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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Poisson said:
Colossus doesn't need replacing really. New trains and the scenery refreshing would be nice but it's still a crowd puller.
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Even a minor modification such as a line of Paint on each restraint would help massively improve performance.

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I get the impression the 'OMFG they haven't built anything new for ages" thing is more prevalent in our community than it is amongst more casual park visitors. I am not sure they need a new coaster, but some new ride hardware of some description wouldn't go a miss.

Anyway, old bookmark.

TheCarousel_ThorpePark_Bookmark1.jpg

More stuff here.
 
I could see them getting something like an S&S free spin but that's about all for a long time.

We certainly won't be seeing a B&M for the foreseeable.
 
WillPS said:
The way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if the major manufacturers ran out of capital before considerable numbers of orders started coming in again.
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It wouldn't surprise me if the companies physically producing the rides went kaput but the designers should be able to hold out shouldn't they?

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It might be worth remembering that there are still some orders coming in; for example, there are still quite a few rides planned for 2021 that are still going ahead, and I think one or two parks are even still pressing ahead with announced 2022 investments. Besides, I’d imagine that most parks just deferred their major rides by a year or so as opposed to completely cancelling them. I don’t think ride buying will dry up completely, even if it does reduce.

Investment reduced around the world in the tourism slump after 9/11, but it didn’t stall by any means. Once the parks are back open again, I think we will see a similar scenario here.
 
Matt N said:
It might be worth remembering that there are still some orders coming in; for example, there are still quite a few rides planned for 2021 that are still going ahead, and I think one or two parks are even still pressing ahead with announced 2022 investments. Besides, I’d imagine that most parks just deferred their major rides by a year or so as opposed to completely cancelling them. I don’t think ride buying will dry up completely, even if it does reduce.
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That's fine, if the business in question has substantial cash reserves and/or ability to scale down its expenses (workforce mostly) so that it can sit out the dry spell. If the business has commitments that can only be serviced with new orders, there's potentially a problem. I have no idea what the trading position of the major manufacturers is.


Matt N said:
Investment reduced around the world in the tourism slump after 9/11, but it didn’t stall by any means. Once the parks are back open again, I think we will see a similar scenario here.
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9/11 caused some American theme parks to close for one day. Gate levels were significantly down, but they kept trading.

COVID19 has caused the majority of theme parks across the globe to close entirely for months.

The situation isn't comparable.
 
WillPS said:
That's fine, if the business in question has substantial cash reserves and/or ability to scale down its expenses (workforce mostly) so that it can sit out the dry spell. If the business has commitments that can only be serviced with new orders, there's potentially a problem. I have no idea what the trading position of the major manufacturers is.



9/11 caused some American theme parks to close for one day. Gate levels were significantly down, but they kept trading.

COVID19 has caused the majority of theme parks across the globe to close entirely for months.

The situation isn't comparable.
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Merlin are the only UK based theme parks operator who would be able to add a major coaster to its parks. Now I doubt they will get any new coaster for around 5 years. You’ll see over the next few years parks obviously investing in flat rides or 2nd hand coasters. But for worldwide parks I guess no one knows really how this will affect them in the long run. Obviously some parks already have coasters on order so things like that won’t change. But in the long term investments it will be interested to see what comes about.
 
I think manufacturers will be fine, they can reduce most costs down to just rent and security as long as where they are have some ability to reduce the workforce.
 
Another thing to remember is that manufacturers will still have parts for existing installations that they can sell; parks will be needing those regardless of whether big new things are on hold!
 
Manufacturers of high cost, specialist projects rely on a steady stream of new projects to stay afloat.

I imagine like the big construction companies, if just one or two high cost projects went slightly skew in recent years, then these next few years of decreased demand could make a big successful supplier go bust.
 
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