in recent years.

With the cheap Discovery Pass and general changes in working patterns in recent years, it wouldn’t be a great surprise to me. And given that midweek is 5 days and the weekend is only 2, any rise in midweek visitation would more than offset a fall in weekend visitation.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I saw a very similar post from my local leisure centre about 3-month passes being introduced for the summer, similar to the annual passes Merlin have just introduced.

Given the timeframe of both passes, it’s clear they’ve seen a new industry trend elsewhere and are giving customers more ways to get customers to give them money. This is consistent with other trends within the wider leisure industry, give people more ways to pay and keep the growth going.

Not necessarily because attendance is down, the industry seems to be holding steady at the moment. More so looks like keeping growth going but that’s just my perspective from what I’ve seen. Don’t take my word as gospel.

 

[rob666]

There’s every possibility that attendance is spread better than it used to be. The peaks might not be as high, but I wouldn’t be surprised if midweek lows were busier to compensate. The midweek days have certainly seemed busier in recent years.

With the cheap Discovery Pass and general changes in working patterns in recent years, it wouldn’t be a great surprise to me. And given that midweek is 5 days and the weekend is only 2, any rise in midweek visitation would more than offset a fall in weekend visitation.

Midweek is five days?

News to me, I thought midweek was Wednesday, or more broadly, Tues, Wed & Thurs.

Weekdays are not midweek.

Lots of people take Fri/Mon off to tag the weekend...so they are generally busier.