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Pleasurewood Hills

Matt N said:
It got 180,000 in either 2022 or 2023 according to a recent Looping Group informational video, while Drayton got 920,000 in the same year and WMSP did ~850,000 (?). Like Oakwood, I think Pleasurewood struggles to be much more than a holiday tourist park due to its remote location.
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On the Looping Group website, it says 160000 for PWH, 750000 for WMSP and Drayton is 800000.

Cobac Parc and Mini Chateaux are the only ones with less visitors than PWH - 100,000 each.
 
Surely Looping have nothing to lose, as they also have Drayton and WMS. They could buy a few second hand rides and try to boost attendance but if it doesn’t work they can always move them to their other parks.
 
Us locals don't visit anymore due to the lack of investment and state of the place. Loopings have totally decimated the place the last decade,

Opening hours cut
Operating days cut
Rides removed not replaced
Many SBNO buildings/areas
Poorly maintained/kept parts such as the actual grounds and buildings
Poorly finished refurbishment of some rides

The car park fiasco last year was the last straw for many local people and so many have chosen GYPB now for value and season passes.

Many moons ago the park was ran by the then leisure great Britain, even they saw sense and wheeled in temporary hired rides

Honestly all they need to do is get 3 or so flats in , hired or not, reopen the castle which was once so prominent, now rotting away and covered in weeds, this would be a start and would bring locals back, not sure the latest money off deal will, clearly they want locals back yet its gone too far now.

The recent ride paint ups and refurbishments are much needed of course yet only thooises are really interested in seeing these, joe public have no idea or even care

I mean the boomerang looks superb now its been repainted and has a different style of train yet even then the train wasn't even new !!!
 
The car park charge was definitely out of order. They shouldn't have done that. It's not just the cost; lots of people hate using apps to park, and it just adds stress to the day.

But I don't think getting in a lot of 2nd-hand rides would help much either. I don't think enthusiasts have as much more knowledge over the "general public" as is often said. You have UK-based theme park channels now that have about 500,000 subscribers, so that's a huge portion of people who actually go. If you watch those, and visit a few parks, you get a clear sense of what the newer-type rides are like compared to the older.

I was against getting Wipeout at the time, as I'd ridden it a lot at American Adventure, and having it at Pleasurewood didn't hold much attraction for me. We've had them at several locations in the UK (even if they were sometimes the exact same ride moved somewhere else). As well as American Adventure and Pleasurewood, we've had them at Pleasure Island, West Midlands Safari Park, Butlins Starcoast World and Glasgow Gardens. Wipeout is too big for the park (in my opinion), blocks off a pathway, is too intimidating for a lot of the guests, and even when you read reviews from people who have ridden it, they found it too intense. Don't get me wrong, I used to like them when I was a teenager, but I think the 2000s or 2010s was the time to get something like a woodie, or at least that thrill level of ride. Advertise it a lot like Cannonball Express when it was new (although that was 2nd-hand, it was very rare), and it would have given the Region much more excitement about the park.
 
Shame they didn't keep the crazy mouse or move it, so much wasted time over the years like the giant intamin drop tower that was granted permission yet they opted instead for the current one which they did purchase from a showman
 
I don’t disagree with any of the points that have been made over the last few days. I’m sure the number of tourists visiting the area has declined, and I’m sure they did get more visitors when they were adding relatively major new rides on a relatively frequent basis, rather than refurbishing older rides. However, I do believe the pricing structure has changed quite a bit so we’re not completely comparing apples with apples either.

A while ago I read the autobiography of Joe Larter, who set up Pleasurewood Hills.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Serendipity-Journey-Joe-Larter/dp/178035679X

It has been a while since I read it, but I know he talks about Pleasurewood Hills having a very different pricing structure in the early days where it was free to enter and locals would bring their own food and use barbecue pits at the park. The park may have had over double the attendance, but it wasn’t necessarily over double the revenue.
 
Funcone said:
I don’t disagree with any of the points that have been made over the last few days. I’m sure the number of tourists visiting the area has declined, and I’m sure they did get more visitors when they were adding relatively major new rides on a relatively frequent basis, rather than refurbishing older rides. However, I do believe the pricing structure has changed quite a bit so we’re not completely comparing apples with apples either.

A while ago I read the autobiography of Joe Larter, who set up Pleasurewood Hills.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Serendipity-Journey-Joe-Larter/dp/178035679X

It has been a while since I read it, but I know he talks about Pleasurewood Hills having a very different pricing structure in the early days where it was free to enter and locals would bring their own food and use barbecue pits at the park. The park may have had over double the attendance, but it wasn’t necessarily over double the revenue.
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Honestly Pleasurewood could look at introducing a new unique offering pricing structure wise that could help them out. Free to enter may not be the way, but perhaps non-rider tickets at very low rates, although this would require infrastructure. I think there's definatley a business case for at least looking at the feasibility.
Although I think investment would help the park, I think it's not a simple as buying some second hand rides, giving them a cool sounding name, maybe some cheap theming and posting about it on socials. If they want people to travel specifically for the park they would need to add something or multiple things which will look attractive in marketing campaigns. Then they'd need to have a very clever (and probably expensive) marketing campaign. It would be a big risk but at the same time I don't know if they'd keep the park around if it's visitor number keep declining.

It's a really difficult one to predict, and I really have no idea what the future holds for the place.
 
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