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2021: General Discussion

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AT86 said:
Oh yeah. Wouldn’t be Alton Towers if there weren’t a few errors first time round.
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Of course...! This one has been here for a couple of years... on the park directions page;
"Please drive with care when you’re in the area, as there are many walkers, cyclists and horse riders, and the roads can be very thin in places."

Thin roads - thought they were normally referred to as narrow roads!
 
Danscott22 said:
Noticed that Friday May 14th has had its opening hours increased to 5pm - it's not a holiday or anything is it? Strange that this date in isolation has increased its hours.
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Thanks to everything being prebook at present, Towers are able to flex opening hours according to demand much more accurately. Whereas before it was guesswork due to paper 2for1 vouchers etc, they now know well in advance if bookings are higher than expected. Couple that with some (hopefully) improved weather, they're much more comfortable extending opening hours in advance.

Getting a better idea of numbers well in advance with online 2for1 redemption, prebooks etc has been what a lot of people on the forum have been banging on about for years for this very reason. It's just took a global pandemic for them to actually end up putting something in place :tearsofjoy:
 
Skyscraper said:
Maybe they should recruit a group of us for an advisory panel. :p
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You say that in jest, but I actually think a panel of members of the public would be a good idea if managed correctly by the park and had the right mix of people - ie young/old, families/couples, enthusiasts/non-enthusiasts etc. Would be a good platform to get our ideas, thoughts and concerns across meaning a better chance of (hopefully) being listened to.
 
Steve74 said:
You say that in jest, but I actually think a panel of members of the public would be a good idea if managed correctly by the park and had the right mix of people - ie young/old, families/couples, enthusiasts/non-enthusiasts etc. Would be a good platform to get our ideas, thoughts and concerns across meaning a better chance of (hopefully) being listened to.
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Yeah I was saying that as a semi-joke. I actually think that would be a fantastic Idea. :)
 
Skyscraper said:
Maybe they should recruit a group of us for an advisory panel. :p
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James Paulding instigated just that years ago - wasn't it called "Customer Council"? It was a bit of a farce as unless you were a member of a certain forum (not this one) you stood no chance of being selected. It consisted entirely of enthusiasts who were "warm" towards Alton Towers so negative feedback would be minimal.

Any such panel (or guest surveys) needs to capture a complete cross-section of the visitors to the park / hotels. Enthusiasts or pass-holders typically spend less on-park than your once a year visitor... so their opinion is probably more relevant when it comes to revenue.
 
Kraken27 said:
James Paulding instigated just that years ago - wasn't it called "Customer Council"? It was a bit of a farce as unless you were a member of a certain forum (not this one) you stood no chance of being selected. It consisted entirely of enthusiasts who were "warm" towards Alton Towers so negative feedback would be minimal.

Any such panel (or guest surveys) needs to capture a complete cross-section of the visitors to the park / hotels. Enthusiasts or pass-holders typically spend less on-park than your once a year visitor... so their opinion is probably more relevant when it comes to revenue.
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Knowing people who were on said Customer Council, there wasn't a requirement to be a member of a "certain forum" (I presume you're referring TowersTimes - you can say the name :tearsofjoy:). I can also say with absolute certainty negative feedback was far from minimal, we are enthusiasts after-all and cast a very critical eye on the place as demonstrated within the topics on the forum. I believe there was also a family based focus group too in later years (around CBeebie's Land time I think?), although I think that was fairly short lived.

Things have changed these days, with the opportunity to more readily gain feedback over social media and e-mail off the back of customers pre-booking. You also have the app, which can specifically target guests right down to those who've been on a certain ride or visited a certain outlet. If you've been on park in recent weeks and have the app you'll have no doubt seen the popups for feedback after visiting one of the Retro Squad rides. Then there's obviously forums, Youtube channels and fan pages, which are absolutely checked regularly too.

That said, I feel there's still a space for focus groups within the resort - amongst all markets, even enthusiasts. Sure, some pass holders spend less (my bank account would disagree!) but many are incredibly well travelled, visiting other theme parks across the UK and globally. They're fairly uniquely placed to see what's worked and what hasn't in other parks, have often worked in the industry and so can also be more aware of the business side of things that impact the decisions the park is making as well.
 
Do Towers take any notice of fan forums though? I wouldn't! I'm sure someone at the park social media team would naturally have a butchers on some of these threads once in a while, I mean who wouldn't have some sort of interest in online fan discussion about your employer? But I can't see anyone at Towers giving a damn what any of us think. Many of us will still hand over the cash regardless of what ever they do.

I think they need to consider what kind of visitor they want to win over to suit their business strategy, whether it's families, overnight stays, those most likely to spend the most cash or whatever and target them for their opinions.

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Matt.GC said:
Do Towers take any notice of fan forums though? I wouldn't! I'm sure someone at the park social media team would naturally have a butchers on some of these threads once in a while, I mean who wouldn't have some sort of interest in online fan discussion about your employer? But I can't see anyone at Towers giving a damn what any of us think. Many of us will still hand over the cash regardless of what ever they do.

I think they need to consider what kind of visitor they want to win over to suit their business strategy, whether it's families, overnight stays, those most likely to spend the most cash or whatever and target them for their opinions.

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Towers staff can and do read these forums though! :)
 
Matt.GC said:
Do Towers take any notice of fan forums though? I wouldn't! I'm sure someone at the park social media team would naturally have a butchers on some of these threads once in a while, I mean who wouldn't have some sort of interest in online fan discussion about your employer? But I can't see anyone at Towers giving a damn what any of us think. Many of us will still hand over the cash regardless of what ever they do.

I think they need to consider what kind of visitor they want to win over to suit their business strategy, whether it's families, overnight stays, those most likely to spend the most cash or whatever and target them for their opinions.

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
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Obviously they're not going to take every post as gospel, but forums, social media pages and Youtube channels are essential to a business in this day and age, and I can say with absolute certainty they're read by the resort. Sure forums are used less and less as time goes on, but there's very few places where you'll get such detail from a guest, when many are hard pushed to fill in simple feedback surveys.

People don't just visit official channels for information before their visit, they'll check out those unofficial sources of information and especially vlogs like TPWW. For all the reporting we do whilst on park as TowersStreet, the comments we have on posts are from both enthusiasts and occasional visitors too. They're publicly visible and appear on their friend's feeds who are all potential visitors. They're an essential tool to gauge reaction to announcements or get realtime feedback on how things are going on park.

Alton have and do consider who they want to win over to suit their business strategy - and families, especially those who extend a stay overnight always will be the main driving factor. And in all honesty, they generally do that quite well. It's why we've had CBeebie's Land, CBeebies Hotel, Sealife and Dungeons. However, for all the families that visit, they still need to cater for other markets - we've seen what happens when there's a move to corner a park into one market *cough* Thorpe.

For all those weekdays they open and those quieter days in September, for the likes of Scarefest where mazes bring in big money but aren't necessarily suitable for a lot of families - the thrill/younger market is essential. We're seeing heavily discounted student tickets through the week to encourage attendance and further revenue on off peak days, and in the past we've seen Adrenaline Week to encourage that too. We've seen a move away from dedicated thrill rides (higher, faster records etc) toward 1.2m rides like Thirteen which suit both family and thrill markets. Wickerman has been an especially excellent example of that, probably one of the best we've seen for a long time in the UK.

I would probably also add that whilst we don't see anything like the Customer Council of old, there's likely still plenty of targeted research that still goes on in the background that we don't see, just not necessarily as publicly as that was.
 
Heidi said:
Wait a minute how have I only just now heard of student tickets :eek:
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£20 weekdays, £25 weekends via Student Beans or Totum. So share the fun vouchers are still cheaper, but worth it if you don't have any of those as they're still a few quid cheaper than MAP friends and family :)
 
Craig said:
£20 weekdays, £25 weekends via Student Beans or Totum. So share the fun vouchers are still cheaper, but worth it if you don't have any of those as they're still a few quid cheaper than MAP friends and family :)
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I've just looked and the £20 weekdays is the only tickets available at the weekends I looked at? I'm assuming this just means that nothing is available for this date
 
Ethan said:
I've just looked and the £20 weekdays is the only tickets available at the weekends I looked at? I'm assuming this just means that nothing is available for this date
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The tickets are offered based on demand I think. They're designed to encourage people to come on off peak days, so you won't see them offered on busy weekends. The "midweek" tickets do seem to be available on Sundays in September and early October too, presumably as the park is traditionally quieter as we're in the run up to Scarefest. Heck if you're quick the opening Sunday of Scarefest is on there :)
 
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