Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[owenstreet7]

Contrary to the belief of some, I don’t believe focusing on thrills has ever been Thorpe Park’s problem. The park’s attendance skyrocketed with the addition of the large thrill rides throughout the 2000s, and their highest ever years were 2009-2011, when the park was quite far into its thrill phase. Going for young families makes little sense when Chessington and Legoland are under half an hour away and Paultons is only an hour away down the M3; in the context of the local area, the young family market is saturated and thrills are a far more obvious differentiator from the rest of the local offering.

I personally think their issues have been multi-faceted.

Firstly, I’ll perhaps counteract what I said above to a degree by admitting that they could perhaps have targeted a less rigid definition of thrills, particularly post-Merlin. I think everything up to Stealth was relatively sound and had reasonably universal appeal, but I think theming Saw to a horror movie franchise and making it another 1.4m coaster was perhaps a limiting choice in the long run that might have put off older families. I wonder if Wardley’s proposed GCI might have made the park feel a bit more rounded and accessible to an older family audience while still maintaining the core onus on thrills.

Also, I wonder if the “failure” of Swarm spooked them a little too much. I do feel that the perception of the commercial performance of Swarm was quite a critical factor in the park taking the path it did over the next decade or more, and despite the many contextual factors contributing to decreased attendance in 2012, it seemed like they were so spooked by it that they turned away from coasters entirely and flitted from one flavour of the month to another for a good decade afterwards. Swarm feels like it made the park not quite know what to do with itself for a number of years afterwards; they seemed to go very extreme down certain paths for short periods without ever wholeheartedly committing and then do a complete about turn the next year.

The other thing I’d say about Thorpe is that I think they relied solely on things with overly niche appeal and/or very little staying power during the mid to late 2010s and early 2020s. Derren Brown, for example, was an enormous investment into something with incredibly niche appeal and limited longevity compared to a roller coaster or more traditional dark ride. And what did they follow this up with prior to Hyperia? The utter own goal that was The Walking Dead (as much as the execution looks fairly good from what I’ve seen, I think retheming a Vekoma junior coaster to a horror IP might be one of the silliest theme park decisions ever made), Black Mirror which lasted only 2 or 3 years, and a series of temporary flash in the pan events like BounceZilla. And even prior to Derren, the park was resorting to things like Angry Birds and I’m a Celebrity (only lasted 3 years). While these sorts of attractions are sometimes OK in isolation and in moderation, this stuff is not what’s going to pull people in long-term.

If I were to map out the park’s course for the next few years, I could go for something thrilling with a lower height restriction that might be slightly more accessible to an older family audience. Something along the lines of a GCI would work very well, in my view.

You have absolutely hit the nail on the head with what I've been saying over the last few pages since Rumba got announced to close.

Thorpe Park can absolutely be the most thrilling theme park but also offer something more accessible to families as well.

The "failure" of Swarm was very much a multi factor issue and cannot be attributed to the park struggling to attract more people. We'd have to factor in a wet summer, the summer Olympics and potentially another dark theme of a rollercoaster which we've had the 2012 end of the world phenomenon predicted (might be a far fetched on that one).

The IP and gimmick based moves were likely very much based on chasing trends of the time, budgets not allowing for new flat rides, a new shiny coaster behind Swarm or for refurbishments of classic log flumes and a white elephant aka train in the shed. Those were short term fixes designed to try and draw in an audience but a lot of it failed fairly badly.

It is my hope that Merlin has now decided to invest in the park more consistently meaning we'd see a flat ride or two followed by a new rollercoaster afterwards. It's my worry that they still see Thorpe Park as the red head step child (no offence to redheads) of the group...

 

[Enter Valhalla]

The problem wi the Thorpe’s thrill seekers only approach of the 2008-2013 years is that it just wasn’t sustainable.

It is absolutely correct that when Thorpe Park were opening a major new coaster every 2-3 years, gate figures were huge and the place was booming.

However, it just isn’t sustainable to keep building a £20 million coaster every few years. Thorpe did so during their aggressive rebrand but if they’d kept up with that plan, they’d have 10 major thrill coasters now (would there even be room for that many?) and the marketing novelty of yet another major coaster would seriously have worn off by now if it was happening every 2-3 years. It worked in the early stages because it was something new for Thorpe Park. Hyperia was a success because they’d not had a new coaster for 12 years.

 

[Hid]

Thorpe Park should of mixed more thrilling flat rides which are a lot cheaper like a Starflyer, Huss Breakdance or a Booster. Thrill market can be sustainable provided you don't just do coaster.