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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2021 Discussion

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Wait, I thought attendance dropped in 2018 with Icon’s opening as well? I must admit I’m quite shocked to hear that they experienced another huge attendance drop for 2019, and I’ll admit it does make me a little worried about the impact the COVID lockdowns may have had on their finances.

Why is it that the park’s attendance appears to have dropped so sharply over the last couple of years, as it’s not like they haven’t been investing?

However, in spite of that fact, I think things might be looking up for the park. The staycation boom seems to have made a lot of the UK parks pretty busy, and as things open up again, people will probably be more inclined to holiday in places like Blackpool what with international travel still being relatively restricted, so surely Pleasure Beach stands to be doing a roaring trade this summer and in the year or two ahead with that in mind?
 
Blimey, those numbers make for fairly somber reading, I’ll admit.

If my maths is correct, that means that their attendance in 2019 was only around 76.6% of what it was in 2014. Attendance has decreased by 23.4% since 2014, and for no obvious reason that I can see.

I know 23% doesn’t sound too catastrophic, but to put things into some perspective, the Smiler incident was said to have decreased Alton’s guest figures by around 25%, and that was considered pretty profound at the time.

Admittedly BPB’s decline seems to have happened more gradually as opposed to being a short, sharp shock over a very short period of time like it was for Towers, but 23% in 5 years is quite a profound decline, especially given there was nothing that really should have caused such a major decline (e.g. a major incident).

Out of interest; while I know Blackpool doesn’t officially release guest figures anymore, is it known what sort of ballpark the park’s guest figures fall into these days?

Back in the 2000s, the guest figures were said to be 5-6 million (on par with Universal Studios Florida and higher than Islands of Adventure!), and I even remember 7-8 million being said for the 1990s. Given that Icon caused a 5.8% decrease in attendance in 2018 (supposedly), and I remember that figure being cited elsewhere as a decrease of 200,000 guests, some calculation tells me that Blackpool’s approximate yearly attendance figures from 2014 onwards could have been as follows, if my maths is correct:
  • 2014: 3,815,102
  • 2015: 3,624,347
  • 2016: 3,660,590
  • 2017: 3,448,276
  • 2018: 3,248,276
  • 2019: 2,923,448
That would make sense given that the park was reportedly pulling in well over 5 million guests in its most successful years, although it does bring into question how the park is reportedly struggling so much with attendance figures about 20% higher than Alton Towers’, even in the low year of 2019. It also brings into question why the park has not appeared in the TEA report among the top 20 European theme parks for a number of years; even 2019’s figure would place the park within the top 10 parks in Europe (8th, just ahead of Gardaland) and the most visited park in the UK by a solid 500,000, and 2014’s figure would have had the park only slightly outside of the European top 5 (6th, slotting between PortAventura at 3.5 million and Walt Disney Studios at 4.2 million) and over a million ahead of its nearest UK competition in Alton Towers (just shy of 2.6 million).
 
Matt N said:
Admittedly BPB’s decline seems to have happened more gradually as opposed to being a short, sharp shock over a very short period of time like it was for Towers, but 23% in 5 years is quite a profound decline, especially given there was nothing that really should have caused such a major decline (e.g. a major incident).
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The major incident was the Smiler one at AT, I think it affected all UK parks. With Alton Towers being more popular anyway they seem to be able to able to bounce back. Whereas Blackpool never had the same reputation and attendance levels.
 
jon81uk said:
The major incident was the Smiler one at AT, I think it affected all UK parks. With Alton Towers being more popular anyway they seem to be able to able to bounce back. Whereas Blackpool never had the same reputation and attendance levels.
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In the thick of the incident stuff, though, BPB’s decreases seemed fairly limited; 2015 saw a 5% decrease, while 2016 actually saw a 1% increase. The largest decreases seemed to happen when Alton was coming out the other side.
AT86 said:
I don’t know what the actual figures are. But I’m pretty confident they are no where near those numbers!
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I know the numbers seem a bit high given the park’s well publicised financial struggles and their lack of appearance in the TEA report since around 2009, but it could well just be the impact of not having a corporate conglomerate like Merlin backing them financially. Alton might be struggling similarly if it were an independent, family-owned park.
 
Matt N said:
Blimey, those numbers make for fairly somber reading, I’ll admit.

If my maths is correct, that means that their attendance in 2019 was only around 76.6% of what it was in 2014. Attendance has decreased by 23.4% since 2014, and for no obvious reason that I can see.

I know 23% doesn’t sound too catastrophic, but to put things into some perspective, the Smiler incident was said to have decreased Alton’s guest figures by around 25%, and that was considered pretty profound at the time.

Admittedly BPB’s decline seems to have happened more gradually as opposed to being a short, sharp shock over a very short period of time like it was for Towers, but 23% in 5 years is quite a profound decline, especially given there was nothing that really should have caused such a major decline (e.g. a major incident).

Out of interest; while I know Blackpool doesn’t officially release guest figures anymore, is it known what sort of ballpark the park’s guest figures fall into these days?

Back in the 2000s, the guest figures were said to be 5-6 million (on par with Universal Studios Florida and higher than Islands of Adventure!), and I even remember 7-8 million being said for the 1990s. Given that Icon caused a 5.8% decrease in attendance in 2018 (supposedly), and I remember that figure being cited elsewhere as a decrease of 200,000 guests, some calculation tells me that Blackpool’s approximate yearly attendance figures from 2014 onwards could have been as follows, if my maths is correct:
  • 2014: 3,815,102
  • 2015: 3,624,347
  • 2016: 3,660,590
  • 2017: 3,448,276
  • 2018: 3,248,276
  • 2019: 2,923,448
That would make sense given that the park was reportedly pulling in well over 5 million guests in its most successful years, although it does bring into question how the park is reportedly struggling so much with attendance figures about 20% higher than Alton Towers’, even in the low year of 2019. It also brings into question why the park has not appeared in the TEA report among the top 20 European theme parks for a number of years; even 2019’s figure would place the park within the top 10 parks in Europe (8th, just ahead of Gardaland) and the most visited park in the UK by a solid 500,000, and 2014’s figure would have had the park only slightly outside of the European top 5 (6th, slotting between PortAventura at 3.5 million and Walt Disney Studios at 4.2 million) and over a million ahead of its nearest UK competition in Alton Towers (just shy of 2.6 million).
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I don't think you can work backwards from historic attendances safely - mostly because you're not accounting for the huge drop in numbers through the gate between 2008 and 2009 when entrance became chargeable.

I'd also be careful about using the 'free entry' era attendance figures. Nobody was counting, is the reality.
 
Just heading home from a nice few days in Blackpool.

Good to see the park looking busy on Friday and Saturday, pretty quiet on Sunday due to the final, and was filling up when I left after a few hours this morning.

Really enjoyed Icon, feel it definitely gets up to speed a lot faster now than it did its first few seasons. Even lucky enough to 'high five' with Big Dipper during my last ride of the visit.

Away from the park was able to spend a wet Saturday afternoon visiting the Merlin attractions, really enjoyed the dungeons. Always a lot of fun.

Finally was able to try a few restaurants in the town centre for the first time, the Vintro Lounge which is in the old Pizza Express, and finally the West Coast Rock Cafe. Both doing a really good selection of food and drink.

All in all a great first visit to Blackpool since September 2020, looking forward already to going again in early September. Always something a bit magical in the Autumn when the illuminations are on.
 
The year of the Smiler crash at Alton felt noticeably quieter. Visiting BPB at the moment really doesn’t feel that much quieter than it did in say 2014-2015.

I usually visit on Sundays when the park is traditionally quieter, but my point is that a Sunday in shoulder season in 2019 doesn’t feel noticeably quieter than a comparable Sunday 5 years before.

That’s just my experience anyway.
 
So I guess with all legal limits on gatherings being lifted and social distancing scrapped from Monday, that the current visitor limit (whatever that actually is) will be scrapped. Do you think this will be the case? The park will want to rake in as much coin as possible over the Summer especially with many people not leaving the country. I noticed that a couple of days over Easter were fully booked, the last thing the park will want is to cap numbers. But it looks life they won't have to from Monday.

I wonder how the mask thing will go? The government advice seems somewhat ridiculous now, with instruction going from 'You MUST wear a mask' to 'You are expected to wear a mask' overnight. I guess places like shops and amusement parks will have to clearly state their stance on it upon entrance / on their website, etc.

Free beer and seafood for the over 40's in Madame Crevettes this Friday.
 
Well the queues on the end of May bank holiday were horrendous, even with the cap. So I would hate to see them let any more into the park.

Dipper_Dave said:
Free beer and seafood for the over 40's in Madame Crevettes this Friday.
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See you there. Looking forward to it :)
 
Had to have my annual Eddie Stobart Convoy ride with my youngest lad as @shakey and @rob666 both refused to go on in recent visits, the miserable old farts. Eldest lad found it hilarious when we crawled past him in the Icon queue.

Surely Convoy is far less embarrassing for a grown man than being seen on the coin operated train near Avalanche, feet operating the controls? :D
 
Dipper_Dave said:
Free beer and seafood for the over 40's in Madame Crevettes this Friday.
Click to expand...

One say I'm going to drive 214 miles and hold you to this :laughing:

I expect them to left all restrictions and take the money. Let's face it, even with restrictions theme parks as they have been would have been a no go for anyone particularly concerned about contracting the virus. They won't be attracting the cautious by keeping restrictions so they may as well take the money of those happy with a busy space.
 
If they're planning on letting in 50% more people (or whatever) than they are at the moment then good luck to them but I'll be giving the place a very wide berth. I don't fancy waiting 3 hours for Icon.
 
John said:
If they're planning on letting in 50% more people (or whatever) than they are at the moment then good luck to them but I'll be giving the place a very wide berth. I don't fancy waiting 3 hours for Icon.
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Not sure I'd want to wait much longer than half an hour for it.
 
It very busy Saturday and apart from masks worn by staff it felt like all restrictions had been scrapped - no social distancing, hardly any hand sanitiser, no enforcement of mask wearing. Was it like this last year when restrictions were relaxed? I felt AT were more on it when I visited last month
 
Had my first trip since 2013 to BPB last Monday.
Icon is great, maybe could be faster in parts, but the inversion straight after the second launch is fun.
The Big One going round corners is very rattley, probably my least favourite ride of the day.
Grand National was fine, Big Dipper was fun but rough, felt very out of control in a good way.
Streak back row was our favourite coaster, but the front row wasn't as exciting.
River Caves and Alice in Wonderland were both better than I remember them, although Alice is so quick you don't get time to have a good look at the scenes!
Skyforce was my biggest surprise, I had always assumed I wouldn't like that sort of ride, I don't normally really enjoy too spinny things (like Samuri) but I loved the "challenge" of trying to make the plane spin on Skyforce. Its a shame they put all the queue behind the building though, would have been nice to watch the ride. Should have done more re-rides.


There has been lots of discussion on here about food options and availability at Alton Towers, but I don't think BPB is any better really. There are several of the bar and seafood places, a couple of hot dog places and burger options plus Burger King and Big Pizza Kitchen. We went for fish and chips from the row opposite Big Dipper / Infusion and it was fine, the chips were standard frozen ones but at least the fish was freshly battered. Sat on wet seats opposite Wallace & Gromit (old monorail station) to eat. The fish and chips next to Valhalla/Ice Blast was currently a pre-paid cash card issuing plaice.
I just felt it was hard to find something decent to eat and there isn't a huge amount of indoor seating?
The same issues that get discussed about Alton Towers food options felt like they applied to BPB too.
The hot fresh doughnuts were good though.

Had a great stay at the Big Blue, got upgraded to a deluxe double and had a great park view.

Park opening could also have been better, the hotel entrance didn't get going til at least 10.05 as I think the one member of staff was waiting for someone to join him.
Then I didn't realise most rides didn't open til 10.30 anyway, so we waited for Icon to open but could probably have gone and ridden a few other things in that first half hour (it seemed Nickelodeonland opened at 10.00). But we didn't wait long for Icon at least once it actually did open as we were already in the queue outside.
 
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