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2018: General Discussion

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Matt N said:
When my Mum found out about this, she said that we should be lucky that Alton is still open because they are raising prices due to them being in a hard place profits-wise. I then told her that many people think 2017 has seen increased visitor numbers and she said "How much more can they raise the gate price before people just won't go anymore?" which is a very good question in my opinion. What do you guys think?
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At the minute, I think it depends on how successful SW8 ( Wickerman) is when it opens next year. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
Although some do pay full price, most get in on 2-4-1 vouchers, so I think it will have to increase by quiet some far before people balk, maybe £80?
 
I have a sneaky suspicion that SW8 will not increase visitation in the park.

I predict another Swarm effect where the footfall remains largely unchanged from the 2017 season.

I would love nothing more than to be proved wrong, however.
 
WickerManiac said:
I have a sneaky suspicion that SW8 will not increase visitation in the park.

I predict another Swarm effect where the footfall remains largely unchanged from the 2017 season.

I would love nothing more than to be proved wrong, however.
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I think you will be proved wrong. A new coaster at Alton is pretty much a guaranteed success, whereas Thorpe had much less of a legacy at the time of The Swarm opening.

Incidentally, why do we all reckon The Swarm failed to make an impact (and almost certainly sealed the fate of non-IP based attractions within Merlin)?
 
Plastic Person said:
I think you will be proved wrong. A new coaster at Alton is pretty much a guaranteed success, whereas Thorpe had much less of a legacy at the time of The Swarm opening.

Incidentally, why do we all reckon The Swarm failed to make an impact (and almost certainly sealed the fate of non-IP based attractions within Merlin)?
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Yeah, however the marketing of this attraction completely avoids the point that it is a roller coaster! It is being dubbed as an "immersive ground breaking experience". They are hiding from the fact that it is a wooden rollercoaster.

This, coupled with my belief that the GP are beyond bored of scary, depressing, dark themes in such a saturated market will mean low attendance. :)

Only time will tell!
 
I also reckon that the myriad of external factors in 2012 such as the London Olympics and the rainy summer may have helped Swarm in failing to increase guest figures.
 
Plastic Person said:
I think you will be proved wrong. A new coaster at Alton is pretty much a guaranteed success, whereas Thorpe had much less of a legacy at the time of The Swarm opening.

Incidentally, why do we all reckon The Swarm failed to make an impact (and almost certainly sealed the fate of non-IP based attractions within Merlin)?
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Matt N said:
I also reckon that the myriad of external factors in 2012 such as the London Olympics and the rainy summer may have helped Swarm in failing to increase guest figures.
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lol! You're starting to sound like Merlin's board of excuses yourself now! ;)
 
WickerManiac said:
lol! You're starting to sound like Merlin's board of excuses yourself now! ;)
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But the Olympics actually happened in 2012 and it did actually rain all summer. Admittedly, Merlin's October 2017 report of 2017 RTP attendance being affected by terrorism and rainy weather was a load of gobbledygook, because 2017 was actually a very sunny summer. But anyway, external factors did actually affect 2012 attendance is the point I'm trying to get across. And as @MakoMania said, it wasn't just Merlin affected. These external factors are also what caused the demise of Camelot. In your defence, however, DBGT was marketed with emphasis on theming in 2016, and that also failed to increase guest figures. And Merlin can't really claim that the Olympics caused that... because this time the Olympics were in Brazil.
 
Derren Brown is a niche market, so much so 95% of the public think his name is Darren (It is, but that's not the point) and the other 5% go "who?" when asked.

2012 was a terrible year, nothing grew in our veggies patch and the only time it didn't rain was during the Olympics, I'm sure Seb Coe stole Bernie Ecclestone's rain disperser 3000 machine for it.
 
WickerManiac said:
The last true successful investment Merlin had made was The Smiler in my opinion. Was a huge success in terms of visitations, until June '15.
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CBeebies Land has also been a huge success, seems like Alton has more success in terms of attendance with their new attractions compared to the other Merlin parks.
 
AstroDan said:
The thing is, the headline gate figure isn't what anybody really pays.

The price that 90%+ of people pay to get into the park is reasonable and fair.
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Correct - it is just the pricing strategy that Merlin have created to:

i.) create a false sense of value to incentive MAP sales
ii.) encourage the "2-4-1" culture further
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I think this strategy has long failed. It results in people only paying for a £20 product, but feel they are entitled to a £55+ product. This is clearly fantasy.

A more sensible approach would be to reduce the gate-price to, let's say, £26 for an adult.

Then an online rack-rate of £21 per person.

Then, for good measure, have a £5-off per person on the cereal Kellogs promotion (then bringing on-the-day to £21 per person also).

This wouldn't make a grat deal of financial difference because people only pay around £25 per person in reality, however guest satisfaction would no doubt increase as they aren't under the illusion they due a fantasy £55+ product.
 
I think it would be great for them to reduce the gate price, however why would Merlin want to do this when there are guests that quite happily pay full price. It suprises me how many people actually do this.
 
AstroDan said:
Alton Towers should be priced at £30.

End of.
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Yes but I don’t think they could go cold turkey on the vouchers straight away.
So £35 on the gate, £29 online and then £5 off with a Kellogg’s voucher would work well. Encouraging online booking is a good thing as they can better predict staffing levels. And they still get the “free” advertising on Kellogg’s by offering some form of discount.
Maybe after a season of smaller voucher discounts they could switch to £36 gate/£30 online as standard.

But given that Go Ape is £34 for 2hrs or so of entertainment, £30 for Alton Towers is not unreasonable as you said.
 
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