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2017: General Discussion

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can't imagine that's why people are not visiting, think there's a bigger picture here.
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Knock on effect form the smiller crash made worse in peoples minds by the fact we are living in a 24hour rolling news and social media society, combined with a high on the gate ticket price, breaking the psychological more than fifty quid a ticket, not as much money to spend in peoples pockets, and economic uncertainty caused by brexit.
Some of it down to Alton towers, some of it down to economic realitys.
 
Perhaps the board need to be honest with the shareholders and say "due to major cuts across our theme park division especially alton towers cutting entertainment closing a number of attractions and poor operations the number of visitors is down". And then the shareholders can ask who made these decisions. You have to laugh at the excuses they come up with for the shareholders.

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I think Nick Varney was referring more to their London attractions rather than Alton Towers.

:)
 
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I think he's trying to make excuses for poor visitor numbers across the company as there was a piece on radio Lancashire on Tuesday about poor visitor numbers at sealife, blackpool tower and madame tussauds due to the terrorist threat. I think he's trying to cover his back when reporting to the shareholders. He would be better admitting the truth that a reduced poor offering at the attractions is more likely to be the reason.

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In truth it's a mixture of factors affecting attendance.

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Maybe but he never once admitts that the deteriorating offering is causing the decline .He just harps on about incidents out of his control like terrorism and smiler crash.

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Well are those not reasons for poor attendance? Much like how the Olympics in 2012 caused poor attendance (not that they cared and blamed Swarm for that)...
 
Yes but ALL possible reasons should be quoted not just "oh sorry numbers are down but it's probably due to some incident or threat of terrorism or an event which was sold to us years ago that would bring people flocking to the UK ( and cost the UK tax payers billions ) They also need to add in there that the quality of the product may be poor so deters people from visiting, therefore investment and improvement is needed to encourage people to visit (but that doesn't include building a new themed hotel or some silly overpriced temperamental new VR fad )

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yes gate attendance are down to all the above mentioned things, but the biggest thing is people do not have the money to go and the have more important things to spend said money on, like living and feeding their families.

until the economy sorts its self out and people start feeling affluent again attendance across all park operations will be low.

Merlin know this, hence all the cut backs
 
Gate numbers down.... hmmm.... I wonder why:

£200+ per night to stay in the hotels B&B
£52.80 per adult to get into the park
£46.80 for a child (from age 3!!!)
£6 to park your car (unless you stay in the hotel)

Reduced opening hours
Reduced ride line up
Reduced entertainment offerings
Reduced food offerings

Hmmmm.... yes. I have no idea why gate numbers are down!
 
Gate numbers are drastically down at Alton Towers due to The Smiler, simple as that. A mixture of other factors have meant that they have not recovered as much as they might otherwise have. 2018 will tell us if a big investment is able to attract more visitors to Alton Towers, if the answer is no then I really fear for the future.

:)
 
I personally don't think terrorism is to blame for the poor attendance as I was at Legoland,chessington and Thorpe Park last weekend and all 3 had massive crowds so if it was the reason for Alton towers decline it would also be evident there

I''ve been to Alton towers 5 times all on weekends this year and Thorpe park was busier than any of my visits and it was a Monday

I'd say its mainly due to the smiler crash but also due to the reduced line up

My lad is 6 years old and over 1.2 and my visit to Thorpe park really brought it to light how little there is to do for him at Alton towers

It was my first visit there and I was under the impression it was mainly aimed at thrill seekers but he had a great time

They need to sort out the park for that age group and fast Because like others have said the park isn't sustainable with the number of visitors it currently gets

We''ll be back tomorrow and you'd have thought the superb weather forecast would mean a healthy attendance...
 
themeparkfan said:
Maybe but he never once admitts that the deteriorating offering is causing the decline .He just harps on about incidents out of his control like terrorism and smiler crash.

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But the Smiler crash was something that was to all intents and purposes the companies fault
 
Terrorism clearly has an effect on museums and attractions. Both attacks and the fear of them occurring. The numbers from AVLA for 2016 make pretty interesting reading.

Each of the Merlin parks in the south has a different profile in terms of its domestic/non-domestic visitation and this profile split is vastly different depending on the month.

We can only guess in terms of visitor levels and ultimately how this reflects the bottom line. Merlin have the numbers and are updating the investors as they do. Perhaps they're being cautious ahead , perhaps it's correct or perhaps you think a FTSE100 is deliberately misleading its investors...?

I'm broadly happy with the share performance at the moment, but the statement did affect the price. I'll have to have one less pint this weekend to compensate.
 
danni87 said:
Does anyone know if the waterfalls are back on on the rapids yet?
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They were still turned off on Thursday just gone and I presume that they will either remain off for good unless they modify the boats to prevent people falling out or alternatively it may also depend on the final outcome of the inquest into the DMP accident

With the waterfalls turned off, that section dose look very dull and boring
 
RoyJess said:
They were still turned off on Thursday just gone and I presume that they will either remain off for good unless they modify the boats to prevent people falling out or alternatively it may also depend on the final outcome of the inquest into the DMP accident

With the waterfalls turned off, that section dose look very dull and boring
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I'm going next Saturday, so I'll say whether they're back on or not. I don't think they will be, though.
 
Did anyone ever get wet as a result of the waterfalls? the flowing water form the waterfalls always seemed to push the boat away from the falls and to the centre
 
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