What are the present problems with Alton Towers, in your opinion?

[RicketyCricket]

[QUOTE="Rojo, post: 341653, member:
Sure the crash and Covid have killed momentum but equally look at EP. Catastrophic fire, rebuild and they're still improve their offerings whilst AT is stagnating.[/QUOTE]

This is an interesting point. The boat ride at Europa Park burnt down and they immediately rebuilt a better version, plus threw in Snorri Touring. Towers boat ride was closed for 6 years and is now an upcharge.

 

[AT86]

I am no Merlin apologist, but the comparison between what happened with Smiler and what happened with Pirates at EP is perhaps unfair.

At Alton Towers the incident directly caused a significant fall in visitor numbers over a few years. The risk of investing big immediately was high since there was no guarantee that the guests they lost wanted to or would return.

At Europa there was no such risk, the fire did not result in fears from guests about safety and so they could more confidently invest quicker to bring the ride back.

 

[Matt.GC]

I've repeated for years that the crash only caused further degradation and is often used as a convenient excuse. This stuff was happening a good 15 years before the crash.

 

[Rojo]

I am no Merlin apologist, but the comparison between what happened with Smiler and what happened with Pirates at EP is perhaps unfair.

At Alton Towers the incident directly caused a significant fall in visitor numbers over a few years. The risk of investing big immediately was high since there was no guarantee that the guests they lost wanted to or would return.

At Europa there was no such risk, the fire did not result in fears from guests about safety and so they could more confidently invest quicker to bring the ride back.

That's a great point and my retort would be that no 2 incidents should ever be comparable and you have to look at the why the public response happened?

Merlin did a great job in the response to the crash but years of stretched resources and penny pinching meant AT slept walked into what was ultimately an avoidable crash. They then doubled down on budget cuts and reduced the hours which undervalued their product. Ultimately not helped by our over zealous H&S and a sensationalist media going for the jugglar.

I'm of the believe if TLC actively went into restoring areas of the park and didn't lead to the demise of Ripsaw, NS:T, Charlie, Flume, long-term hex closure etc... then the park could have been a better position today.

The 2015 Fireworks event was by far one of my favourite visits to the park and all 3 days proved that AT could still put on a great event that would pull a crowd. Equally they could have invested in 2016 but Capex was elsewhere in the portfolio, again hampering AT's recovery.

That's my hindsight view on it anyway.