Matt N
TS Member
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I would not be surprised if attendance is struggling somewhat this year; the summer weather has been quite poor so far.
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2024: General Discussion
Squiggs
TS Team
They... would like to make more money.
Call_um
TS Member
Completely agree. If they've committed to longer opening times they should stick with them, people have paid money based on them opening hours.
To be honest i'd never seen another UK park do this but Chessington have just cut some of their 7pm closes towards the end of summer.
Hopefully the 5pm weekdays and 7pm Friday, Sat and Sun don't get cut from Oktoberfest this year. The 7pm closes really make Oktoberfest.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Sorry if this isn't the right place but I thought I should share it so others are aware.
Received this possible marketing text today but can't verify if it's genuine or which park it's from. I've blocked and reported it and have not clicked the link.
Received this possible marketing text today but can't verify if it's genuine or which park it's from. I've blocked and reported it and have not clicked the link.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
This is a legitimate text message from Thorpe Park, the link takes you to their Fastrack page to purchase tickets for today. The metadata in the resolved URL would suggest that whomever received the message originally is going to Thorpe Park today, as it's generated by their marketing software / transactional message software for day visits.Sorry if this isn't the right place but I thought I should share it so others are aware.
Received this possible marketing text today but can't verify if it's genuine or which park it's from. I've blocked and reported it and have not clicked the link.
It's a bit.ly link so that they can remain within the character limit for a standard single SMS.
It would appear that they're not using SMS header identifiers, it's possible that whichever platform they're using to send these messages doesn't support that. It's important to note, however, that even with SMS headers saying "Thorpe Park" many phones and services will still flag any message you've received from an unrecognised number as spam. It's also incredibly easy to spoof SMS headers, allowing you to fake which number you're messaging from, or even create a name. It has a legitimate purpose in allowing businesses to send communication from the same number, without having to be using the same device.
Dave
TS Founding Member
I don’t think any theme park is doing well this year, perfect combination of cost of living still biting and the weather being terrible.
Not justifying the change but I suspect a lot of UK parks are tightening their belts this season.
DistortAMG
TS Member
Devils advocate here. But I would say the majority of the public commit to a date. Based on their lives, work and life commitments. Opening times are usually never considered or an afterthought.
There is an expectation the hours will be reasonable however. Outside of enthusiast circles I've never met anyone who takes much notice before hand due to the expectation.
This does not make it right though. But I would put this down to the abysmal weather this year. Parks have slashed prices and are trying all sorts of tactics to get people through the gates because the demand has not been there due to the weather being one of the worst summers in recent times.
If you’re a guest that visits once a year then why would you not consider opening times? There’s a reason that scarefest and fireworks are busy and the opening times will play a huge part in that
I think the park may be struggling this year. The hotels seem to always have offers on which is pretty much unheard of in the summer holidays.
Cutting opening hours may be a reflection of lower bookings which in turn is a result of poor customer satisfaction, higher prices and awful food&drink offerings resort wide.
You reap what you sow.
Cutting opening hours may be a reflection of lower bookings which in turn is a result of poor customer satisfaction, higher prices and awful food&drink offerings resort wide.
You reap what you sow.
I don’t personally understand what their expectations are as a business. They reduce hours from 6pm to 5pm and on these days I’m still seeing rides on 70 min queues. How do they think that justifies reducing the hours? To me that’s still quite busy. They can’t expect every day to be 100 min queues surely because that’s just unrealistic
I think the recent focus on season passes, very cheap season passes, has come back to bite them hard on the bottom.
Pile em high, flog em cheap, hit em with the secondary spend as an inescapable extra cost through long queues, parking and ridiculous food and accommodation costs.
Bleed them dry.
Looks like many are now fully bled.
And seek meaningful alternatives.
Parks are also simply going out of fashion again.
I thought Hyperia would be getting '94 style queues.
Pile em high, flog em cheap, hit em with the secondary spend as an inescapable extra cost through long queues, parking and ridiculous food and accommodation costs.
Bleed them dry.
Looks like many are now fully bled.
And seek meaningful alternatives.
Parks are also simply going out of fashion again.
I thought Hyperia would be getting '94 style queues.
That’s an interesting take because I reckon it’s more about the UK parks being out of fashion rather than the industry in general. You look at the major players like Disney and Universal and they’re always getting the numbers through the door. The most successful parks seem to focus on experience over attractions. You look at Disneys ride lineup and it’s nothing special. The entertainment, shows and characters is what seems to draw large crowds. Towers back in 94 had this approach of focussing on a magical and unique experience. Now it just seems like a park with some big coasters in it. The excitement and joy that people get doesn’t seem to be the same for coasters as it does with parks that focus on the experience and not the hardware
Matt N
TS Member
On the other hand, though, I don’t think this has always been the case.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach has never done this and has always predominantly focused on rides, yet it was constantly rammed in the 1990s.
Thorpe Park has not always predominantly focused on thrill rides, and only has done since the early 2000s, but the years since it’s started doing this have been far busier than the years before. The park’s busiest years, 2009-2011, were some of the years where it was arguably focused on thrill rides most aggressively.
In Towers’ case, I think a potential contributing factor might be the fact that there’s been a lack of meaningful investment into brand new major rides in recent years. Yes, we’ve had great things like The Curse at Alton Manor and Nemesis Reborn, but these are just refurbishments of rides that have been there for years. The last major new ride investment Alton Towers received was Wicker Man in 2018. You can excuse this to some degree due to the pandemic, but Wicker Man was 6 years ago now and there’s been very little in the way of new ride investment since; the only new ride I can think of outside of CBeebies is Gangsta Granny, and there’s been absolutely nothing major since then. This is probably the longest Alton Towers has ever gone without any kind of major new ride investment, and some people might be starting to find the lineup at Alton Towers stale and in need of a new major draw. I fully understand why they haven’t built any major new rides, as there are other things like refurbishments taking priority, but your average visitor may not be so forgiving. I think we need a new major ride investment relatively soon to reinvigorate interest in the park, or else you risk the park slipping into a decline similar to Thorpe Park in the late 2010s.
This…
No “new” ride hardware for 3 years. Arguably only 3 in 10 (Wickerman/Octonauts/GG)
Reduction in hours, food quality, events and removal of rides overall.
Increased costs.
What do they expect?
As we see in all large organisations (austerity included), turning the taps off for investment is a long term recipe for disaster.
The park is now terrible lop sided in terms of reliance of ageing coasters, it’s under invested in dark rides, flat rides, entertainment.
It hasn’t improved transport, resort infrastructure or year round offering and now they get to reap the rewards.
If they want the park to compete with other parks across Europe, they’d need to behave and invest like them. No other park in the UK (bar universal) should be able to compete with Alton’s overall offering, and I’d argue bar port aventura and DLP they should be in the discussion of the best of the rest category.
They’ve had this problem for decades, people visiting for the day will want to get home. There isn’t enough to do or variety on park to warrant more than a day, the food offering isn’t good enough for a substantial meal in the evening.
And there’s still no “reason” to stop until later, no show/parade/event/spectacular. And they’d have to get the generators back out again…
Customers need training, over a long period of time, and Alton are negligent in this at best, incompetent at worst. Put on a Christmas event and then cut it back, put on seasonal events and then cut them back, have better hours then cut them back. What are the public supposed to think?
As others have rightly said, there are great examples and books on how to do it right. People want characters, what did Alton do? Despite investing decades in Henry/Henrietta hound they got rid of them. Meanwhile Europa Park are launching media brands and films based on theirs. New Scarefest promo comes out, again despite decades of investment and time with the 4 Halloween characters, there’s only 2 on there but there is flash in the pan Daz Games symbols…all of which (Alton bear included) could be doing character breakfasts, meet and greets have rides based on them. And it’s their IP! Marketing clearly know what to do with the coasters, where they’ve created strong, enduring brands, but I’d argue at the expense of everything else.
It’s glaringly, painfully obvious what’s needed, but it’s not cheap, easy or quick to do.
But themed area bins is good start…
Tom
TS Member
The parks are no longer affordable to many people, and they certainly aren't' going to stay for an evening meal at the current prices, particularly since you would be eating and then going home.
O'Neil's response seems to be pause major new ride investment, increase prices, and cut hours. As a minimum he is facilitating those decisions and responsible for them, even if they are being made at a park level (major investment aside).
O'Neil's response seems to be pause major new ride investment, increase prices, and cut hours. As a minimum he is facilitating those decisions and responsible for them, even if they are being made at a park level (major investment aside).
flyingguitar
TS Member
i'll be honest, I think most of this lack of attendance currently is just the weather, living near by we have only had 1 or 2 weeks the last 3 months where it was a good week, the rest have been completely miserable with a larger amount of rain and just not being nice (to the point where I am wearing jeans more than shorts in summer!) and I don't think familes want to be outside all day in the rain, I recall the start of the year with the alton after dark and the park was very busy so I think there is demand for it just there is not the weather for it.
edit: this could be helped by adding more indoor rides and reducing the amaount weather can play to the experience
edit: this could be helped by adding more indoor rides and reducing the amaount weather can play to the experience
Tom
TS Member
Will possibly agreed in the fullness of time. Everything that has been added so far, with the exception of Project Ocean, has not been decided by him. IN fact, where he has been in place, he has paused major investments, seemingly not seeing UK attractions as worth the expenditure. All that has happened under O'Neil is margin building via massive food price hikes and operational cuts. I see no evidence this will change, but hopefully it does.
I'm talking major £10-£20m investments. He has said he would not have made such investment decisions had he been in the chair. I believe Horizon is delayed but accept no proof of that. Chessington's waterpark seems to have gone quiet? Everything else was too far gone when he came in (Jumanji, Hyperia).