Why does the South West of England lack major or semi-major theme parks?

[TedShatner10]

I wouldn't completely rule it out given the center parc there built a massive waterpark though annoying only for guests.

Centre Parc is still a fairly low key leisure park (outside the swimming area) and other elephants in the room are the similarly toned down Cheddar Gorge, Wookie Hole, and the Eden Project, those are the type of places that the local SW region and economy has been able to support.

And besides which the UK at large seems to struggle with maintaining a Efterling/Europa Park grade flagship themepark, when under Merlin's complacency through the 2010s, Alton Towers became too rough round the edges by 2019, Chessington is too old & small, and Thorpe Park looks soulless in comparison to when it was relatively new in the early 90s.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

The North East may have nothing semi-major now, but it used to have MetroLand.

Ocean Beach at South Shields is only 12 miles away from the centre of Newcastle and is easily accessible. I never went to Meteoland, as I moved to the North East the year after it closed, but I think that Ocean Beach is larger than Metroland was.

 

[Matt.GC]

Something I hadn't also thought of before some of the last few posts, there are actually tonnes of attractions around.

The West is crammed full. Slimbrigde, Bowood, Westonbirt, Longleat, Monkey World, Centre Parks, Cheddar Gorge and Caves, Wookie Hole (even has it's own hotel), Grand Pier, Brean, Butlins Minehead, Aquarius, Cricket St Thomas.

Devon and Cornwall, as counties are almost resorts in their own right in places. Even there you have The Edon Project, Crealy, Woodlands, Camel Creak, Digger Land (I must go there at some point, sounds awesome!), The BIG Sheep.

I'm sure I've missed most of them as well. That's not including some of the other stuff like traditional museums (Tank museum, Haynes Motor, Concorde, Fleet Air Arm etc), the landmarks (Stonehenge, SS Great Britain, Berkley Castle, Cotswold Waterpark etc) all the Cathedrals (Wells, Bristol, Salisbury, Gloucester, Exeter), traditional seaside/fishing towns (Weymouth, Poole, Torquay, Clevedon, Weston, Burnham, Minehead, Lyme Regis, Exmouth, Salcombe, Budleigh Salterton, Ilfracombe, Teignmouth, Bude, Newquay, Polperro, Looe, Penzance, St Ives), and national parks.

So perhaps there really isn't any need? There certainly isn't a shortage of leisure activities to do. It's easy when you live somewhere like this to just look at the coasters elsewhere and wonder why we can't have such nice things, whilst neglecting what's here on your doorstep. I'm guilty of taking these things for granted myself and forgetting they're here.

If you live or are holidaying in Devon and Cornwall, there really isn't much need for a theme park. In The West, the southerners can get to Chessington, Lego and Thorpe in 1.5 - 3 hours up the A303 and M3. Us northern lot can get to Towers in 2-3 hours via M5 and M6, Chessington, Lego, Thorpe, and Oakwood in slightly less time via the M4. Bedford is going to be a bit of a ball ache though.

 

[TedShatner10]

We got lots of attractions, holiday camps, zoos, parks, an amusement pier, estates, and museums, but no massive theme park with 'coasters, dark rides, and flatrides.

The closest candidates for theme park development were Longleat and Bowood, but again that window of opportunity for them to expand and become very much like a Drayton, Paultons or Chessington at least (or even an Altons at a push) for the West Country had elapsed by the turn of the Millennium....