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2020: General Discussion

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Probably slim as you'd have to be living in a cave to not know about Coronavirus and its impact.
 
I doubt we'll see a 2020 season to be honest. I think when it comes to leisure venues, those restrictions won't be lifted until the end of the summer at the earliest, quite possibly pushing further into September, even if that. It probably won't be financially viable to open the park for just two months considering the huge costs of Scarefest and Fireworks.
 
Mr Pearse said:
If social distancing is still in place, can scarefest/fireworks even take place?
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They can't. Merlin / Towers know this but are hedging their bets on restrictions being lifted by then. To announce cancellation of the season now would possibly make customers change spending plans, e.g. put the Towers day out / Towers hotel stay money towards an overseas holiday next year. Lost money for Merlin.
 
To be fair though, nobody knows how long the restrictions will last. It would be premature to cancel the whole season at this point.

For instance, the media are talking about pubs being allowed to reopen anywhere between June and December. Nobody knows at this stage, because it all depends on the science (vaccines, treatments, tests) and what mitigation strategy the government comes up with (e.g. contact tracing apps etc).
 
This is changing by the day, Merlin are just throwing out dates at this point, they have no idea. I can definitely see it reopening with social distancing measures this year, they don't want to lose out. Plus, it's an open space area so it is possible and that's all the government will see. But, who knows? For all we know it could be open on June 1'st, we'll just wait and see.
 
Also stating they will re-book people who have bookings up to the 1st June just stops them being over-whelmed with people contacting. It doesn't mean thats when they expect to re-open, just when they are currently re-arranging until.
 
Of relevance to hotel stuff is this email I got from the affiliate team at HX (similar emails have been sent out for all the merlin RTP programs I'm in).
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Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
jon81uk said:
Also stating they will re-book people who have bookings up to the 1st June just stops them being over-whelmed with people contacting. It doesn't mean thats when they expect to re-open, just when they are currently re-arranging until.
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Very true. You should see the stick Center Parcs are getting on social media at the moment. They have closed their entire operation of 6 holiday villages + head office & contact centre. They have a skeleton staff working from home processing refunds & rebookings - but when you have anything up to about 9000 bookings a week, there will always be a backlog. Two of the closed weeks were school easter holidays when all the villages would have been full.
 
The park should be open by July realistically with distancing measures in place. There comes a point where the government have to realise that every business in the country is at risk and therefore places will have to open rather sooner than later
 
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They might seem them at risk of collapse, but if the chance of 2nd wave is still there, what would they want open up places and let them try and social distance, or leave them closed till it’s completely safe to open. If and it’s a big if we have a second wave due to it spreading and then we end up in another lockdown that’s it for many business, I think most small to medium business can last until August/September no later then that.
 
Ethan said:
The park should be open by July realistically with distancing measures in place.
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How would they even be able to do that, realistically? It's impossible to maintain social distancing in a theme park, especially in peak season during the summer. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in fantasy land.
 
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