Martin
TS Member
I think one of the ways both parks, but especially Alton, are failing is they really don't seem to use their locations to their advantage. Both exist in very different contexts and there's already discussion of what Blackpool should do elsewhere so I'll just focus on Towers.
Considering Towers location, you really wouldn't think it's in the middle of nowhere in the hills and forests because they don't do anything with it. There's a massive market for outdoors-y stuff, from the Centre Parks sort of thing, places like Go Ape, up to heavy duty stuff like Tough Mudder. What do Merlin do to compete? The pretty crap Treetops Quest. And what a missed opportunity these 'stargazing pods' are. How great they'd be if there was any actual effort to make them about seeing the clear night sky? And I don't meana three little telescopes from Argos plonked in the middle of them.
The challenge for Blackpool is they have to compete to get people to stay in the park, for Alton the challenge is just getting them there and getting them to stay. This drum has been banged so many times but there's no reason currently for people to do more than one day. Even if people stay over, the second day free/cheap offers are great but if people get their fill in one day many will be happy to save their spending money, beat the traffic and go straight home, especially if the park closed at 4 the day before and they've been bored since. There was a time when Towers aimed to have too much to do in one day to get people to stay or at least return, but now it seems they want to rely on queues being too big to do everything. It doesn't really seem to reflect how people visit theme parks. Even us lot mostly don't just go theme parks to hammer the rides, so why would non-enthusiasts? I suppose the logic is if you can only visit once or twice you'll put up with queues to get on everything, but surely in real life, if you can only go rarely, why would you spend the day bored in queues and stressing about if you'll be done in time? Wouldn't you rather just pick a few things you really want to do as a priority and anything extra is a bonus.
Without wishing to move that debate here, I think BPB would be better served integrating more into the rest of the town, but Alton should be building up massively. "If we build it they will come", and really push the idea that there's nothing like it in the country and that people don't have to go to DLP or PortAventura or Florida. I suppose if they did that though their other brands would suffer, and it's a bit of a catch 22, either foocus on Alton at the possible expense of the others, or treat them equally and homogenise them, but still expect the one in the middle of nowhere to be as succeful as the one just outside the capital. At the moment it seems they want to compromise and give parks money based on how muuch money they bring in, while pushing all the same in house branding all over them, and while in theory there's nothing wrong with that, Merlin are pretty bad at it. Towers has cultural capital few parks in the world can match, let alone in Britain, and it should be ran as the jewel in the Merlin crown that makes people want to visit their other properties.
The relentless 2-for-1s really need to stop, they cheapen the image and Towers just turns iinto background noise, I barely even notice the logo now because I'm so used to seeing it on like, bottles of cheap soap it almost looks like just part of the packaging. I don't have too many solutions to offer other than the last one I had; that Towers' unique place in the national consciousness, it's historical and cultural importance and contributions to both the nation and to the fields of history, entertainment, geography, architecture, horticulture etc, its tourist appeal and so on, should all be recognised and the resort nationalised and ran in the public interest as an asset we can't afford to lose, with profits either invested directly back in or paid out in dividends to smaller parks and attractions so the whole country benefits from it. I was only really half joking the first time round but the more time goes on the more I'm into the idea. Maybe it's not the answer but neither is Merlin.
Considering Towers location, you really wouldn't think it's in the middle of nowhere in the hills and forests because they don't do anything with it. There's a massive market for outdoors-y stuff, from the Centre Parks sort of thing, places like Go Ape, up to heavy duty stuff like Tough Mudder. What do Merlin do to compete? The pretty crap Treetops Quest. And what a missed opportunity these 'stargazing pods' are. How great they'd be if there was any actual effort to make them about seeing the clear night sky? And I don't meana three little telescopes from Argos plonked in the middle of them.
The challenge for Blackpool is they have to compete to get people to stay in the park, for Alton the challenge is just getting them there and getting them to stay. This drum has been banged so many times but there's no reason currently for people to do more than one day. Even if people stay over, the second day free/cheap offers are great but if people get their fill in one day many will be happy to save their spending money, beat the traffic and go straight home, especially if the park closed at 4 the day before and they've been bored since. There was a time when Towers aimed to have too much to do in one day to get people to stay or at least return, but now it seems they want to rely on queues being too big to do everything. It doesn't really seem to reflect how people visit theme parks. Even us lot mostly don't just go theme parks to hammer the rides, so why would non-enthusiasts? I suppose the logic is if you can only visit once or twice you'll put up with queues to get on everything, but surely in real life, if you can only go rarely, why would you spend the day bored in queues and stressing about if you'll be done in time? Wouldn't you rather just pick a few things you really want to do as a priority and anything extra is a bonus.
Without wishing to move that debate here, I think BPB would be better served integrating more into the rest of the town, but Alton should be building up massively. "If we build it they will come", and really push the idea that there's nothing like it in the country and that people don't have to go to DLP or PortAventura or Florida. I suppose if they did that though their other brands would suffer, and it's a bit of a catch 22, either foocus on Alton at the possible expense of the others, or treat them equally and homogenise them, but still expect the one in the middle of nowhere to be as succeful as the one just outside the capital. At the moment it seems they want to compromise and give parks money based on how muuch money they bring in, while pushing all the same in house branding all over them, and while in theory there's nothing wrong with that, Merlin are pretty bad at it. Towers has cultural capital few parks in the world can match, let alone in Britain, and it should be ran as the jewel in the Merlin crown that makes people want to visit their other properties.
The relentless 2-for-1s really need to stop, they cheapen the image and Towers just turns iinto background noise, I barely even notice the logo now because I'm so used to seeing it on like, bottles of cheap soap it almost looks like just part of the packaging. I don't have too many solutions to offer other than the last one I had; that Towers' unique place in the national consciousness, it's historical and cultural importance and contributions to both the nation and to the fields of history, entertainment, geography, architecture, horticulture etc, its tourist appeal and so on, should all be recognised and the resort nationalised and ran in the public interest as an asset we can't afford to lose, with profits either invested directly back in or paid out in dividends to smaller parks and attractions so the whole country benefits from it. I was only really half joking the first time round but the more time goes on the more I'm into the idea. Maybe it's not the answer but neither is Merlin.
