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Oakwood visitors numbers up 40% & new attractions

Ian

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Oakwood Theme Park is boosting its staff numbers after enjoying its busiest season in more than a decade in 2013.

The venue invested £4m in a series of features and the opening of its Peter Pan-themed Neverland area.

Visitor numbers were 40% up on the previous year and bosses are looking to recruit extra staff to continue to develop the park over the coming years.

Oakwood Theme Park’s Dominic Jones said: "We are aiming to employ around 35% more staff than we did last year.

"The success of last year has enabled us to recruit for more key positions at all levels of the business. We’re looking for a high calibre of staff that will also help us to deliver our ongoing investment programme for 2014.

"We plan to open a series of new attractions as well as continuing to improve and add to our existing facilities to deliver a high level of customer service across the park.

"This will not only require extra rides, catering and retail staff but also additional support staff in everything from cleaning and admissions to marketing and finance."

Detailed plans of the proposed new attractions will be released in the coming weeks.

The park, which re-opens to the public on April 11, is also planning to continue developing its close links to the local community and work together with other attractions and tourism groups to encourage more people to visit the area.

“Once again we plan to further strengthen our links with other tourism organisations to help promote this amazing part of Wales to a wider audience,” Mr Jones added.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/b ... se-6539802

We've been banging on and on for ages that lovely Oakwood is one of the most under-invested parks in the UK. They spend £4m in 2012-13 and BOOM! 40% increase in visitors. I don't know what the figures are (can't find them after a quick Google) but whatever, 40% is a massive increase.

And new attractions! Yay!
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
Hoping to pop my Oakwood cherry this year, I have seen from pictures it doesn't look like they do much, I thought I heard rumours of a new coaster for this season? Anyway, 40% higher visitor numbers is good for everyone...apart from the visitors. Good luck to them.
 

Robbie

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Jordanovichy said:
I thought I heard rumours of a new coaster for this season?
Yes, I think the idea was they were getting Camelot's Knightmare, but it's too knackered.
 

Mysterious Sue

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Re: Oakwood visitors numbers up 40% & new attractions

No, they're getting Camelot's old kiddy the Junior Dragon thing.

Anyway, well done Oakwood, good on them. Fingers crossed for something substantial soon. Or at the very least, some theming on Speed.
 

Robbie

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Mysterious Sue said:
No, they're getting Camelot's old kiddy the Junior Dragon thing.
They've got that already, haven't they? Rethemed to a crocodile for Neverland.
 

Mysterious Sue

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Re: Oakwood visitors numbers up 40% & new attractions

Yep, it's already installed.
You mean in addition?
Hadn't heard that rumour. I know Whirlwind is going to Skyline Park
 

EthC

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To my recollection Knightmare is still rusting away at Camelot although I could be wrong. I went on the kiddie dragon last year at oakwood it, was a shameless kiddie cred and I got stuck getting out but it was fun getting splashed on by skull rock half way through. As to new attractions which they said there would be now, it could be in the area where brer is unless they just re-theme it. Hopefully (although most unlikely) they will get something moderately thrilling seeming Drayton now have that air race. A guy can dream :D and also finish the inside of Skull rock. It's like they literally forgot to theme the second part of the indoor bit and is just a very lit up corrugated shed!
 

furie

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Ian said:
[ I don't know what the figures are (can't find them after a quick Google) but whatever, 40% is a massive increase.

It's 14 for 2013 ;)

insanecoastervids said:
that's quite a big increase. Now they need a new coaster like a Invert of some sort would be good.

No it wouldn't. Not for a park like Oakwood. There's not really the room without overcrowding the main park which would ruin it, unless it was dumped in a field and would look awful. It also doesn't really suit them at all. It's a very clear, "family thrill" park and I think it does that job better than most others in the UK do. It's a great place to spend the day as a family. Even better, it's the oddest place in the world that even there there doesn't seem to be much there, you'll still run out of time before you do everything you planed to do :lol:

Great news for them though, and I can't wait to get back there :)
 

Mysterious Sue

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EthC said:
It's like they literally forgot to theme the second part of the indoor bit and is just a very lit up corrugated shed!
I don't understand this about parks. Even if you have zero budget, all it takes is one weekend and some basic materials to embellish a ride. Poundland pirate effects and binbags are better than absolute zero effort.
 

furie

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I disagree. I think that no effort is better than half effort to be honest. No effort says "no budget, or we don't think it's at all important". Half effort says "unprofessional".

For me, it's do it properly, or don't do it at all. Or at least make a good effort at doing it properly...

Basically, if a visitor could do it themselves, then don't do it because they know how awful it is.
 

EthC

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Mysterious Sue said:
EthC said:
It's like they literally forgot to theme the second part of the indoor bit and is just a very lit up corrugated shed!
I don't understand this about parks. Even if you have zero budget, all it takes is one weekend and some basic materials to embellish a ride. Poundland pirate effects and binbags are better than absolute zero effort.

I'm not joking either here is the POV of it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ-dm9HSsrg[/youtube]

Hopefully this was rectified of the closed season. I agree with Furie though that the park is a family thrill one. Speed and Megafobia work their because of their low height restrictions (1.25m and 1.2m respectively) and I'm sure if any new coaster im sure it will be one with around the same height restriction. You can see how popular Bounce with its 1.4m restriction it barely ever gets a queue and when it does its because its either broke or its really slow with off loading. Something like a Maurer Spinner or a wild mouse or something like that would suit the park well I feel.
 

Mysterious Sue

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Alright, perhaps I was being a bit extreme with bin bags, but you don't need a million pounds to create something successful. Lock at what Crealy did with Mogwr. A few fishing nets and a lobster pot and I was hooked (if you excuse the pun). Or LWV and Raptor Attack. A few grand can go a long way if you know how.

Fundamentally, a good artist should be able to make something out of nothing, or they shouldn't be in the 'theme' park industry.
 

EthC

Mega Poster
Tbh i'm not saying it has to look like Splash Mountain but just cover up the corrugated metal and the bits where light is coming through and it would be awesome! It would make the inside more like a dark ride like they set it out to be.

Back on the subject of the 40% more visitors I think its figures when I last hear were at like 400,000 so 40% is a huge increase, 40% of 400,000 is 160,000 so 560,000 is a massive step up great on Oakwoods part, hopefully now they can invest in great family, maybe medium thrill attractions and the park will hopefully get even more people coming!
 

roomraider

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furie said:
Ian said:
No it wouldn't. Not for a park like Oakwood. There's not really the room without overcrowding the main park which would ruin it, unless it was dumped in a field and would look awful. It also doesn't really suit them at all. It's a very clear, "family thrill" park and I think it does that job better than most others in the UK do.

I disagree on the fact an Invert wouldn't suit. I think a Vekoma SFC or maybe even the new B&M version of would fit in perfectly.
 

furie

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I don't think that was the kind of Invert he was suggesting...

Anything "family" or "junior thrill" (so anything with height limits under 1.3M ) I think are a possible good fit - within reason.
 

Pierre

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I think the fact there has been a big lull in new attractions has caused such an increase also though.

Lets face it, if they had added these new attractions steadily over the last few seasons it wouldn't have had such an impact as it had last year.

Sometimes its better not to invest for a few years. Flamingo Land have consistently added mediocre attractions for years now and I live right in the middle of their catchment area - nobody was excited about Hero last year, nor the Star Flyer thingy the year previous...
 

Robbie

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Mysterious Sue said:
Yep, it's already installed.
You mean in addition?
Hadn't heard that rumour. I know Whirlwind is going to Skyline Park
Yeah, Whirlwind went to Skyline (and looks great) but someone from Camelot told me Knightmare was going to "another UK park further South" at around the time Oakwood said they were getting another coaster from a closed UK park. 2 + 2 = ?

EthC said:
To my recollection Knightmare is still rusting away at Camelot although I could be wrong.
But, yes, Knightmare is still rotting away in Lancashire. Apparently it's "difficult to sell" and even a move to Iran seems to have fallen through.

finish the inside of Skull rock. It's like they literally forgot to theme the second part of the indoor bit and is just a very lit up corrugated shed!
From that POV it does look almost there - could at least do with some large drapes across the top of the scenes. Wouldn't cost too much.
 
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