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Merlin - destined for mediocrity?

It’s clear that Paultons were referencing other theme parks. To suggest they operate in a vacuum isn’t true.

As for Merlin, it’s pretty evident that both proportionate real term opex and capex has dropped since the 2000s. The product is worse and it’s not because they’re spending more money. Are the RTPs destined for terminal decline/stagnation? On the current trajectory, yes, but there’s nothing stopping them deciding to invest properly, in which case they could turn the ship.
 
The theory isn't that Paultons operate in the market completely independently of Merlin, but that the competitive overlap is small, and that there is little direct "competition" with Merlin parks, especially considering geography and how regional Paultons is. If Chessington closed for good tomorrow, half it's visitors wouldn't suddenly descend upon Paultons.

A reference to queues and Fastracks in marketing material is likely to do with people thinking that these things are customary theme park practice, and therefore detractors from visiting a theme park in the first place. It's not saying "don't visit those Merlin scoundrels this week, come to us instead" anymore than it's saying "visit us and enjoy short queues that you may otherwise expect us to be charging you for". Not that a social media post can be used to define an entire businesses marketing strategy anyway.

The same is true if Alton Towers was flogged off. A new owner could decide to spend millions sorting the place right out. But it's impact on the Merlin parks that remain would likely be negligible (after the loss of MAP sales as a result of loosing their biggest name attraction has been taken into account of course). They'd likely increase their attendance by taking custom away from alternative leisure activities, or even be responsible for actually increasing national leisure spend.

It may even actually attract some people to check out more parks if they're enjoyed themselves, as was the case when Blackpool, Towers, and Drayton all opened major investments in the same year. All 3 parks likely increased their patronage by enough people in 1994, using the logic being stated, to push many of the other parks below the waterline. But more people just visited more parks, and rode more rollercoasters that year.

It's not direct competition, and that seems to be what is implied time and time again whilst pondering over why Merlin parks are in such a crappy state. Theme parks are not necessities, and have no right to exist. Some countries have none at all. If the product is good enough, and decent value for money, people will come. The market is as big or as small as economic conditions and product value dictate.

Merlin owning so many parks in a single country is likely only a small factor in ever declining standards. Heide Park can be a bit of a bin as well, but Merlin don't own a single other park in Germany. It looks to me like the forces of Competitive Rivalry are actually quite high on Merlin's UK Theme Parks, hence why they feel the need to advertise heavily and promote them in cereal boxes and bottles of hand soap, and are constantly discounting. But that doesn't come from parks owned by different operators a 100 or so miles down the road, but other activities that people can choose to spend their leisure money on. This could be why they trade so down-market. Investing in them is extremely expensive, and very high risk, so they probably accept that if you want high quality you'll just go and find it abroad anyway. Why bother when you can bolt them on to a load of other attractions in your portfolio and bundle them into an annual pass that you can flog the hell out of? Or if you can sell a cheap gate ticket and then upsell an expensive hotel room, fastracks, and a ten quid hotdog on top?

It still looks to me that the Theme Parks are the anchor attractions to flog passes. Without them the MAP is dead. They ride on the coat tails of past glories, and the historical prestige that their names still manage to carry. A conscious decision has been made, informed by market analysis, that investing heavily in them is not compatible with the strategy of the wider business. So they don't.
 
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@Matt.GC your last post was spot on.

It is a decision not to invest in these parks based on a lot of data. It’s a shame but it’s true.

All said and done, despite being privately owned, Merlin has to make a return on investment. Those at the top know this, and therefore cut the cloth accordingly.

If only a certain Man City owner paid a visit and fell in love with the place?
 
Apologies for my lack of knowlwege of Merlins economy in advance, I only really know about their stuff like investments, prices, food quality, etc from my own experience.

I don't really think 'destined for mediocrity' would be an appropriate term to describe their current state. A more fitting title would be "Always was Mediocre".

I largely agree that the lack of investments at their parks in the UK does seem to be because of the lack of competition. As much as I love the high quality theming and products Paultons seems to be aiming for, they just don't match the scale of Merlins investments sadly, apart from exceptions like Tornado Springs.

Talking of their investments, would it be controversial to say that even if Universal came to the UK, Merlin would still be the same company for the most part, offering half baked experiences? Even if Merlin wanted to up their game big time, I think they'd still struggle, but not because of the budgets, but actually Merlin "Magic" Making. For over a decade now we've seen what MMM is capable of, and personally I've never been impressed aside from a few projects such as Wicker Man, The Swarm, and Shipwreck Coast. The rest just fall flat on the creative side in my view. They're just copy and paste themes. None of them match or rival of what came during the 80s and 90s by Tussauds. They had a charm and a quirk to them, and the themes were always pretty unique and memorable. Nemesis compared to Nemesis Reborn being the latest example.

We went from a lovecraftion looking 'thing' with rotten skin and exposed flesh, trapped inside a pit where the area around it is full of rustic facilities with really weird architecture, a futuristic Drilling machine consumed by flesh, monoliths, a bus covered in Mad Max like-art as a Gift Shop, etc. A very striking and mysterious theme to say the least.

Skip 30 years later, the moment MMM touch that ride, all that uniqueness is pretty much gone. No more distinctive unique rustic area filled with mystery, the creature now looks like a fan made version with Godzilla 2014 spikes and an eye that looks like it's straight from Resident Evil 2/Lord of the Rings, no more rotten skin, its all just painted primary grey for some reason now. You can agree or disagree with me on the creature, but the area around it is inexcusable. It's just a generic military area that you can find in any other theme park but void of personality and not pleasant to look at. We already had X-Sector, we didn't need another that's somehow even blander. They try too hard to be flashy and innovative, but it comes off as all style, but no substance.

If Merlin want to up their investments, they need to focus on Marketing and Magic Making as I think that's were all the lackluster investments coming from. The "creatives" just don't seem that creative whatsoever. I can guarantee that if Professor Burps Bubbleworks or Toyland Tours never existed and was to be proposed to Merlin as brand new Dark Rides nowadays, they would be rejected without hesitation.

Now onto food. I won't go too much into detail as a great deal of that has already been debated, but the Cooked Food at Merlins parks are just poor outside of the Roller Coaster Resturant. Amarak seem to do LESS than the bare minimum, with Burgers and chips always looking so bare from being badly put together. I don't even want to get started into how on rare cases guests have been served mouldy and rotten food. That itself is outright disgraceful and concerning.

So personally, if Merlin want to up their game in consistency and quality in the guests experience, id:

1) Restructure Marketing and Merlin Magic Making so more unique and original ride themes akin to the 80s and 90s Tussauds attractions can emerge from them. Stop prioritising on Horror Themes at Alton Towers and start embracing the more quirky themes and styles like Thorpe, Chessington, and Alton itself had back in their heyday. Aka, get new Creatives.

2) Bigger Budgets. Must I explain this?

3) improve Food offering and quality. Bin Amarak and start serving food that actually tastes good. Even if we have to go back to using Cadbury and Fast Food corporations, it'd be better than Amarak.

4) Get more External Theming Companies involved. An odd one I know, but getting companies like Meticulous, Studios East Ltd, to help Merlin Magic Making, or even designing and building rides by themselves would be nice to see again for more variety. Tussauds did stuff like this back in the 90s. Some rides were designed by them, others were by External Companies. Toyland Tours (Tussauds), Haunted House (Sparks, Rex Studios), Bubbleworks (Sparks), Terror Tomb (Farmer Studios), Dragon River (Tussauds).

5) Small one, but longer opening hours, nothing too drastic, but an extra hour would make a huge difference in their parks personally.

If there's one thing Merlin have always excelled at, it's merchandise (shocking). They always produce some great looking stuff out there.

So all in all, even if Universal does make if to the UK, Merlin will need a bigger internal overhaul than many think personally.
 
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What I'm struggling to understand is how a change of senior leadership at Merlin has not really changed things on the ground.

I get some things are not quick fixes. Decades of neglect and underfunding means they're in a bad position with ride availability, and they probably need to invest significant sums of money across the park to resolve this. However things like cleanliness, staff attitude, attention to detail and training are not expensive items to fix. It feels like the old Merlin culture lives on and the place will never progress unless they can shift mindsets.
 
I think the fact Merlin see bloggers and celebs as key to marketing rather than the quality of their attractions says all you need to know.

Do Disney, universal, Europa, Efteling or Phantasialand use content creators in the same way? Who seem to strangely seem to constantly pan their attractions.

Add that in the sub contracting out food and bev, hotel bookings and the generic events and f&b (Oktoberfest, mardis gra and pizza pasta etc) then all individuality is gone.

It seems the six flags model is in full effect and it’s awful. Combine that with the new “everyone else’s IP” being a need it’s a recipe for disaster.

Alton have more than ample, strong, self owned IP, stories and history to go deeper and more involved.
 
Now I've seen the Chessington plans, I think there is cause for optimism that things may be on the up (or at least some consistent cycle of investment).

If Thorpe Park has a similar consultation for future investments over the next year, this may sway me even towards optimism.
 
Ash said:
I think the fact Merlin see bloggers and celebs as key to marketing rather than the quality of their attractions says all you need to know.

Do Disney, universal, Europa, Efteling or Phantasialand use content creators in the same way? Who seem to strangely seem to constantly pan their attractions.
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That seems to start happening more when Towers/Merlin restrict their access to certain events and stuff. They get real pi**ed then, seemingly.
 
Ash said:
I just honestly don’t think they have the creatively ability or budget to install anything on the quality of Europa, Efteling or Phantasialand.

It will be another container/warehouse/rundown affair…
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Sadly I think even if Merlin were a well run unit, they could never achieve those levels and despite bragging about being second to Disney that even they have become aware of that and thus why the Six Flags model is what they've relegated themselves to.

That said, even with a small budget you can do a lot of good as just look at Paultons down the road as you can create something good it's just that Merlin don't have the mindset to do that though admittedly Alton Manor does seem to be the exception to this.
 
owenstreet7 said:
Good point, I know Merlin can do it right like with Nemesis Reborn, Curse and Jumanji.
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Jumanji isn't anywhere near the quality of the other two.

Lot more to fix at Chessie than those 2 areas. Would've thought Tomb Blaster would've been in front of the queue.

Wild Asia is probably the one due to available space and most likely to get through planning. Dread to think what they'll need to do to replace Vampire given the location. Literally are more likely to see a refurb to... Zog the dragon (which actually makes some sense).
 
QTXAdsy said:
Sadly I think even if Merlin were a well run unit, they could never achieve those levels and despite bragging about being second to Disney that even they have become aware of that and thus why the Six Flags model is what they've relegated themselves to.

That said, even with a small budget you can do a lot of good as just look at Paultons down the road as you can create something good it's just that Merlin don't have the mindset to do that though admittedly Alton Manor does seem to be the exception to this.
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I don't think Merlin can ever aspire to be at the level of Phantasialand, Europa Park or Efteling. Paultons may be able to but they're a work in progress.

Merlin are more like Cedar Fair, Six Flags or Walibi to be honest.

Benzin said:
Jumanji isn't anywhere near the quality of the other two.

Lot more to fix at Chessie than those 2 areas. Would've thought Tomb Blaster would've been in front of the queue.

Wild Asia is probably the one due to available space and most likely to get through planning. Dread to think what they'll need to do to replace Vampire given the location. Literally are more likely to see a refurb to... Zog the dragon (which actually makes some sense).
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Totally agree that Chessington needs a lot of attention. Jumanji for what it is does work however the cheap SBF rides and theming that gets easily damaged is a lot to be desired.

Tomb Blaster could easily get a Curse style treatment and could happen any season.

I'd say Vampire is a classic and could get retracked, I'd also say that things have evolved over 30 years and a replacement ride could be allowed on the site *if* the ride is quieter than Vampire.

I wonder how loud Phoenix Rising or Penguin Trek is as those could be fantastic family coasters for Chessington. I had privately been hoping for something like Penguin Trek on the Mexicana site.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
In fairness to Merlin, they have now stopped shouting about being “second to Disney”
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I don't think Merlin ever said that as much as people on this forum like to make out.

At the time it was a simple statement of fact that Merlin were the second biggest visitor attractions operator after Disney. It was never about type or quality of attractions, just quantity.
Subway is the second biggest fast food brand after McDonalds, that doesn't meant Subway sells a better hamburger.
 
jon81uk said:
I don't think Merlin ever said that as much as people on this forum like to make out.

At the time it was a simple statement of fact that Merlin were the second biggest visitor attractions operator after Disney. It was never about type or quality of attractions, just quantity.
Subway is the second biggest fast food brand after McDonalds, that doesn't meant Subway sells a better hamburger.
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Your logic is sound, your example is ever so slightly off. Subway have more locations, world wide, than any other fast food chain. McDonald's, however, have vastly higher revenues and profits than Subway. It's a very good example of how you measure something though, and how you can twist data to tell the tale you want.

The world's most used operating system, full stop, is Android. Limit it to desktop only, and it becomes Windows. If you said to most teenagers in the western world, however, that Apple were second only to Google in mobile, second to Microsoft in desktop, and fourth for operating systems as a whole, I don't think they'd believe you.

Also, just being nitpicky, Subway don't sell hamburgers at all!
 
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