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Alton Towers visitor figures through the years

2010 and 2011 had rare confirmation of admissions, and were 3,010,000 and 2,732,000 respectively. The number of admissions were cited in the planning application for The Smiler. The addition of Thirteen was very successful commercially.
 
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Tom said:
2010 and 2011 had a rare confirmation admissions, and were 3,010,000 and 2,732,000 respectively. The number of admissions were cited in the planning application for The Smiler. The addition of Thirteen was very successful commercially.
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Thank you very much for the numbers; wonder why TEA doesn't use those...
 
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Matt N said:
Thank you very much for the numbers; wonder why TEA doesn't use those...
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The numbers for 2010 where in a planning application submitted in early 2012. Don’t think the TEA have developed time travel to be able to quote these numbers in their report that was published a year before.
 
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Dave said:
The numbers for 2010 where in a planning application submitted in early 2012. Don’t think the TEA have developed time travel to be able to quote these numbers in their report that was published a year before.
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They also used the 2,750,000 figure for 2010 in a 10 year review segment they did in 2015's report. I've put both figures in for now.

On a different note; excluding the figure from Wikipedia, what sort of figure are we predicting for Alton's 2018 TEA figure? My personal guess is that we saw an increase of 10% at the very least, which would give a figure of 2,200,000. I reckon we could have seen a 20% increase (takes number to 2,400,000) or even a 30% increase (takes number to 2,600,000) in 2018; the park seemed substantially more crowded than 2017 every time I went!
 
Going by how busy the park felt last year, it definitely felt busier every time I visited, so I wouldnt be surprised if gate numbers went up, especially with WM and with the season pass.
 
It's been said by some insiders that the 1994 attendance report was deliberately underreported because the park gave out so many free tickets with promotional tie ins that year that they thought it made them look back to Pearsons. So the actual attenance figure might have been even higher but that it wasnt a direct cause of the new rides that year.

Who knows, I nobody really knows for sure. But if it's true they were fiddling around with official numbers back then, they'd surely be doing it now.
 
Chatting to the lovely mature gentleman on express parking last year...we reminisced about the golden days of the car parks being full every day of the summer, and pushing cars off the grass on wet afternoons.
According to him, attendance levels are now a shadow of those days.
Even with the cheap passes.
 
rob666 said:
Chatting to the lovely mature gentleman on express parking last year...we reminisced about the golden days of the car parks being full every day of the summer, and pushing cars off the grass on wet afternoons.
According to him, attendance levels are now a shadow of those days.
Even with the cheap passes.
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But did't I see somewhere that back in those day's, the entry price was a mere £2.50 (or something ridiculously low compared to today prices) to get in and all attraction included.
 
That was Corkscrew time...I think it was about a tenner by nemesis opening...before you had to pay for parking of course.
 
Remember that you do have to adjust for inflation when comparing prices from 1980/1990 to today's prices.
 
84 entrance four quid.
94 fourteen.
04 twenty six.
14 forty eight.
They did have off peak prices of a couple of quid less in the middle years, these are peak prices.

Matt N will now adjust those prices for inflation for us for maths gcse revision.
Would be nice to know...

Edit...credit to Big Al...Adult ticket prices 1980 to present...Talbot St May 14...this lovely website.
 
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My point is that in my day, entry to park was easily in the "pocket money range".
In my mid to late teens, my friends and I could decide to visit Chessie on Saturday as late as the end of school on Friday, and not have to worry about begging our parents to take out a loan. Travel was covered by our bus passes, so entry plus food budget for the whole day could be as little twenty quid*. And don't forget, in those days the park could be open as late as 9pm!

*Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, £20 in 1997 = £35.67p in 2018.

So if visitor numbers are down since the "glory days", there's a pretty clear reason for that if you ask me.
 
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