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London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

Islander said:
Nah, they'd use you as a case study for how popular this project is, and how many people are clamouring for information...
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I am clamouring for information! I’d genuinely like to know more about the project and when this consultation is due for.

I might give it a try and see how it goes. One email can’t hurt, surely?
 
I expect the response to read like a message from a Nigerian prince.

Dear Beloved Friend Mr Matt,

Many joyous blessings upon you and your family. I am the first cousin to Mr Gerbeau. He thanks you for your interest in the project. However, unfortunately, due to impacts of the Coronavirus, Mr Gerbeau is currently under lockdown and unable to deliver our environmental report on time.

In addition to the report however, London Resort is now in the position to access considerable trust funds totalling £3,200,000,000. As I am sure you will be aware, this significant investment will be enough to bring the London Resort to glorious fruition.

In order to access the trust fund we will be requiring a deposit into the account of £5000. This small payment will allow us to commence development of the Resort. However, Mr Gerbeau is currently unable to arrange this due to poor internet connectivity in his home where he is currently self-isolating.

I am seeking such a trustworthy and reliable person as yourself to assist us with transfer of funds to access our new investment. Please transfer the sum of £5000 to our bank account details enclosed. Upon completion of the resort we will reimburse your generosity with repayment of your £5000 plus interest. We will also bestow upon you a significant quantity of shares in our company, and ensure that your name is featured in the resort.

Please do not inform anyone of this arrangement, as it is critical that we are able to announce the commencement of construction to the press with joyous surprise.

Remain blessed,
London Resort Ltd.
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Matt N said:
I am clamouring for information! I’d genuinely like to know more about the project and when this consultation is due for.

I might give it a try and see how it goes. One email can’t hurt, surely?
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If you REALLY want information, have a read through the last EIA from 2014 (yes, they've done one before) as this one will likely be more or less the same if it does turn up. It's 232 pages of probably the least riveting thing you've ever read, well, aside from the Coronavirus topic.
 
They haven’t responded to me yet, but to be fair, I’d imagine that their communications team don’t work weekends.
 
Matt N said:
A big project like this is bound to have a team dedicated to customer relations, surely?
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They have absolutely no customers though. No one is a customer because they have no product. So why the need for customer relations?

They may have a 'press team'. At this point its probably a single person who also does other roles.
 
Matt N said:
A big project like this is bound to have a team dedicated to customer relations, surely?
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This isn't a big project, it's some media hype about nothing. Sure, if it actually did go ahead (it won't), there'd be a substantial comms team. But there's nothing to, well, communicate now, as the project hasn't started. And never will.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s being handled by some form of outside PR & Comms contractor or agency at this point anyway, which will most likely mean it’s one person who is juggling between this and many other projects. They’ll just drop them an email every once in a while and say “drum up some more hype for us”, they’ll cobble together a press release and push it out to the media and relevant channels.
 
Jaysus just think how much every company is taking from this fantasy. 8 years nothing built don’t own the land but they keep paying out for solicitors and advisers etc. Honestly I thought this would of died off by now but to keep wasting money like that is unbelievable. Obviously people like the solicitors are loving it no matter what happens they get paid constantly.
 
Interesting to see that even BALPPA are heavily sceptical/critical of these supposed plans too...

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15 million? That’s higher than pretty much every theme park in the world apart from Magic Kingdom and potentially Disneyland California (correct me if I’m wrong)! They must be planning something quite special for those sorts of numbers; for reference, 15 million is 50% higher than either of Universal’s two Orlando theme parks, and higher than all of Disney’s Florida parks bar the Magic Kingdom!
 
I've also heard they're the team behind the floating airport in the Thames, Heathrow's third runway and a new cross Channel bridge. They're serious and going to take the market by storm.
 
Matt N said:
They must be planning something quite special for those sorts of numbers
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Or, back in the land of common sense, they're completely overestimating their visitor numbers as pointed out by the head of BALPPA who is no stranger to the industry. Paul headed up Thorpe Park before moving to the London Eye when it opened. He was then head of new business development at Merlin so he knows what he's talking about.
 
Matt N said:
15 million? That’s higher than pretty much every theme park in the world apart from Magic Kingdom and potentially Disneyland California (correct me if I’m wrong)! They must be planning something quite special for those sorts of numbers; for reference, 15 million is 50% higher than either of Universal’s two Orlando theme parks, and higher than all of Disney’s Florida parks bar the Magic Kingdom!
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I’m genuinely curious as to why you read 15m, knowing the lunacy of that figure, and think “wow, they must have stupendous plans”, rather than “wow, they must be utterly thick”


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The figure did seem high, but I’m sure they will have conducted all sorts of surveys and modelling and things in order to get that number. They won’t just have plucked a figure out of thin air; they will have put time into these predictions and will have done all sorts of maths in order to get this figure.

I admit, though; approximately 20-25% of the UK population does seem very, very high. I know that they will want a certain percentage of foreign visitors, but even going off of WDW’s apparent percentage of around 20%, that still leaves around 12 million UK guests to visit. That’s what leads me to believe that they may have something special up their sleeves not necessarily seen in the current concept art.
 
Matt N said:
The figure did seem high, but I’m sure they will have conducted all sorts of surveys and modelling and things in order to get that number. They won’t just have plucked a figure out of thin air; they will have put time into these predictions and will have done all sorts of maths in order to get this figure.
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Why won’t they have just plucked the figure out of thin air? If you have a professional industry body (BALPPA) calling them out for the idiocy of that figure, why do you believe them, a non-existent concept, over a professional body who knows the industry inside out, and has decades of experience?


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Matt N said:
The figure did seem high, but I’m sure they will have conducted all sorts of surveys and modelling and things in order to get that number. They won’t just have plucked a figure out of thin air; they will have put time into these predictions and will have done all sorts of maths in order to get this figure.
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The problem with projected guest figures is that there's not just simple statistics coming into it. Let me give an example. A sensible marketing survey gives you a projected number of guests. Now this projection is based on people being shown lovely shiny plans of a pretty theme park, everyone gets excited and wants to go.

Then the sensibilities come in about it costing £50/£60 a ticket, per person. Suddenly a large chunk of those people who looked at those pictures don't want to visit anymore.

Even away from that, you take that figure from that initial projection, then you find that it's way too low of a number to pull this off. So you throw in a shedload of "what ifs" into the equation. "What if we added another hotel?" "What if we added some restaurants so people stayed longer?", "What if we added another media partner for some more attractions?". You bump the projection up as a result.

Then you look at the finances again. Investors are still not going to go for it based on your amended projections. You think you can scrape a few million more guests from an advertising blitz, special offers everywhere and some off peak ticketing. The projection is bumped up again to try and make it an attractive proposition.

The key thing to remember is everything is just a projection, and there is always some shall we say creativity put into those numbers to make something look far more attractive. The Millenium Dome had a projection, it was wrong - substantially. The new Dubai parks had guest projections, they failed - miserably.

The point is projections are half truths, and half another marketing ploy to try and drum up interest. BALPPA are right to query them when this project has been given National Infrastructure status under very questionable circumstances given previous criteria.
 
Exactly. You can model data in any way you want to engineer the result you want to see. For all we know that figure could have been decided as simply as counting how many cars will pass the motorway junction per year and assume that a percentage of them will pull in.

Ultimately, why does that figure exist? To lure in and woo potential investors. No one is going to be blown away by a company which says “Well, you know, we’re going to get a few visitors. Maybe almost as many as Alton Towers, but probably not as many as Disneyland Paris.” You need something that sounds good on paper, and hope that they take the bait. Otherwise they may as well go invest in Merlin or Disney.

Any investor worth their while will immediately question a figure as out of the ordinary as this, especially given a body of industry experts have outright questioned the validity of the figures. It’s only once the figures are questioned that you can begin to gleam any idea into how it’s been modelled, and even then they will no doubt have a similarly vague and non-committal response drafted.
 
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