Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[Poisson]

The year up to March 23 was seemingly busier than the year up to March 24, barring some sort of mega opening weekends.

 

[Katy]

That's quite a stark contrast to 2022, which was £10.6m profit

It's roughly in line with every other year in the last decade or so - last year's was a one-off as VAT dropped to 5% for the attractions industry (they didn't reduce prices so profit basically went up 15%) which has since returned to 20%, and this was combined with people holidaying within the UK more due to COVID.

 

[ScottishChris]

It's roughly in line with every other year in the last decade or so - last year's was a one-off as VAT dropped to 5% for the attractions industry (they didn't reduce prices so profit basically went up 15%) which has since returned to 20%, and this was combined with people holidaying within the UK more due to COVID.

There have been other aspects that contributed to an inflated income in the recent past - such as the Tory Party Conference which bought out the Boulevard and Big Blue.

I think the biggest on-going issues are the increase in energy and employee costs, the latter of which will rise again this year. This likely explains the reducing of operating hours last [and this] year. I know we all like a moan, but it does make you wonder that if the park operated their extended hours of previous years how much that cost would have been, and if the group as a whole would have made a loss.

It will be interesting to see what the coming year holds for the park. I wouldn't be surprised to see less staff around the park - but will there be closed/ reduced hour catering outlets? Perhaps more staggered opening and closing of rides?

 

[Alsty]

If they have made the decision they are a POP park then they should get rid of those pesky turnstiles at every ride, then they wouldn't have to pay someone to sit there everyday for no logical reason.

Then again we haven't had a pay per ride discussion for a while, and it's closed season..!

 

[George W]

What are the actual point in those damn turnstiles is it so if someone does climb a few fences unnoticed they're still #### out of luck or is it just to log data of which rides are getting X amount of guests.

From a staffing point of view it seems like a nightmare and the fact you have a ride as wet as Valhalla where people have to take their phones on regardless of if they've paid for a locker somewhere on park seems so mental to me too.

 

[John]

We've previously been told by staff it's a data gathering exercise for individual ticket holders, as opposed to tracking overall ride utilisation/throughputs (the latter could easily be worked out by other means). In theory they can check your ticket and see exactly which rides you've been on and when.

We were told this was implemented due to people complaining about not getting on many rides. As with any info from ride staff there's no guarantee any of this is true but it seems plausible enough to me.

 

[rob666]

It is to stop me going over the wall by the maze exit with my telescopic ladder.
It is also because the boss says so...allegedly.
Nothing else.

 

[ScottishChris]

I have asked about the turnstyles a few times, and they always say it is to see which rides people are riding. I once suggested that it would be more efficient for a ride op to just use a counter. The response was along the lines of "but that doesn't tell us who is riding what ride and how often". I really do wonder what they use the data for, because [in my view] if someone comes to the park and wants to ride every ride ad does so is no different to someone who wants to come and marathon something like Avatar. The number of rides and frequency a person rides a ride is nowhere near as important as the throughput of a ride per hour.

 

[John]

It's weird because it seems they're at least vaguely aware that ride capacity is a problem but they're not actually doing anything about it. There are multiple rides in the park that don't achieve sufficient capacity for a park the size of BPB and it's been that way for years. Removing the turnstiles could speed up loading on multiple rides and significantly increase capacity. Just one example: Alice ride often has a queue stretching across the path at peak times but will have two or three cars sat in the station because of long it takes to get a family of 4 to scan through, then the next family has to split across 2 cars because the Mad Hatter is taking up one of the seats.

There are loads of rides where small changes could make a big difference and then they wouldn't need to worry about who's going on which rides as the queues wouldn't be such an issue.

 

[MarkR77]

When I complained to by email to Guest Services about a truly awful day where four rides broke down when we were queuing for them, they wrote back to apologise confirming that we were indeed affected by the breakdowns, vaguely why they happened and that we could come back for free. They must have used the scan data to confirm I wasn’t trying to blag a freebie.

 

[rob666]

All unplanned closures are meant to be logged by the rideop supervisor and management informed.
I have known days when more rides have been closed than open.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I have asked about the turnstyles a few times, and they always say it is to see which rides people are riding. I once suggested that it would be more efficient for a ride op to just use a counter. The response was along the lines of "but that doesn't tell us who is riding what ride and how often". I really do wonder what they use the data for, because [in my view] if someone comes to the park and wants to ride every ride ad does so is no different to someone who wants to come and marathon something like Avatar. The number of rides and frequency a person rides a ride is nowhere near as important as the throughput of a ride per hour.

It's also about park and guest flow. They can use the data to visualise how people move around the park. A ride counter will give you an idea of capacity and throughput, which is useful for that one attraction, but doesn't tell the story of someone's day out. It is something I've gone into further detail on this thread before, however.

 

[ScottishChris]

It's also about park and guest flow. They can use the data to visualise how people move around the park. A ride counter will give you an idea of capacity and throughput, which is useful for that one attraction, but doesn't tell the story of someone's day out. It is something I've gone into further detail on this thread before, however.

I do understand that, however there are much better ways to do this, which would cause less 'angst' for guests, and could ultimately work out cheaper than having to man turnstyles.

The epitome of such solutions is Disney's magic bands. They have managed to make guests pay for the privilege of being tracked. The data they get is closely guarded, but apparently very detailed and they can even tell how long people are spending in bathrooms! Mr. Funshine bands anyone?

 

[AT86]

Do BPB have an app? Many parks use the location data from their app to track guest flow. Having turnstiles at the entrance of rides purely for this reason in 2024 seems very antiquated.

 

[Skyscraper]

Do BPB have an app? Many parks use the location data from their app to track guest flow. Having turnstiles at the entrance of rides purely for this reason in 2024 seems very antiquated.

They do have an app, and your tickets are stored on it.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Do BPB have an app? Many parks use the location data from their app to track guest flow. Having turnstiles at the entrance of rides purely for this reason in 2024 seems very antiquated.

They do have an app, but it's essentially just a wrapper for a web page. It's very basic at most. Given that the app isn't native it won't have support for tracking around the park.

Retrofitting the turnstiles to scan QR codes for tracking flow is a bit of a genius way of getting the tracking that you want, whilst not having to make a significant investment in new infrastructure. It's simple and elegant, given that visitors were already used to scanning wristbands. It's also a lot more reliable than tracking with an app. Users can opt out of tracking in an app, there are too many variables that wouldn't necessarily give an optimal outcome in stats if you want to keep costs down. People can also print out their QR code ticket and use that throughout the day (I do), which means that my movements can still be tracked and not have to rely on a phone.

I do understand that, however there are much better ways to do this, which would cause less 'angst' for guests, and could ultimately work out cheaper than having to man turnstyles.

Paying someone to watch a turnstile, whilst also having them on hand for queue control if needed, is much cheaper than investing in new technology (like bands or apps). It's taking the infrastructure that you already have and finding a rather simple solution to a problem that you could otherwise spends hundreds of thousands on, to inevitably fail or not work properly.

It's not a solution which you'd design from scratch and implement if the turnstiles were never there, but it's a good way of working with what you've got and limited resources.

 

[Quantum]

What's the point in seeing what rides are popular? It's not as if PB can afford anything new. People like Ikon, great but you won't be getting another one of those soon if ever.

What do they actually do with the ride data that warrants inconveniencing people?

 

[ScottishChris]

Paying someone to watch a turnstile, whilst also having them on hand for queue control if needed, is much cheaper than investing in new technology (like bands or apps). It's taking the infrastructure that you already have and finding a rather simple solution to a problem that you could otherwise spends hundreds of thousands on, to inevitably fail or not work properly.

I would suggest the cost of buying and maintaining those turnstyles combined with the ongoing cost to staff them would be more than having a developer to add a tracing capability to their app. Equally, you can purchase anonymised tracking data from Google.

What's the point in seeing what rides are popular? It's not as if PB can afford anything new. People like Ikon, great but you won't be getting another one of those soon if ever.

What do they actually do with the ride data that warrants inconveniencing people?

It would be used to justify maintenance spends, number of trains, staffing levels/ operating hours and ultimately whether or not the ride justifies operating. None of this data, however, requires people to 'scan onto' a ride. It could be done with simple counters.

 

[Tom]

Might help a decision on what to invest in, or close.

 

[venny]

They can monitor individual ridership with any form of turnstile, without the need for scanning.

Given the park struggle with the organisation of even simple things, I very much doubt they utilise the scanning data for any sort of in depth analysis of guest movement.