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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

AT86 said:
This calculation is based on the 2023 total visitor figure of 1.5m btw which Thorpe shared last year, they haven’t included the total visitor numbers for 2024 so can’t make a calculation on that.
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By all accounts the visitor figure will be higher this year what with Hyperia opening.

Certainly interesting and probably the first time we've had any insight into even a rough figure.
 
I’m guessing, and it is only a guess, that Thorpe probably have the lowest proportion of AP visits for the RTPs. I think it’s generally considered that CWoA attract a large amount of pass holders, and my guess would be the other more family-centric parks of Towers and Lego perhaps sit inbetween.

It’s certainly interesting to get a feel for the split.
 
It is more of a teenage, one off, once a year sort of park.

And then there are the couple of hundred thousand Sunreaders spread over the parks over the year,
 
AT86 said:
What this shows is that for Thorpe Park c20% of visitors in 2024 were passholders and therefore 80% - or the vast majority - aren’t.

This calculation is based on the 2023 total visitor figure of 1.5m btw which Thorpe shared last year, they haven’t included the total visitor numbers for 2024 so can’t make a calculation on that.

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The wording here is very ambiguous - “passholder visitations” could very well include repeat visits by one passholder; if that’s the case, then their proportion of the total gate figure for the year would be even smaller.
 
I think that’s exactly what is meant by visitation. In the same way they would count a non-AP holder visiting twice in a year as two visits.
 
That’s curious. Despite what some say above, I’d almost have expected Thorpe to have a greater proportion of MAP visitation than some of Merlin’s other parks, what with it being targeted towards a demographic with generally lower disposable income.

I’d always heard the notion that Chessington is a relative hive of MAP holders compared to the other parks, but with Thorpe being both in London and targeted towards teenagers and young adults, I’d have expected its MAP percentage to be higher than that of Alton and Legoland.

Maybe it’s less to do with income than I’d thought? Maybe families are greater purchasers and users of annual passes?
 
Matt N said:
That’s curious. Despite what some say above, I’d almost have expected Thorpe to have a greater proportion of MAP visitation than some of Merlin’s other parks, what with it being targeted towards a demographic with generally lower disposable income.
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An annual pass is an investment. If you have low disposible income you might not be able to afford the £99 (or more) upfront to buy the annual pass, if you only just have the £34 for a single entry.

Whereas a family who want to entertain the kids for a longer timeframe may be able to afford the upfront cost knowing they can entertain the younger kids for a whole year.
 
Whilst Thorpe might not attract the family
market when it comes to annual pass visits compared to Chessington, Legoland and Towers I suspect it is made up with the teen demographic having passes to visit with their friends.

It’s long been a case of some parents seeing Thorpe park passes as a good investment for ‘childcare’ when it comes to the school holidays for example.
 
When using anecdotal evidence to analyse the makeup of visitors in a park, we're often quick to overlook the impact of coach trips. Schools, summer schools, foreign visitors, interest groups.

In July, in particular, school associated visitors will vastly outnumber any other group. There will be some crossover, of course. Some school children will be lucky enough to have passes, but for a school visit they wouldn't count as a MAP holder.

Throw in some corporate buy out days too.
 
KolonelKlink said:
The wording here is very ambiguous - “passholder visitations” could very well include repeat visits by one passholder; if that’s the case, then their proportion of the total gate figure for the year would be even smaller.
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I'm not sure how many passholders are there however the one's who joined the Thorpe Park Facebook group before it closed is 2.1k.

So approximately, I'd guesstimate there's about 2.5-3k passholders that regularly visit Thorpe Park. I know Facebook isn't used as much as it was a few years ago however it does still seem fairly popular with the groups.

I visited Thorpe Park 24 times this season however I'd imagine that amount of times or more would be visited by the keenest of enthusiasts such as Platinum Passholders. I'm a Merlin Platinum Passholder that was converted from a Thorpe Gold. Another factor is that I am Berkshire based which the park is a very quick journey for me to get to (compared to Towers).

So I'd say the 296,000 visits would be fair I'd say. I'd imagine the average would be about 8 for a Thorpe Gold passholder in a season if taking only Thorpe into account. I don't know for certain but that's my very rough guess.

I'd say the other impacts and factors would be what passes people have (as restrictions will impact that), RAP and the procedures surrounding that, Hyperia's initial difficulties and how busy the park can get at peak times.

With the amount of visitors, I'd imagine we've had an increase of international tourists and enthusiasts due to Hyperia.

GooseOnTheLoose said:
When using anecdotal evidence to analyse the makeup of visitors in a park, we're often quick to overlook the impact of coach trips. Schools, summer schools, foreign visitors, interest groups.

In July, in particular, school associated visitors will vastly outnumber any other group. There will be some crossover, of course. Some school children will be lucky enough to have passes, but for a school visit they wouldn't count as a MAP holder.

Throw in some corporate buy out days too.
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This definitely makes a lot of sense as the schools do make up a large percentage of visitors. It can be from the hundreds to thousands depending on what groups the schools take.

A whole year group tends to be about 150 in an average UK mainstream comprehensive school.
 
For some reason unknown to me, Thorpe's target audience is young, social media addicted hooligans who like to swear alot, smoke weed, and use words like "gassed" to explain their excitement.

The MAP targets families. Families aren't welcome at Thorpe Park. To lesser extent, it seems they're not particularly that welcome at Towers these days either.

The money is made from families, and most park operators here and abroad seem to understand that. Therefore I find the whole MAP holder model quite bizarre. They discount entry to their parks by selling passes for cheap to families, whilst downgrading the experiences in the parks for entry paying guests who they make all the money from.

So it shouldn't be a surprise really that Chessington is rammed with passholders spending bugger all on secondary items, whilst Thorpe is full of disrespectful teenagers who tuck their trousers into their socks.

Also worthy of note is the fact that Thorpe is the only Merlin park in the UK that still sells edible fast food through Burger King and KFC. Make of that what you will, but I suspect that kids who've already fleeced their middle class dad for the entry ticket won't tolerate extortionate prices for dog crap in a roll, whereas the Alton and Chessington passholders will just bring a backpack full of crisps and sausage rolls.
 
Matt.GC said:
...Families aren't welcome at Thorpe Park. To lesser extent, it seems they're not particularly that welcome at Towers these days either...
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Families aren't welcome at Thorpe Park???
Come on Matt!
Saw a few hundred families on each of my three visits to Thorpe.

And to say families aren't welcome at the Towers is simply untrue.
They are, so there.
Less facilities for younger kids, but Alton is a family park, and families are welcome at both Thorpe and Towers, even if the main market at Thorpe is teens/twenties.
 
Matt.GC said:
For some reason unknown to me, Thorpe's target audience is young, social media addicted hooligans who like to swear alot, smoke weed, and use words like "gassed" to explain their excitement.

The MAP targets families. Families aren't welcome at Thorpe Park. To lesser extent, it seems they're not particularly that welcome at Towers these days either.

The money is made from families, and most park operators here and abroad seem to understand that. Therefore I find the whole MAP holder model quite bizarre. They discount entry to their parks by selling passes for cheap to families, whilst downgrading the experiences in the parks for entry paying guests who they make all the money from.

So it shouldn't be a surprise really that Chessington is rammed with passholders spending bugger all on secondary items, whilst Thorpe is full of disrespectful teenagers who tuck their trousers into their socks.

Also worthy of note is the fact that Thorpe is the only Merlin park in the UK that still sells edible fast food through Burger King and KFC. Make of that what you will, but I suspect that kids who've already fleeced their middle class dad for the entry ticket won't tolerate extortionate prices for dog crap in a roll, whereas the Alton and Chessington passholders will just bring a backpack full of crisps and sausage rolls.
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With you on this one.
It feels like each park isn’t catering to the target audience atm
 
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