This was not judged by the public, this was judged by their peers.
By people who will largely not have a clue what makes a great theme park for that matter, it's not like judging hotels against hotels, bars against bars, even airlines etc. They are all founded and run on very basic common sense principles - theme parks however, are not!
If you take basic value for buck they get from their attractions, and whats more, their absurd and ludicrous price hikes and in park hyper marketing pester power overload, will only be seen in bottom line terms by these individuals.
Everything that a theme park should stand for, the antithesis is credited in that article such as: Creating rides on the cheap, done by bulk buying attractions, and ramping stealth prices up everywhere.
Merlin do deserve corporate/business/financial credit - that is without question, hence in a way, being "admired" by their business peers is really no surprise. It's altogether a bit easier when you have champagne quaffing vulture (I am not against Venture Capitalism incidentally, like Business Angels etc, that help genuinely innovate and develop tech/biz) capitalists backing you, as it gives you the scope to buy bigger cheaper - much like a supermarket....
You won't find your local corner shop, or independent food market lapping up any global/national industry awards either - that doesn't mean their ethos, quality, and respective value is less. Merlin have a high presence in the hospitality sector, much like Tesco does in selling.
Merlin are rolling out a certain "style" across their entire chain - creating parks that are becoming less and less unique, all filled full of up-selling/marketing hype and nonsense VAT lessons that we all already know. They've lost the core meaning of a Theme Park, and are churning out the same stuff across the board.
Now, things like Swarm (and SW7) I applaud, but that's down to other peoples creativity, and of course Merlin investment - I do genuinely applaud that, it is a triumph of theme and ride. However, the way the parks "feel" is getting worse, as is the service, as is the cost and quality of the day in general.
That is something Mr Bottom Line Hospitality Sector will not understand.
