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What tier of theme park is Alton Towers?

What tier of theme park is Alton Towers?

  • Local park

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Low-end regional park

    Votes: 3 4.0%

  • Mid-end regional park

    Votes: 18 24.0%

  • High-end regional park

    Votes: 37 49.3%

  • Worldwide park

    Votes: 7 9.3%

  • Down the pan

    Votes: 10 13.3%
  • Total voters
    75
Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. I know this might seem like a slightly strange question, but I made this thread to ask; what tier of theme park is Alton Towers compared to others worldwide? If you're wondering what I mean by tier, many people use a tier system when describing the scale of a park in order to differentiate it from other parks. For example, one could describe Islands of Adventure as a worldwide park and M&D's as a local park. In my opinion, the tiers go in this order, from lowest to highest:
  • Local park. This category is for parks that are only really known/regarded locally e.g. M&D's, Brean Leisure Park, Codona's and others of that sort of scale.
  • Low-end regional park. This category is for parks that are slightly more well known/regarded in their respective country/region than local parks, but still not particularly well known/regarded e.g. Oakwood, Pleasurewood Hills, Lightwater Valley and others of that sort of scale.
  • Mid-end regional park. This category is for parks that are known/regarded throughout the majority of their respective country/region e.g. Chessington, Paultons and possibly Drayton Manor at a push.
  • High-end regional park. This category is for parks that are well known/regarded throughout their respective country/region e.g. Alton Towers, Legoland Windsor and Blackpool Pleasure Beach at a push.
  • Worldwide park. As the name suggests, this category is for parks that are well known/regarded on a worldwide basis e.g. anything owned by Disney or Universal and possibly Europa at a push.
I don't know about any of you, but I would personally call Alton Towers a high-end regional park, because if you talk to your average British person, they will probably have heard of Alton Towers, but if you talk to a non-enthusiast outside of Britain, they probably wouldn't know of Alton. But what do you guys think?
P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. Also, sorry if my tier system is completely and utterly flawed.
 
I guess 'High-end regional park' fits the bill, for those categories. Merlin's 'official' opinion is that all the RTP parks are National/regional destination theme parks which they define as:

National/regional destination theme parks target visitors from the surrounding area (generally a two hour drive but up to five hours), in some cases complemented by a limited number of international visitors from neighbouring countries. Merlin categorises national/regional destination theme parks as theme parks which typically attract between one and three million visitors annually and cost approximately £125 per daily visit for a family of four. Attractions tend to be themed experiences, typically attracting families and teens for one to three day visits. Retail merchandise, food and beverages and ancillary products are key secondary sources of revenue, and accommodation including on-site hotels are becoming more relevant to national/regional destination theme parks. In Europe, most theme parks can be categorised as national/regional destination theme parks. PortAventura in Spain, Efteling in the Netherlands and Europa Park in Germany are examples of European national/regional destination theme parks. Merlin’s European Theme Parks (including the LEGOLAND Parks) are examples of European national destination theme parks, although they do also receive a significant proportion of visitors from neighbouring regions. The Busch Gardens theme parks, in Florida and Virginia, are examples of national/regional destination theme parks in the United State
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Unfortunately not quite International-tier anymore. Clean up the park, reintroduce more filler rides, family offerings, and top-standard new developments (read: not relegating mega-budgets to roller coasters only), and bring back entertainments, and it could easily jump back up.
 
This is different to how I rank parks by tiers, but I agree that it's a high end regional park. In my rankings I do A to F (A being highest, F lowest), and Towers would rank around B and at worst C. For comparison with European parks, places like Parc Asterix, Liseberg, Walibi Holland are all B ranks, where as places like DLP, Europa Park, Efteling and Phantasialand are all A ranks.
 
I will be in a minority of one here, but in many ways I could make a case for worldwide park, but in the end, I'm going for high end regional park as the original poster, makes it clear that these ratings are based upon reputation, rather than attributes. Clearly a theme park in the middle of the Staffordshire countryside is not going to pull in visitors from all over the world.

I don't think even Disney or Universal can do that. They benefit from being near other tourist hotspots, world class beaches, internationally renowned jet set cities (sorry Stoke on Trent), warm climates, luxury hotels, casinos, beautiful bodies, celebrities, movie studios. Many of them even though in competition with each other benefit from being clustered. They also have a wealth of valuable IP's and get all manner of advertising in mainstream media including movies.

But in many ways AT is truly world class. I'd take the incredible vista of the towers themselves over any number of plastic and fibre glass Disney style castles. The gardens, though a little neglected under Merlin, I would regard as world class too.

When it comes to coasters, we have an enviable collection that any park in the world would be proud of. Most of them are pioneering, one of them has consistently been ranked amongst the best coasters in the world for 24 years (deservedly so). AT has a far better set of coasters than the Disney parks and as a set, they give Universal a run for their money. Fair enough Cedar Point is pretty unbeatable in this regard.

Hex is an example of how to take a standard flat ride and turn into a contender through atmosphere and the integration of local legends.

Music... For all their faults, Merlin use IMA score primarily... I think most of the music at AT is first class. Nemesis and Katanga Canyon are amazing.The Smiler music is irritating but it works.

Park entertainment is non existent and it here that Disney and Universal are on a whole other level. Personally, I'm there for the coasters, the ambience, the towers, the atmosphere, the gardens. I think these are all as good as anywhere.

I don't need some poor sod on minimum wage , sweltering under 90 degree heat in a half ton mouse costume to give me a forced "have a nice day" .

Guess I'm just too British... Now where did I put my string vest and knotted handkerchief?
 
Last edited:
Altonadvocate1 said:
I will be in a minority of one here, but in many ways I could make a case for worldwide park, but in the end, I'm going for high end regional park as the original poster, makes it clear that these ratings are based upon reputation, rather than attributes. Clearly a theme park in the middle of the Staffordshire countryside is not going to pull in visitors from all over the world.

I don't think even Disney or Universal can do that. They benefit from being near other tourist hotspots, world class beaches, internationally renowned jet set cities (sorry Stoke on Trent), warm climates, luxury hotels, casinos, beautiful bodies, celebrities, movie studios. Many of them even though in competition with each other benefit from being clustered. They also have a wealth of valuable IP's and get all manner of advertising in mainstream media including movies.

But in many ways AT is truly world class. I'd take the incredible vista of the towers themselves over any number of plastic and fibre glass Disney style castles. The gardens, though a little neglected under Merlin, I would regard as world class too.

When it comes to coasters, we have an enviable collection that any park in the world would be proud of. Most of them are pioneering, one of them has consistently been ranked amongst the best coasters in the world for 24 years (deservedly so). AT has a far better set of coasters than the Disney parks and as a set, they give Universal a run for their money. Fair enough Cedar Point is pretty unbeatable in this regard.

Hex is an example of how to take a standard flat ride and turn into a contender through atmosphere and the integration of local legends.

Music... For all their faults, Merlin use IMA score primarily... I think most of the music at AT is first class. Nemesis and Katanga Canyon are amazing.The Smiler music is irritating but it works.

Park entertainment is non existent and it here that Disney and Universal are on a whole other level. Personally, I'm there for the coasters, the ambience, the towers, the atmosphere, the gardens. I think these are all as good as anywhere.

I don't need some poor sod on minimum wage , sweltering under 90 degree heat in a half ton mouse costume to give me a forced "have a nice day" .

Guess I'm just too British... Now where did I put my string vest and knotted handkerchief?
Click to expand...
Oh and by the way... Mickey Mouse isn't real,,! :)

That said, I met SpongeBob SquarePants in Matlock once. How would I know it was really him?

For all I know, it could have been some bloke in a costume.
 
Altonadvocate1 said:
I will be in a minority of one here, but in many ways I could make a case for worldwide park, but in the end, I'm going for high end regional park as the original poster, makes it clear that these ratings are based upon reputation, rather than attributes. Clearly a theme park in the middle of the Staffordshire countryside is not going to pull in visitors from all over the world.

I don't think even Disney or Universal can do that. They benefit from being near other tourist hotspots, world class beaches, internationally renowned jet set cities (sorry Stoke on Trent), warm climates, luxury hotels, casinos, beautiful bodies, celebrities, movie studios. Many of them even though in competition with each other benefit from being clustered. They also have a wealth of valuable IP's and get all manner of advertising in mainstream media including movies.

But in many ways AT is truly world class. I'd take the incredible vista of the towers themselves over any number of plastic and fibre glass Disney style castles. The gardens, though a little neglected under Merlin, I would regard as world class too.

When it comes to coasters, we have an enviable collection that any park in the world would be proud of. Most of them are pioneering, one of them has consistently been ranked amongst the best coasters in the world for 24 years (deservedly so). AT has a far better set of coasters than the Disney parks and as a set, they give Universal a run for their money. Fair enough Cedar Point is pretty unbeatable in this regard.

Hex is an example of how to take a standard flat ride and turn into a contender through atmosphere and the integration of local legends.

Music... For all their faults, Merlin use IMA score primarily... I think most of the music at AT is first class. Nemesis and Katanga Canyon are amazing.The Smiler music is irritating but it works.

Park entertainment is non existent and it here that Disney and Universal are on a whole other level. Personally, I'm there for the coasters, the ambience, the towers, the atmosphere, the gardens. I think these are all as good as anywhere.

I don't need some poor sod on minimum wage , sweltering under 90 degree heat in a half ton mouse costume to give me a forced "have a nice day" .e

Guess I'm just too British... Now where did I put my string vest and knotted handkerchief?
Click to expand...
I completely agree with you as to why Alton Towers is world class, in my opinion. Even though IOA might have better theming, and Busch Gardens Tampa might have slightly better coasters, Alton Towers just has an atmosphere that has never been replicated at any other theme park, in my opinion, which is why it's my number 1 park!
 
I'd say Alton is definitely a High-End Regional Park. It's perhaps the only park that people travel to from across the UK, and undoubtedly the market leader. However, without getting too glib about it, I don't think it performs to the level of it's status at this moment in time.
 
PeteB said:
Distant past - worldwide park
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I don't think AT ever really was a proper worldwide park. A lot of coaster enthusiasts travelled (and still do) for Nemesis as it is a unique experience. Then to a degree they came for the world first of Oblivion.
But it was mainly coaster enthusiasts who came for the unique experiences. Its not the same as the worldwide draw of Universal, Disney (and to a smaller extent SeaWorld) where people go for the park and the individual experiences there are less relevant.
 
For all it’s faults, Towers is certainly a high-end theme park just on ride hardware alone. It’s poor management decisions and lack of investment in many key areas, combined with extortionate pricing, that keep it from being a true world-class theme park.
 
I've just changed my vote to local park. With the new staggered ride opening times etc only the locals can get value for money through multiple visits.
 
At the present Towers just scrapes the barrel of being a high-end regional park.

It has a top selection of coasters, many of which are highly regarded amongst being in some beautiful grounds. If it wasn’t for poor management it would be well and truly firm in the ground of high-end regional,but is being run like a low-end regional of late.

Towers may have been world class once (maybe 1994-2002), however the possible criteria for that milestone is a high quality-well rounded attraction with sufficient accommodation and entertainment. There must also be a slight but noticeable pull of international visitors on a yearly basis.

Disneyland Paris, Port Aventura, Europa Park and (at a push) Efteling are likely worldwide park’s whereas the likes of Liseberg, Asterix snd even Phantasialand are more realistically top notch high-end regionals.
 
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