What's the £21 associated with? Regardless, I don't think £6 is too much for entry to the park with the rides/attractions that it includes. It serves its purpose in terms of offering a deterrent to those who wish to enter to cause trouble.
In terms of offering a rebate on the entrance fee... The £6 entrance fee is currently £6 revenue without cost with supplementary spending on top. Under your suggested system the £6 entrance fee would be £6 revenue minus the cost of the food/drink.
If you offer an option to ride coasters via a 'back door' that is directly in competition with your wristband price, those visitors who don't want to ride much, but who would currently spring for a wristband will inevitably spend less by adopting the PPR option.
The £21 comes from £6 to get in, plus the 15 quid price tag that's attached to Icon. Now no matter how much my mum wants a go, she will not pay that amount of money. Further more, my dad won't pay £6 to watch. Now bring the price for the ride down somewhat and offer him a cuppa and we might get somewhere, and like I said, there is a good chance that once he's in he would have a go on certain rides again for a realistic price.
The PPR system even with the prices dropped is unlikely to effect wristband sales. They are amazing value and those people who want to full day on park won't suddenly decide to PPR, why would they?
So with that in mind, wristband sales remain consistent, but instead of not many arriving after 3pm you now have a more attractive system likely to entice people in, which may even see the park justify staying open that bit later, so the wristbands are even better value!
The school trips are not the massive source of income people seem to think they are either. Any parent knows, you send you kids off (once you have paid a cheaper than standard price to get in) with as little money as possible, A) you don't
want thme to lose the money, B) you know they plan to spend it on crap anyway. A kid spends more money on a day out with parents cause they bring their own spend, plus the make hourly withdrawals from the bank of mum and dad, so the fiver you send them off with on a trip doesnt really go that far.
As for the 'market research' that BPB do, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. There is little point asking prebooked people about the day they had. They need to capture the unknown quantities that are not going in and ask them why. Emails to people are no good, get outside the gates and watch for anyone walking towards the park and walking away 2 minutes later, they are the ones who need to been quizzed.
Q1. Have you been on park today?
Q2. If not, why not?
Q3. Would a system (for example outlined above) make it more likely you' return in the future?
3 key questions that could go a long way to helping make BPB a lot of money going forward.
I'd like to finish by saying one more thing. None of what I am saying is for my own gain, I am genuinely concerned about how quiet the park is, and I am not in favour of this new policy on the Big One either. So now unless there are 2500 wristbands booked online it's stuck on 1 train. Sod anyone else who walks in that day, they don't count.
Not the way to go BPB, not a wise move.
