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Adult Ticket Prices: 1980 - Present

BigAl

BigAl

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I tried doing a little digging around the Internet to compile a list of the prices for an adult ticket prices between 1980 to the present at Alton Towers and came up with the table below.

If anyone has anything to help me fill it in further, or change something which is currently incorrect, do let me know! :)


AltonTowersTicketPrices-1980to2014_zpsece8441a.png~original
 
I love what you've done with the logo there! The price has gone up £22 in the last ten years compared to £12 in the previous ten. Let's hope that trend doesn't continue otherwise it could cost upwards of £80 to get into Alton Towers come 2024!

:)
 
Prices have gone up way more than inflation. For example, today's entry price would have been equivalent to £28 in 1994 (when in fact entry was half that then).

I think breaking the £50 barrier will have a huge negative effect on the public's perception of value. I think they will stay shy of breaking it until maybe 2016, but I could be wrong.
 
But everyone uses 2 for 1s, Tesco vouchers, online tickets, or any other form of discount. If there is anyone who pays full price on the gates, then more fool them.
 
Even though people use 241's and so on, they still base the value of a visit from the on-the-gate price. When I've spoken to non-enthusiasts they usually mention how £40+ is insane for a day out, even though they are aware they'll pay half of that to go in.

Great compiled list by the way, Al! :)
 
Thanks, Rob and James! :)

And yes, pretty much everyone without passes either uses 2-for-1 vouchers or they book online, but the price they advertise is the full £48 (currently) and there's no getting around it.

Merlin are the reason why people over here will now only visit a park in the UK if there's a voucher involved. This has forced other parks to do the same, otherwise people don't think they're getting a 'good deal'. I think the tactic of fooling people into thinking they're getting good value for money is wrong, and it's one of a number of things which leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when it comes to their parks and their attitude towards guests.
 
Something that has shocked me recently, is the £48 on the gate entrance to Thorpe, yet it's £25 online!
 
The issue with 241 was around well before Merlin and was actually Tussuads who started all of that in the late 90's. They tried to reduce the number of 241 at the start of the 2005 season and tried some other offers inc better online deals but had massive impact on attendance so the amount available increased only a few months latter.
 
It's quite shocking to see that the price has gone up £10 in only 4 years! It will surely go up to £48.50 or £49 by the end of this season.
 
I would agree with others, they would be stupid to break the £50 barrier too soon. I don't think we are likely to see an increase this year and maybe only a £1 increase for 2015.

The current Kellog's vouchers are buy a child ticket (if you have a child with you) and get an adult free, which I think has lead to the child price leaping up too. If these vouchers continue I expect the child price to get even closer to the adult one. For on-the-gate they can bring the price down again buy offering family tickets but I think most will still get better value with 2for1s.

The most sensible thing if they want to try to cut down vouchers would be to push half price if you book in advance on the website, like Thorpe park are doing (currently £48 on gate but as low as £22.99 online). If they can get more booking online then it fixes people to a date so they cannot cancel and this also means the park can predict staff levels better as guests are booked.

I know the London Eye rarely offers 2for1s (usually only in the winter months) and a lot more people book online meaning they can predict their operations and staff levels with much more accuracy.
 
Online booking is definitely the way to go! as said above it helps them gauge guests levels, opening hours and staffing levels plenty of time in advance.

As for the Kellogg's vouchers, although they say 'Adult goes free' it's actually with any other ticket bought. They operate as a standard 2 for 1 on tickets too but offer the extra incentive of sounding cheaper because you only pay for a child ticket :)
 
To start pushing people towards online sales and minimising 241s they could have a "50% off tickets" sticker on promotional packs, then on the pack it directs you to Alton Towers' site where you enter a special code in for the 'offer'. They could go one step further and give each code a unique ID to prevent abuse of the offers (and prevent less promo packs being sold).

Would take some effort setting up although I think Towers really need to start looking into it. Same goes for buying parking tickets online too. Simple things they could do that would also reek in benefits for managing park operations.
 
James said:
To start pushing people towards online sales and minimising 241s they could have a "50% off tickets" sticker on promotional packs, then on the pack it directs you to Alton Towers' site where you enter a special code in for the 'offer'. They could go one step further and give each code a unique ID to prevent abuse of the offers (and prevent less promo packs being sold).

Would take some effort setting up although I think Towers really need to start looking into it. Same goes for buying parking tickets online too. Simple things they could do that would also reek in benefits for managing park operations.
Click to expand...

That would be a much better idea than current 2for1s and if you made it print at home only then that could save staffing costs on ticket booths. They could specify 50% off 2 weeks in advance then only 30% off less than a week in advance etc

Thorpe allows parking to be bought online, but their car park barrier is the same as the turnstyle which means print at home and annual passes can just be scanned (if the sun doesn't shine in the wrong place!).
 
Towers should be getting new barriers at some point soon so maybe we'll see parking available online or parking included online tickets if and when this happens?
 
The thing is, a big push for the online side of things is that you get Early Ride Time included.. and you don't want to value that at the same price as someone buying an offer. Early Ride Time is definitely something worth paying more money for.

As for vouchers online, they'd get in the sticky mess of... it's £48 on the day, but if you bought online you wouldn't save 50% of the online price because it's only around like £35 now and then you get into the difficulties of *noone* buying the current price online compared to the... must be thousands surely.. who buy online currently?
 
thefatone said:
The thing is, a big push for the online side of things is that you get Early Ride Time included.. and you don't want to value that at the same price as someone buying an offer. Early Ride Time is definitely something worth paying more money for.

As for vouchers online, they'd get in the sticky mess of... it's £48 on the day, but if you bought online you wouldn't save 50% of the online price because it's only around like £35 now and then you get into the difficulties of *noone* buying the current price online compared to the... must be thousands surely.. who buy online currently?
Click to expand...

But no-one buying the current online price isn't a difficulty. By moving from paper vouchers at the turnstile (cut out from Kellog's box) to e-vouchers (unique code printed inside the Kellog's box) it forces customers to book online to get a discounted price instead of going to the ticket booth. By encouraging guests to book online Alton Towers then know how many they are expecting on the day so can plan open hour extensions, staff levels, staff hours, number of ride cars needed and which food outlets to open better.

Yes ERT would be an issue but I would just change it so that you only get ERT with a full online priced ticket (£36), if you use a voucher code for 2for1 of the on the gate price (£24) then you don't get ERT. Just make it so that it prints out a second ticket showing you are entitled to ERT and the staff manning the ERT gate collect these additional tickets.

Alton Towers could then also work on upselling additional features such as ERT to people who would have otherwise paid the voucher price, eg the online checkout could show your price is £24 but for an additional £36 get ERT and 1 fastrack on Nemesis (for example). This would hopefully start to push people away from the 2for1 vouchers.
 
Easy thing to do, go back to the old days of ERT exclusive to hotel guests and annual pass holders only. Instead of the free-for-all it is now. ERT has devalued itself since the day it was available to everyone.

Probably on a more realistic outlook, an easier way to manage it could be to draw a line between who can and cannot get ERT. Those who use offers from 'external' persons, like the Kellog's 2for1 offer cannot get ERT, those who buy via Alton Towers 'without' offers get ERT. I know both ways you buy via AT.com, however Towers can easily word it to ensure the general public don't catch on to that.

OR they could simply let online bookings run on half price offers and offer ERT at £X extra per person. So if you want ERT you pay more in effect. Keeps it as a 'perk' and everyone's happy.

So you have:
- Parking Ticket: £5 (£1 discount)
- Theme Park Ticket - With 2for1 Code: £24pp Without ERT - ERT Offered at £15pp - £39pp with ERT
- Without Code: £36pp Exclusive ATR Offer inc. ERT
- On-the-day: £48

I think that would balance out things nicely and also not damage the perk of ERT (for a family of 4 using 2for1s they would avoid the £60 extra just for the sake of ERT). The majority of people use 2for1s on park these days (not sure how online sales do) so I doubt an online move would severely affect Towers. Baby steps are the way to go. A drastic move would be silly. But slowly moving people towards buying tickets online would be a good start.

They could start doing online parking tickets now really. Just have something that you can print at home and show the man at the barrier when you leave the park!
 
James said:
Easy thing to do, go back to the old days of ERT exclusive to hotel guests and annual pass holders only. Instead of the free-for-all it is now. ERT has devalued itself since the day it was available to everyone.

Probably on a more realistic outlook, an easier way to manage it could be to draw a line between who can and cannot get ERT. Those who use offers from 'external' persons, like the Kellog's 2for1 offer cannot get ERT, those who buy via Alton Towers 'without' offers get ERT. I know both ways you buy via AT.com, however Towers can easily word it to ensure the general public don't catch on to that.

OR they could simply let online bookings run on half price offers and offer ERT at £X extra per person. So if you want ERT you pay more in effect. Keeps it as a 'perk' and everyone's happy.

So you have:
- Parking Ticket: £5 (£1 discount)
- Theme Park Ticket - With 2for1 Code: £24pp Without ERT - ERT Offered at £15pp - £39pp with ERT
- Without Code: £36pp Exclusive ATR Offer inc. ERT
- On-the-day: £48

I think that would balance out things nicely and also not damage the perk of ERT (for a family of 4 using 2for1s they would avoid the £60 extra just for the sake of ERT). The majority of people use 2for1s on park these days (not sure how online sales do) so I doubt an online move would severely affect Towers. Baby steps are the way to go. A drastic move would be silly. But slowly moving people towards buying tickets online would be a good start.

They could start doing online parking tickets now really. Just have something that you can print at home and show the man at the barrier when you leave the park!
Click to expand...

That all makes a lot of sense.

I think the new online booking system that Thorpe Park has this season will get rolled out to Alton Towers next year which hopefully will enable them to offer more of these style offers.
 
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