I don't understand why they passed on the cut in the VAT rate onto the consumer, the park has a severe capacity and thus the supply is limited. I don't have any understanding about how often the park hit it's COVID capacity outside of passholders though.online price is £34 off-peak and £38 peak, with a gate price of £53 (was £58 before VAT changes)
Back when I worked at Towers there was a well known saying "that the average guest spent as much on-park as they did on admission" (this was before the AP's really took big-time). I bet there are not many passholders, past or present that can openly admit every member of their party spent circa £25 on average on-park on each visit. I certainly never did - it was pint in the Tavern / Welcome Inn & that was it.
I don't understand why they passed on the cut in the VAT rate onto the consumer, the park has a severe capacity and thus the supply is limited. I don't have any understanding about how often the park hit it's COVID capacity outside of passholders though.
I don't understand why they passed on the cut in the VAT rate onto the consumer
I was trying to work out if that many people at all spent over £20, but I guess it depends if you buy ride photos or not. One ride photo, lunch and a snack/drink is probably £20.
I think this was purely a marketing tactic to ensure they had something to point towards in case any journalists starting asking questions about whether the savings had been passed on. Remember Nick Varney has been publicity campaigning for about 10 years calling on the government to reduce VAT for tourism businesses because they could pass the savings on and encourage more visits. Therefore if they weren’t seen to be passing the saving on, it could have come back to bite them.
I bet a couple visiting the park for a one-off visit (i.e. not passholders) can early clear £20 a head on-park spend. Like you say, a ride photo or two, lunch, snack - and don't forget the overpriced AT teddy bear or pick & mix from Towers Trading as you leave the park. Then we have Fastrack & the parking charge. Should they decide to take lunch in one of the proper sit-down venues (so Pizza & Pasta / Woodcutters / RCR) then this spend is easily achievable. Probably is with the Burger Company & Just Chicken too given the prices they charge.
You can get your own logs via a DSAR, the report I got looks like they could easily see global stats if they want to.I would love to see Annual Pass statistics such as the number of attractions visited and how many passholders fall into each count. I don't know where my Merlin Annual Pass usage falls in comparison to others and whether I'm below or above the average.
In normal times I probably hit Alton Towers about four times and Chessington about a dozen (it's my local park). Occasionally I'll do Thorpe Park once and a couple of London attractions too. I get good value from the pass. On each visit I will always end up buying food and drinks, and maybe some merchandise, so there's always a secondary spend from me.
If the passes were withdrawn completely then I'd just reduce my number of visits, maybe Alton Towers twice and Chessie a couple of times too. I would basically look to spend similar money to what I spend now. I guess I would just adjust to visiting less and find other ways to spend my time.
Talking about vloggers though... are you sure they wouldn't get free or concessionary entry? With all the free publicity I don't believe they would have to pay full price every time. Maybe Disney would be happy to ditch them but I can't see Merlin doing that, at least not for the "big name" vlogs.
Your estimate is way too low for what non-passholders are paying, online price is £34 off-peak and £38 peak, with a gate price of £53 (was £58 before VAT changes), so those with a 2for1 are paying around £26.50, but I think the "gate price" will go up this year if they keep offering 2for1s.
Realistically I think the actual gate price is the online price of £34-38 and I think that's a reasonable price for the park most of the time.