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2015: General Discussion

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Thankfully it seems that the public are just as fed up of these stories making the meida now as we are.

:)
 
It's also now trending on Facebook thanks to more coverage by 'viral' pages like Lad Bible.

Fortunately most people on social media seem not to care and are telling people to stop reporting non-events but this must all be tarnishing towers rep in some way.
 
If I were Merlin I'd seriously start considering legal action against these newspapers. It's clear they have an agenda against Alton Towers by reporting inaccurate information and a quick look on social media shows it is having an impact on some members of the general public.
 
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Luckily looking at comments you only have 10% of people taking it in and thinking the park is a death trap.

Would be nice if the press could stop though, people really don't care. But I guess their sites must be getting a high number if clicks for them to still drag this on and on.
 
James said:
Luckily looking at comments you only have 10% of people taking it in and thinking the park is a death trap.
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But that's 10% that didn't think it before... Who will then probably bring it up in conversation with other people they know... Who may then adapt that view and tell others in conversation. And so on and so on. :/
 
That's true although this will have no lasting impact on Towers. It will result in guest figures being lower this year and probably next year, although beyond that all this is short term stuff that people get hysterical over for 5 seconds before moving on to some other crap.
 
We are living in the Age of Outrage. People have to have something to be screaming about on antisocial media at all times, because they have forgotten how to have a real conversation face to face.
 
I feel for Towers, I really do. Breakdowns happen in almost every park almost every day. It is not news, it's normal! It's a bit like reporting "Supermarket in Stoke-on-Trent runs out of Corn Flakes" - no one cares!!

But this is becoming more and more damaging for Towers' reputation. As has been said, in comments on these news stories there are only about 10% or so that are 'buying' the stories. If we consider that to be a relatively good sample size then you could say that that's roughly 10% of the population who are genuinely put off Towers by all that has happened. Then you have all the people that these 10% may speak to etc. Overall it potentially translate to a 10% overall decrease in guest numbers since this incident. That's around 250,000 people who may have been planning a visit to Towers but actually don't.

Let's assume that on average the ticket price per guest is £32 - this is less than the online/on-the-day adult and child prices but more than prices if tickets are bought with BOGOFs or other vouchers. That is already £8 million in lost ticket price revenue, never mind money lost on parking, hotel stays and in park spending.

I know this involves a lot of guess work and assumptions but it does give a decent idea of what the impact of 10% fall in guest numbers could be.

:)
 
Alton Towers have a problem.

The tabloids have realised that stories about incidents at theme parks, no matter how trivial, get people reading and talking about their articles. In this day and age, that's often the crude bottom line for the news industry.

Unfortunately, breakdowns, emergency stops and evacuations are commonplace at any theme park, so Alton Towers is now well lined-up in their sights.

These stories are going to keep coming and coming over the next few years and I'm not convinced the park has the appetite to stand up to them.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.
 
Jordan said:
Alton Towers have a problem.

The tabloids have realised that stories about incidents at theme parks, no matter how trivial, get people reading and talking about their articles. In this day and age, that's often the crude bottom line for the news industry.

Unfortunately, breakdowns, emergency stops and evacuations are commonplace at any theme park, so Alton Towers is now well lined-up in their sights.

These stories are going to keep coming and coming over the next few years and I'm not convinced the park has the appetite to stand up to them.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.
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Agree with all of that - and I don't think it will stop at Alton Towers either. I think we will see more articles from other theme parks too. The media have found out that stories about theme parks gets hits - so expect to see more of them in the future.

This is just the same as stories about cancer cures - ever wondered why there were so many stories about potential cures for cancers in the papers? It is because those stories get a spike in papers purchased (I suspect from people who have cancer looking for any cure available). So what seemingly is a pretty small cancer cure story often gets front page headlines.
 
If the tabloids are going to keep on publishing non-stories about things, painting AT in a bad light, they may as well just open The Smiler as soon as possible and then they can talk about that. Decision made easier for Towers. Sorted.
 
LordOfDarkness said:
Metro have gone with the headline:

'80 PEOPLE TRAPPED UPSIDE DOWN FOR 2 HOURS ON AIR ROLLERCOASTER'

http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/02/alton-towers-air-breaks-down-leaving
-guests-stranded-upside-down-5275895/?ito=facebook

The mirror have actually taken interviews over a 20 minute e-stop... Really?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...lercoaster-riders-5986662?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Jesus christ I hate this countries media.
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something needs to be done about this, I thought the papers got into trouble for making things up, its like a vendetta, no one buys their crap paper any more anyway but least the queue will be shorter for most rides!
 
phildenholm said:
something needs to be done about this, I thought the papers got into trouble for making things up, its like a vendetta, no one buys their crap paper any more anyway but least the queue will be shorter for most rides!
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Buy a their paper!! They give it out free on the bus! I would ent say it's a vendetta (no matter what **** they say about them) I'd say that despite a number of big news story's this/last week, they know that people read things they are interested in, and people are interested in Alton towers BECAUSE of the crash. If some people see the words "Alton towers" in a newspaper, online or on tv, they are interested in knowing weather someone has died at that "death-trap" of a theme park.
 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-man-5987141

Here we go again...


A man was taken to hospital with a head injury and three others hurt in a second Alton Towers rollercoaster crash in less than a month.

Mirror.co.uk has learned that two carriages collided on the Sonic Spinball ride on Tuesday.

Eye-witness Danny Robinson, 24, from Liverpool, who was watching his four pals, claimed the carriage was going at "full pace" when it crashed into another carriage containing a young family at the end of the ride.

Alton Towers has refuted the claims the collision happened at "full pace" and said the carriages 'nudged each other at walking pace'.

Speaking about the incident, which happened at around 2.30pm, Danny claimed: "I was stood with the bags watching them when it happened. The carriage came round to the end at full pace and crashed into one with a young family inside.

"The mum in the other carriage was screaming. Two of my friends hit the back of their heads and another two hurt their necks. They spent about 20 minutes getting them out of the carriage.



So today iv been to Alton towers and my carriage crashed into another one on the sonic spinball ... Safe to say I won't be going again!

— Amy (@AmieJohno) June 30, 2015


"All four were taken to the medical centre spent two-and-a-half hours getting checked over and heat pads on their necks. Afterwards one of them started throwing up everywhere and ended up going to hospital."

Another passenger @AmieJohno wrote on Twitter: "So today iv (sic) been to Alton towers and my carriage crashed into another one on the sonic spinball ... Safe to say I won't be going again!"

The 36-year-old man later went to hospital as a precaution after suffering a head injury. He was later released but is understood to be still off work recovering. The three women, aged 33, 30 and 22 are not believed to have needed further treatment.

An Alton Towers spokeswoman said: “Two cars in the station area nudged each other at walking pace. The guests on the two cars walked off and we advised that they attend our medical centre as a precautionary measure."
 
Taken to hospital...
...after being sick. It was a hot day, if you were sat in one of the carriages a can imagine you'd get quite hot.
 
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