Entrance Price Increase.. AGAIN!!

[Tom]

The 2 for 1 method also increases visitor numbers and average guest spend. If they slashed the gate price by half, they would not attract the same visitor number or income - it's literally as simple as that.

 

[Dave]

Exactly. The average visitor should not have to rely on BOGOFs to allow a visit to be affordable, and likewise they should be an incentive to visit at specific perioss, not a rolling promotion all year round.

It's playing psychological games with guests. Whilst clever, it's bad form and debatable whether thr product is even worth the BOGOF price let alone gate price

Seriously?

So at minimum 7 hours at a Alton Towers for £23 is not value for money????

When you consider it costs about £9 to go to the cinema these days i think it's more than good value for money. it's only £9 more than what Lightwater Valley are offering in their summer sale.

The value of BOGOF's isn't completely in the "ohh look a deal" mentality, it's also that Merlin don't pay to have them occur. So Merlin get all their products branding splashed around the country for free.

Free advertising is what is key.

 

[IanB]

The 2 for 1 method also increases visitor numbers and average guest spend. If they slashed the gate price by half, they would not attract the same visitor number or income - it's literally as simple as that.

Sorry but that is pure speculation, and is proven false by looking at numerous parks across Europe.

The park should not need to use a promotion to get people in the door because people who visited previously should want to go back, and should want to tell their friends about a great theme park they have to visit.

The current entrance price is irrelevant, the park is currently offering a poor customer experience and at some point even if the rumoured buy 1 get 2 free offer is launched, it is not going to entice people on to the park.

As for free advertising, why do they need it when they have 1.3 million facebook followers, just under half the visitor numbers from last season. As social media becomes more popular, they do not need these free BOGOF promotions (Again, can you provide any evidence that they get to do these promotions for free? I agree that in theory it should be free, but that many products have these promotions on, I doubt whether its a contributing factor to most people buying the product). And I also go back to the argument, that the park should do a good enough job when a guest visits, that they do not need to advertise to make people want to go back next year.

Ian


Ian

 

[BigAl]

1991 prices:

Inflation on a one day adult price takes it to £19.09 per person if Alton Towers were to charge the same today. The rides since then have been almost all been replaced by larger theme park attractions, thanks mostly to pre-DIC Tussauds. What was the price of entry in 1998/1999/2000 for comparison?

 

[Tom]

The 2 for 1 method also increases visitor numbers and average guest spend. If they slashed the gate price by half, they would not attract the same visitor number or income - it's literally as simple as that.

Sorry but that is pure speculation, and is proven false by looking at numerous parks across Europe.

The park should not need to use a promotion to get people in the door because people who visited previously should want to go back, and should want to tell their friends about a great theme park they have to visit.

The current entrance price is irrelevant, the park is currently offering a poor customer experience and at some point even if the rumoured buy 1 get 2 free offer is launched, it is not going to entice people on to the park.

As for free advertising, why do they need it when they have 1.3 million facebook followers, just under half the visitor numbers from last season. As social media becomes more popular, they do not need these free BOGOF promotions (Again, can you provide any evidence that they get to do these promotions for free? I agree that in theory it should be free, but that many products have these promotions on, I doubt whether its a contributing factor to most people buying the product). And I also go back to the argument, that the park should do a good enough job when a guest visits, that they do not need to advertise to make people want to go back next year.

Ian


Ian

As has already been said, the 2 for 1 system has been in place for decades - it's engrained in the public's psyche of Alton Towers now.

 

[Sam]

1991 prices:

Inflation on a one day adult price takes it to £19.09 per person if Alton Towers were to charge the same today. The rides since then have been almost all been replaced by larger theme park attractions, thanks mostly to pre-DIC Tussauds. What was the price of entry in 1998/1999/2000 for comparison?

Also, why on earth would anyone go for two days in 1991?!

If we say the 'real' price is £22.50 then it hasn't risen much above inflation at all... discounting the fact that you now have to visit the park in an even number.

Compare that to the huge increase in quality, and the tiny rise in entrance fee is really quite remarkable! £19.09 to £22.50, plus Oblivion, Nemesis, Air, Rita, Spinball, Th13teen, Smiler, Hex, RMT, Duel etc. etc. etc...

 

[thefatone]

I love that the 2 day ticket is more expensive then than now - £4.80 this season for an additional day .

In response to IanB, you'll need to look at the UK market rather than european as we are essentially a different market. We all run differently, you can tell just by looking at the europeans opening times, build quality, entertainment schedules etc.

Also, the people who would know if BOGOF vouchers are working to sell products would be those manufacturers, and they're obviously getting higher sales when they're doing these marketing tools otherwise they wouldn't put them on their products or choose another company to do these offers with.

It'd be free marketing, as it increases their sales as well as increasing Merlin marketing and visitor numbers. So, as they work together on it there'll be no money exchanging hands between them.

 

[delta79]

I worked out that when I went back to alton on Monday with return tickets bought on my last trip earlier this year. It cost me £1.88 per hour, excluding fuel and food.

I did 12 ride on that trip with £15 ticket. that give me a cost per ride of £1.25. so for me and my daughter it cost £2.50 per ride. (excluding fuel and food)

even if i used BOGOF, it would of been £1.94 per ride per person. or £3.88 per ride for two people.

 

[josht]

I can remember my first annual pass it was £65, so the day prices are getting rather close :/

 

[Tom]

I worked out that when I went back to alton on Monday with return tickets bought on my last trip earlier this year. It cost me £1.88 per hour, excluding fuel and food.

I did 12 ride on that trip with £15 ticket. that give me a cost per ride of £1.25. so for me and my daughter it cost £2.50 per ride. (excluding fuel and food)

even if i used BOGOF, it would of been £1.94 per ride per person. or £3.88 per ride for two people.

Now do the calculation of cost per minute of ride time.

I could buy the cost of the whole 'day out' argument if the park wasn't in such serious decline in terms of theming, escapism and atmosphere. Most of your time now is spent in queues or being pestered into buying photos etc.

 

[delta79]

I agree your point of decline in upkeep of the theming and some area of the park.

Upselling is a pain, my daughter is not the easiest person to keep under control. and upselling is sometimes aimed at pester power of kids, my daughter does like buying little bits and bobs.

As for queuing. Due to my daughter mental capacity, she gets a red disability wristband. so I can not comment on spending queuing. but I do understand that alton is a great place to practice the great British pass time of queue.

 

[Benzin]

I worked out that when I went back to alton on Monday with return tickets bought on my last trip earlier this year. It cost me £1.88 per hour, excluding fuel and food.

I did 12 ride on that trip with £15 ticket. that give me a cost per ride of £1.25. so for me and my daughter it cost £2.50 per ride. (excluding fuel and food)

even if i used BOGOF, it would of been £1.94 per ride per person. or £3.88 per ride for two people.

Now do the calculation of cost per minute of ride time.

I could buy the cost of the whole 'day out' argument if the park wasn't in such serious decline in terms of theming, escapism and atmosphere. Most of your time now is spent in queues or being pestered into buying photos etc.

Just like every other theme/amusement park in the world then...

 

[Tom]

I worked out that when I went back to alton on Monday with return tickets bought on my last trip earlier this year. It cost me £1.88 per hour, excluding fuel and food.

I did 12 ride on that trip with £15 ticket. that give me a cost per ride of £1.25. so for me and my daughter it cost £2.50 per ride. (excluding fuel and food)

even if i used BOGOF, it would of been £1.94 per ride per person. or £3.88 per ride for two people.

Now do the calculation of cost per minute of ride time.

I could buy the cost of the whole 'day out' argument if the park wasn't in such serious decline in terms of theming, escapism and atmosphere. Most of your time now is spent in queues or being pestered into buying photos etc.

Just like every other theme/amusement park in the world then...

Yes, and hence why the comparison of theme park entry prices to that of a concert or football match (which Merlin love doing) is flawed.

 

[Scott]

But... I would say that it is a fair comparison. You may be queuing for long periods of time but you are paying for a day out. It's not fair to work out the cost against the amount of minutes of the day you spent riding rides - because you're paying for the whole experience and the whole day out.

Besides, you could skew the argument by sitting on Duel all day

 

[EuroSatch]

Exactly. The average visitor should not have to rely on BOGOFs to allow a visit to be affordable, and likewise they should be an incentive to visit at specific perioss, not a rolling promotion all year round.

It's playing psychological games with guests. Whilst clever, it's bad form and debatable whether thr product is even worth the BOGOF price let alone gate price

Seriously?

So at minimum 7 hours at a Alton Towers for £23 is not value for money????

When you consider it costs about £9 to go to the cinema these days i think it's more than good value for money. it's only £9 more than what Lightwater Valley are offering in their summer sale.

The value of BOGOF's isn't completely in the "ohh look a deal" mentality, it's also that Merlin don't pay to have them occur. So Merlin get all their products branding splashed around the country for free.

Free advertising is what is key.

That's why I said debatable.

In all honesty, that argument you've presented does not wash with me at all. I see you point, but the end products are two completely different experiences that they cannot be compared. By your logic, you are suggesting watching a 3 hour film in a cinema is a far better experience than watching a 3 hour performance by the Royal Ballet, as the cinema is cheaper.

Sure, £23 is a fair price to pay, I don't disagree. But this is presented as a "discounted offer price", and to me £23 is closer to the full price I would expect to pay to enter the park. The quality of the park has depleted over recent years (again, I know this is debatable), and I feel £35 is a more representative of the price to pay for this experience. A BOGOF offer should reduce on this to a limited availability offer and not be the standard way guests are expected to enter the park.

Do you have it on good authority that they do not pay for the BOGOF offers with cereals and crisps companies? As I find that hard to believe, that they would be happy to plaster their products with Merlin advertisements and offers without any direct gain. There is no such thing as free advertising, and there will be money passing hands with any partnerships like this. I don't believe for 1 instant that the number of people purchasing packets of crisps increases enough to give Walkers a return that is similar to the return Merlin would receive on guest footfall

 

[Dave]

The product offering the BOGOF gets the value of people buying the product to get the voucher. It's a free deal for both parties, it doesn't cost the product anything to change a graphic on a package so even a small percentage of increased sales is worth a shot.

I don't fully understand your point on the cinema tickets and ballet, it's nothing to do with the quality of entertainment, don't see where I suggested the cinema is better than ballet. It's just pointing out that 2 hours of cinema entertainment extrapolated out to the number of hours you get at the park demonstrates that the price isn't hugely difference.

£23 is not what I would consider close to the ideal full price, I agree £35 is closer to what the price should be but the WHOLE UK leisure industry seems as expensive.

 

[Croftybaby]

The BOGOF's have indeed been around for decades but in a much different form and at specific times of year. I remember as a kid *Sits back in chair, takes a drag on the pipe* to get a BOGOF for the park with Kellogg you had to collect 4 tokens of packets and stick them on a bit of card. This happened more recently too, as recent as 2002 as I remember people in the car parks cutting out tokens off the boxes. Car park J at the end of the day looked like there had been an explosion in a cornflake factory.

Back in't day the BOGOF were better, you needed some skill and brand loyalty to get a voucher, these days you get them everywhere, literally everywhere. You couldn't get them for Halloween or the fireworks.

Why should I use a BOGOF in a quiet time when I could visit on a special event day and get a better value for money day out?

This brings me to another point. If theses BOGOF are in peoples faces all the time i'm sure it must de-value the brand. It makes also seem desperate, it's overkill.

It's just pointing out that 2 hours of cinema entertainment extrapolated out to the number of hours you get at the park demonstrates that the price isn't hugely difference.

The £9 cinema ticket doesn't wash because as with Alton, there are loads of vouchers/discounts. So you should compare a £9 ticket with a Full price Alton ticket if you are going to compare; you would have to have blinkers on to consider paying full price for either.

 

[Dave]

The £9 cinema ticket doesn't wash because as with Alton, there are loads of vouchers/discounts. So you should compare a £9 ticket with a Full price Alton ticket if you are going to compare; you would have to have blinkers on to consider paying full price for either.

I did...

Average film running time is about 1.5 hours but lets be generous and say its 2 hours

Shortest operating day is 7 hours that works out at about £32, done a bit of maths on the published opening times and the average is just less than 8 hours so that brings us to around £36. On their best operating days Towers should be charging about £54 on that formula.

I would be willing to say that £36 is closer to the price Towers SHOULD be, i'm not saying i agree with the full price (never have said that despite what some are trying to suggest). My point was if you compare AT with other leisure activities then it suddenly isn't as OHH MY GOD as some have suggested.... If you compare it to other day-visit attractions its even closer.

As said its nearly as expensive to spend 5 hours at Chatsworth as it is at Towers. HOWEVER the prices once your inside the park are a huge scandal!

 

[Croftybaby]

You should also include the Queue for popcorn, (Per film) Faff waiting for friends to arrive and the 30 minute trailers before it the main event. It's all part of the experience after all, just like the queues at Towers

 

[Dave]

Well i was generous with the running time so i think we can call it even


The whole leisure industry needs a kick up the bum when it comes to prices... Kinda hope this will happen if foreign travel its more affordable again.