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Existential Crisis? Towers and it's future

Hmm... I've just realised that a trip to Alton Towers can be very expensive as staying on site costs hugely.

At the same time, I've visited Phantasialand earlier this year and the flights, hotel for 4 days and the park tickets for two days appear to have cost less than a trip to Towers staying on site alone for a similar amount of time.

I did stay off site but it's worth a thought that for a better experience, it's cheaper to fly to Europe in some cases.
 
TedShatner10 said:
Well Altons' management are not exactly going to say "It's been a dreadful year, don't come back in 2025!", however Hex and Skyride coming back (with a mystery flatride) will hopefully be another shot in the arm, alongside with the Nemesis Reborn and Curse of Alton Manor.
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But that’s exactly my point. The park’s latest spin is regularly divorced from the reality on the ground. People will naturally be pessimistic if they’re constantly promised the best season ever, only for the reality to be very different.

That pessimism for some is perhaps exacerbated when you see people falling for the spin.


An example:

Person X last year: it’s absolutely brilliant that Alton Towers have such a packed events calendar.

Person X this year: it’s absolutely brilliant that Alton Towers have reduced their number of events so they can “focus on quality”.
 
I can't help but think that the all new operational cuts around Scarefest does not bode well for this corner we're supposed to be turning.

If we're assuming that the staggered opening is related to the maintainance capacity then it would indicate we're still on a downward trend here.

Last Scarefest, give or take, they were able to operate around 35 attractions for 9 hours a day, with the kids rides closing at 7pm and around two thirds of the rides operating for 11 hours.

This operating schedule is comparible to the past 17 years of Scarefest and clearly has suited the event well, given how consistent those operating hours have been.

This year the kids rides are down to 7 hours a day, and only 11 attraction are operating for the full park day (which is now either 10 or 11 hours).

Even taking into account this year's additional days of extended Scarefest hours during the week, this does not seem like the right trajectory.
 
Pandemic or not, Merlin have been desisted now for almost as long as they were listed for. The old "management", both corporately and locally at Towers, would indeed have different spending strategies, but a pot of cash is a pot of cash. And it's cash, both capital and operational, coupled with a long term targeted strategy, that the park desperately needs.

I think this largely debunks the "new management" as white knight saviours theory. Locally, apportioning OPEX is mostly in the park's control, but the budget largely isn't and is dictated corporately. Pretty standard practice for businesses, I'm unsure why anyone was ever under any impressions otherwise. Poor mistakes have been made, the classic Merlin corporate culture surrounding it seems to remain largely unchanged, and suddenly we're at the end of the season having not dealt with the maintenance capacity problem, staggered openings, hours cuts, and staffing cutbacks.

Bianca is restrained and has to deliver to budget. Good intentions won't change that fact. That's the way it's going to be and the way it's always been.

It was obvious what lowering capital expenditure for such a long period of time was going to do to the park. Kick the can down the road, and it's been like watching a car crash in slow motion. They couldn't even keep the spa, Hex, Enterprise, or Skyride open, and we await the Monorail to kick the bucket any day now. Slowly turning the taps back on in this way after a period of such low investment, operating in an industry that can only thrive on carefully targeted continuous investment, was always going to lead to this.

From attractions to infrastructure, the resort is hollowed out and what remains is aging fast. Investment cash that should be being used for new attractions, replacements and general updates, now has to be redirected towards stopping things getting any worse. In the case of the spa, and Enterprise, it came too late for salvation. It came a couple of seasons too late for Hex, and the Skyride.

We could discuss pandemics, the weather, skills shortages, wars, inflation, and any other macro environmental factors until the cows come home. But businesses analyse these things and strategise. And I think it's pretty conclusive at this stage that there is no grand strategy that has alluded us in which to achieve, what I would consider, the feat of truly turning a corner.

So it was a false dawn. This is pretty much the new normal.
 
So it really sounds like what Alton Towers management have been trying to do now in the past 12-18 months should've really been done 4 to 6 years ago at least, when Merlin tried to jolt Altons out of its 2010s stagnation with the highly successful Wicker Man coaster (but the consistency, direction or momemtum wasn't there).

But we're now having Alton Towers take one step forward, two steps back, with recent history repeating with Alton Towers' relatively successful complete revamp of Nemesis and the ghost train (but the organisation and money is still not quite there for reliable daily operations).
 
Whilst there's still another week and a bit to go of this season, it's been nearly 2 years since I had some serious doubts about the initial positivity coming out of the pandemic materialising into something tangible to turn a corner away from the years of gradual decline.

Bad days occur, bad weeks occur, bad months occur. So I wish I was just jumping on the band wagon of the poor ride availability of the last few days, but the problems go far deeper than that. The overall decline of almost everything, from ride availability, to value, to food, to ride removals, to the lack of any evidence of any substantial improvements coming over the hill, I feel this current trajectory is now maturely entrenched. Even if next season is better, the bar is now lower than it's ever been, and the issues will still come thick and fast.

Whilst I doubt many will disagree that a corner is certainly not being turned, I wonder where the resort goes from here?

Not wanting to sound too dramatic, but what future does the resort have now?

It operates under short 35 year leases that require expensive periodic renewals. KIKBI are in control and money is flooding into their new Lego openings. Alton is a large park, hard to get planning for, costly to maintain, and requires huge amounts of investment into heritage assets. It's hardware and infrastructure is aging. It hasn't seen the investment levels required to maintain it, let alone invest in it's long term-future, with huge sums of investment being spent that still isn't even enough to allow the resort to stand still. There seemingly isn't any more coming over the hill, and if there was you'd have to question why they would bother from a business point of view? We don't have access to individual park high level P&L's anymore, so we can only speculate on how the park is performing, but the intense operational pressures, particularly late this season, suggests all is not well and that this runs far far deeper than just tech service understaffing.

Impressive Director or not (who I'm sure, alongside her team, are feeling pretty deflated right now), I wonder what the business model for Towers even is anymore? Even post-Smiler I could see a way forward, but I just can't see one now?

Too grim an assessment? As Alton Towers is such a special place to me, and has been a big part of my life for 36 years, I really want a theme park to remain here so I can take my grandchildren. But other than wishful thinking, with a business hat on, I just can't see any justification for seeing light at the end of this tunnel?
 
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I suppose at some point Merlin just go back and ask to re-negotiate the lease at a lower rate. Basically, we're unable to make a profit anymore due to whatever reasons, so to continue operating on the site we need you to lower the costs of the lease. Can't do that? Fine, we'll have to pack up and leave. Good luck finding another operator who wants to pay you vast sums of money to rent the site. At this point you either lower the rates for Merlin or take one tenth of the money from someone else who wants to run it as a ruined house and gardens (for example). Then the landowner might be willing to come down a bit on price. Or Merlin and similar operators get some kind of tax breaks from the government, which allows them to still make a profit.

At the point where they can't make a profit in most years Merlin won't want to be on the site anymore. Staffing costs, energy costs, changing habits and whatever else keep getting worse for them, so they're going to need relief somewhere else.
 
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I think they'll keep it limping along with periodic larger £5-£10m investments to keep the interest up, but I fear the days of the ambitious £15-£20m scale projects are long gone.

It was such a stupid and short sighted decision to sell the land when you look at it now, really sums up Merlin over the last decade or so.
 
The ride availability needs a route and branch review closed season. No other park in the UK has had the ride issues Towers have . It's serverly damaging the brand. The lack of supporting rides is making things worse and Merlin should be embarrassed how disfunctional the park has been over the last couple of seasons
 
You have got to start wondering what their long term strategy for the park is. The brand damage that they are inflicting has got to be considerable and it will take a lot to turn that around.

Are management blind to the damage or is it indicative of them almost giving up? The investment in a new flat ride suggests there is some sort of medium to long term future, so it’s maybe a case of just doing the absolute bare minimum to keep the park limping along whilst raking in the revenue from the accommodation.
 
Do Merlin own the land at chessie and thorpe

I genuinely think the problem is over expansion coupled with crippling cost rises.

AT being in the middle of nowhere must make it harder to managed. What was once the crown jewel seems pretty unloved.
 
So, who was a clever boy, not getting any season pass this year.
Didn't get the usual BPB one because I wanted a change, and the offering was poor.
Didn't get the merlin one because of clear access issues stopping me enjoying the parks facilities...
Good pick Rob...what facilities?!

Freebies from the Sun for Thorpe and Towers, off peak.
£21 in total Merlin, including parking and duck food...all you deserve.
 
When you look at the lifecycle of it's current aging attractions, the Monorail, the IP's, and the buildings, there's a huge to do list coming up over the next 10 years. The issues run far deeper than just not having enough tech services and a dodgy food operator.

I'm not talking about installing cross valley coasters, putting flats in every corner, and Thoosie dream lists. The costs for just standing still are enormous.

We're talking many £millions spent in the last couple of years, probably more than a major investments worth of cash on Nemesis, Sub-Terra, Ocean, Hex, Alton Manor, Skyride, and the heritage assets like the Towers windows. Considering Enterprise has bit the dust in that time, when Ocean opens, all that's really been achieved is an old drop tower has been reopened. With all that cash being spent, we've still lost the Spa, and both the Skyride and Hex for 2 years.

With the operational cuts we've seen along the way, I'd say there's a clear indication that for that cash, they're not seeing the returns they require. The damage they've done to the brand over the last few years remains to be seen over the coming seasons. This is an expensive park to operate. It'll need a certain level of fee paying guests visiting, staying overnight, buying their food, and buying their merchandise to be sustainable.

Then you have to consider macroenvironmental factors. The UK economy is in poor shape, and will remain poor for years to come. Minimum wage rises, employer national insurance contributions, energy, the availability and costs of raw materials, trading relationships with the EU, cost pressures on consumers.

I have no doubt that the capital investments being made remain quite large. But it's clearly not keeping pace with the needs.

I just can't see any way in the next 10-15 that the park will remain in its current form without a significant change in strategy. I have no doubts that it will always remain a tourist attraction like it was before 1980.

But it'll either need a serious long-term investment strategy, which I think the chances of happening are very slim to nil under current ownership. Or it'll need some serious rationalisation. I can't see the current trajectory being sustainable at all. Something else will have to give, and they'll have to seriously rethink about the kind of place they're trying to operate.
 
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rob666 said:
The parent company cleared £170,000,000 profits on an income of three billion.
No existential crisis at all, just poor quality short sighted management over a couple of decades.
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I'm not talking about the wider group though, they'll be fine. But what incentive would the group have sinking a good 5% of that over 10 years keeping a single resort in Staffordshire ticking over? Kirkbi want to spend that cash on building Lego parks in Shanghai.
 
rob666 said:
What I meant was...the people in charge have money in their pockets, and are letting the poor management of this park continue.
The park was in generally good repair, and had good operations, for a lot of years.
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You're right. It is about choices and priorities. And it's very clear that Alton isn't it.

With how low it's now sunk, and financial arrows coming in from everywhere, I feel it's now too far gone as a resort. They'll get more bang for their buck investing in almost any other attraction in their portfolio.

Their UK pass holder model relies on bulk selling them for cheap. A steady income stream for the group to fund the protection of Kirkbi's Lego assets. That's not compatible with a park that needs far more than just a load of people turning up every day wearing lanyards and carrying lunch boxes. They have their money already.

I think it was in the operations thread that someone mentioned how defensive MAP communities are about the state of the place at the moment. I think that speaks volumes about how we've ended up here.
 
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