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Travellers Day Scarefest

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pluk said:
The security they do have it place suggests they do know when the day is going to occur.

Not sure if that's in response to my comment? If so I mean Scarefest, not 'this day'.
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Doesn't it happen on a normal day in Easter too? That's not an event that can be cancelled.

It sounds like people responsible for causing trouble need to be banned from the park, but do Alton Towers actually have any way of identifying the perpetrators and enforcing a ban?
 
Can they not just ban the offenders. There must be a way of them knowing which individuals are causing the issue
 
I genuinely think the only way such appalling behaviour can be stopped is to refuse entry (I know they can’t) but if the behaviour of some of them has to come down more harshly on that culture then so be it. Homophobic abuse, spitting, pushing, kicking, fighting is NOT ok. Either that or take note of offenders and give them a permanent ban. As I’ve said, I know refusing entry is not realistic, but it would serve them right. I don’t like saying refuse entry because of culture, but I like what I’ve heard they were doing to people yesterday even less. Disgusting.
 
Danscott22 said:
I genuinely think the only way such appalling behaviour can be stopped is to refuse entry (I know they can’t) but if the behaviour of some of them has to come down more harshly on that culture then so be it. Homophobic abuse, spitting, pushing, kicking, fighting is NOT ok. Either that or take note of offenders and give them a permanent ban. As I’ve said, I know refusing entry is not realistic, but it would serve them right. I don’t like saying refuse entry because of culture, but I like what I’ve heard they were doing to people yesterday even less. Disgusting.
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It’s been covered multiple times why this is not legal/feasible/realistic. This is just going around in circles now.
 
Danscott22 said:
I genuinely think the only way such appalling behaviour can be stopped is to refuse entry (I know they can’t) but if the behaviour of some of them has to come down more harshly on that culture then so be it. Homophobic abuse, spitting, pushing, kicking, fighting is NOT ok. Either that or take note of offenders and give them a permanent ban. As I’ve said, I know refusing entry is not realistic, but it would serve them right. I don’t like saying refuse entry because of culture, but I like what I’ve heard they were doing to people yesterday even less. Disgusting.
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Not read this whole thread so might’ve been mentioned, but I can tell you now nobody can ban an entire group based on their culture, there’s multiple laws/legislation surrounding this most importantly the human rights act!

We all know young male travellers in large groups cause problems, but this is not and cannot be a solution.

Seems like Alton Towers know or can predict when these groups come to the park they should be getting extra staff in ie: G4S or other security firms are available.
 
Ethan said:
They should also inform the public which days they visit so guests can avoid the dates if they don't wish to be in that sort atmosphere. Not fair on families to turn up to this sort behaviour
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They would have to be very careful with something like that and how they word it, very easily cause a huge backlash.

They can’t exactly put “Traveller Day: stay away for your own safety”.
 
They could potentially add something like "We are expecting a particularly busy day..." to the scrolling info on the website, but then, the park still likely value ticket sales over guest satisfaction, so it's unlikely. Not to mention, the day is never officially 'confirmed'.
 
The worst of the behaviour seems to be in the queues. Mainly because there's no escape from the intimidation but also because of the queue jumping. In other areas, they're a pain in the arse but avoidable.

They should consider putting security in all of the queuelines, maybe at a halfway point. I'm sure I've seen this at Thorpe before on their equivalent days.
 
JoshM said:
Not read this whole thread so might’ve been mentioned, but I can tell you now nobody can ban an entire group based on their culture, there’s multiple laws/legislation surrounding this most importantly the human rights act!

We all know young male travellers in large groups cause problems, but this is not and cannot be a solution.

Seems like Alton Towers know or can predict when these groups come to the park they should be getting extra staff in ie: G4S or other security firms are available.
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Trust me, I’m well aware I’m a postgraduate law student, this is why I said I know you can’t. Their actions (and it does actually seem to be a majority case more so than minority) are completely inexcusable. Some action needs to be attempted to be taken at least, apparently they don’t realise that shouting homophobic and racist abuse is also discrimination. They wouldn’t like it if they were refused entry and would call it discrimination, yet they are very much participating in that kind of behaviour themselves. I don’t know what the solution is.
 
Perhaps a compromise would be to indicate “family friendly days” on the website? It wouldn’t directly address travellers or try and deter people from coming, but it could inform people of when these “family friendly days” occur and what changes happen on these days so that they can plan their visit accordingly.

There are certain changes on these days, such as no alcohol and increased security presence, that might put people off, and these are changes that can be indicated without directly referencing travellers. And let’s face it, most of those who care enough to check in advance know exactly what “family friendly day” means…

It’s a difficult one to tackle, in all honesty; the park have a very fine line to tread between equality and ensuring a pleasant experience for all, and to be honest, I’m not really sure what more they could do without crossing a line.

However, I do not personally feel that any kind of blanket ban on travellers is the solution. I’m sure that travellers are perfectly nice people who want a nice day out just like the rest of us, so why shouldn’t they be entitled to that? I get that these days do carry an increased risk of antisocial behaviour, but I don’t personally feel that tarnishing all travellers with the same brush is the ethical way forward in this day and age. Even putting aside the ethical argument; how on earth would you enforce it without resorting to stereotypes?
 
Matt N said:
Perhaps a compromise would be to indicate “family friendly days” on the website? It wouldn’t directly address travellers or try and deter people from coming, but it could inform people of when these “family friendly days” occur and what changes happen on these days so that they can plan their visit accordingly.

There are certain changes on these days, such as no alcohol and increased security presence, that might put people off, and these are changes that can be indicated without directly referencing travellers. And let’s face it, most of those who care enough to check in advance know exactly what “family friendly day” means…

It’s a difficult one to tackle, in all honesty; the park have a very fine line to tread between equality and ensuring a pleasant experience for all, and to be honest, I’m not really sure what more they could do without crossing a line.

However, I do not personally feel that any kind of blanket ban on travellers is the solution. I’m sure that travellers are perfectly nice people who want a nice day out just like the rest of us, so why shouldn’t they be entitled to that? I get that these days do carry an increased risk of antisocial behaviour, but I don’t personally feel that tarnishing all travellers with the same brush is the ethical way forward in this day and age. Even putting aside the ethical argument; how on earth would you enforce it without resorting to stereotypes?
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Surely your average visitor would assume 'family friendly day' is a positive thing and certainly wouldn't put them off visiting.

99.5% of people are completely unaware that these Traveller days exist. Branding it a "*wink wink nudge nudge* Family Freindly Day" doesn't give any indication that your day will be spent being terrorised by aggressive puddle drinkers.
 
The correct solution would be to identify those responsible for causing trouble and then ban them from all Merlin premises. However to do this would require a fairly significant effort to identity troublemakers and then provide a robust way of identifying them in future to exclude access.

The alternative is just to have sufficient security to police the event adequately but acknowledge this doesn't really solve the problem, just contain it. That may mean hiring in additional resource when required, possibly at short notice.

I understand why people want to know in advance when these days are but it's not something the park can publicise. Think about the implications of that. You are saying "People of protected characteristic X are in the park this day", with the suggestion you may want to avoid said group. How would it look if X was any other protected characteristic such as race, sexual orientation, disability etc? And why is that any different to X being the travelling community?
 
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