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Price increase again at Alton Towers!

This is a bit of a misnomer, since something like 90% of people use BOGOFs. So the real price for people who aren't morons has now risen to £22.50, which still isn't that bad. Europa for adults is €37.50 walk-up price, nearly £30.

The problem is, they've trapped themselves into a corner with the BOGOF thing. They just need to take the leap one year and quietly halve the entrance price and do away with BOGOFs.
 
They'd never do that as I'm guessing there's still a fair percentage of people paying full price (in fact the guy in front of me on Monday did!)

The argument "there are always BOGOFs around" is going to become pretty redundant soon as even with these vouchers that's an additional £2.70pp on 2011 prices which is quite substantial.
 
As STC said, not many people pay full whack. In fact, it's less than 5% at Merlin parks*.

£45 is disgusting for a day out a theme park imo, but seeing as >95% of people never pay it, it's a bit of a non-story.

Perhaps when it breaches the £50 mark it'll have a psychological effect, but until then, meh...

I guess the story is the amount of increases in such a short space of time.

*My own research last season, asking Thorpe Park and Chessington. Alton and Legoland refused to say, but I'd imagine it's the same.
 
Copying from a post I wrote on TST:

They're in an extremely difficult situation now with the BOGOFs. Because, their ideal situation is where everybody comes with a BOGOF. But the problem is, you have to have the £45 advertised price, and that brings them really rubbish publicity.

But the problem with doing away with BOGOFs and halving the price is that it's great advertising, because people think they're getting a great deal. Putting them in the papers is vastly more effective than normal advertising would be in its place if the price was reduced to £22.50.

My best idea for a way out: they change to a system where it's £22.50 if you book online and £27.50 if you don't. Therefore people still think they're somehow getting a good deal, almost everyone will book online and make it easier for the park to plan closing times, and they don't have an absurdly high advertised price to worry about. That's the best way out of this I can think of.
 
They really are getting stupid now, with the state of the climate now, the normal family will not be able to pay the prices, why did they have to give a thousand pounds away every day?
It's just getting stupid now, they can't justify it with short opening hours aswell.
I mean PortAventura is about 42euros on gate, but the park is open from 10 to midnight.
 
owenrita121 said:
They really are getting stupid now, with the state of the climate now, the normal family will not be able to pay the prices, why did they have to give a thousand pounds away every day?
It's just getting stupid now, they can't justify it with short opening hours aswell.
I mean PortAventura is about 42euros on gate, but the park is open from 10 to midnight.
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Do you want new rides or not? The climate hits parks too, and they sometimes need the extra money. Stop moaning!
 
^I do agree about the value for money though, having the parks open until 5pm is just ridiculous, it really isn't a whole day out. Since getting back from America it seems even more ludicrous how early British parks close, especially when they charge as much as they do.

Also, I know about the recession and blah de blah, but Merlin are the second most profitable theme park owning company in the world, the first being Disney, so I'm pretty sure they DO have money to spend.
 
The thing is, this is now the third price increase since the the park opened.... when is it going to stop?

I know the majority of people will have vouchers, but they do have exclusion dates on them.
 
Martyn B said:
when is it going to stop?
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When people stop paying it, is the answer to that. Unless there is MASSIVE uproar, as in, more than a few people moaning on Facebook, they'll increase the prices to what they get away with. A lot of people I know don't even check what the price is before they go, assume it's a certain price then get there, go 'oh my god' then pay anyway because, well you're there now, what're you going to do?

I also think it is a ploy to get people to invest in an annual pass.
 
Ethan said:
Do you want new rides or not? The climate hits parks too, and they sometimes need the extra money. Stop moaning!
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OK, now this really annoyed me.

The Merlin parks are bloody expensive, and they are getting progressively worse in terms of value for money, year in, year out. Parking charges, annual pass restrictions, gate price increases, cuts to attraction opening hours, exploiting high Fastrack prices etc.

I don't mind helping to fund worthwhile development at parks I visit, provided that I feel I'm getting value for it. With the Merlin parks I don't. I feel like I'm funding half assed developments intended to make a quick buck so that some people at Blackstone can get big pay cheques.

I didn't renew my annual pass this season. I've not been to Alton, Chessington or Legoland this year. I'm not going to Ghosterforce. I'm also not that bothered about going back to Merlin parks next year either, unless Alton's new attraction turns out to be something really good. I certainly don't intend to buy a Merlin pass next season.

Somebody at Merlin seems to have forgotten about this little concept called "value for money". Attendance is down this year, probably due to a wide variety of different factors (weather, olympics, the economy, the Euro exchange rate being reasonable etc.) - if you're running an expensive attraction and your numbers are down, jacking your prices up can end up being counter productive if enough people turn around and say "fair enough, we can't afford that/won't pay that, we're not going".

It looks like next year might be another one for visiting smaller parks and travelling abroad.

nadroJ said:
A lot of people I know don't even check what the price is before they go, assume it's a certain price then get there, go 'oh my god' then pay anyway because, well you're there now, what're you going to do?
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Probably. However, the important question that's probably been ignored by the MBA who sets the gate prices is "are these people going to come back again after getting that sort of shock?". If a lot of people subsequently decide that they can't afford to come back next season, it's not going to end well.
 
^THIS.

I also am not bothered if I don't go back to Alton this year as the place is full of chavs, overpriced and the rides arn't great really.
 
^^ Too long didn't read, but price doesn't really bother me that much. Yes opening hours are short, but i'm used to that. I leave most parks satisfied and thats what I care about! But I don't take back what I said earlier.
 
Agree with MouseAT. I barely see anything worth paying more than last year for, let alone paying more than last week. The Merlin parks, and especially the flagship one, need to start giving a bit more VFM

nadroJ said:
Also, I know about the recession and blah de blah, but Merlin are the second most profitable theme park owning company in the world, the first being Disney, so I'm pretty sure they DO have money to spend.
Click to expand...
They're the second-biggest in terms of income (due to having so many sites) but not necessarily second-most-profitable.
 
Problem is atm is that Towers is dead, and has been for the year really with only schools week being really busy...

The numbers just aren't coming this year, so naturally there are financial implications to the park, which they have initially tried to organise these potential monetary problems earlier through the various cuts they attempted (and subsequently u-turned on)...

These haven't worked, so what now? What would people on here do to improve cash flow? Extending the hours might seem a good idea but what about staff wages? Even an extra 30 minutes can cost a couple of grand to the park, and reducing entry prices might mean not reaching the required money goals required to make the park profitable...

And a profitable park means things can be improved, an unprofitable park means things get worse...
 
I completely agree that there are lots of 241's available but its things like this that made me laugh when the GP complained about the 5 quid entrance fee for 'non riders' to Blackpool when they all just said 'we won't be visiting there again if we have to pay a fiver to get in! Daylight robbery! We'll go to Alton Towers instead as its much cheaper and better value for money'. Hmmm - hate to think the price for a family who just turn up at the AT gate and end up paying for parking on top! God bless 'em ;-)

45 quid does seem a bit steep considering the opening hours, but with 241s its not that bad - we got on all the main rides in half a day this year hence no fast-pass necessary - a couple of years ago you'd have no chance doing that. I just think the price increase will put more people off going though in the current climate which is a shame.
 
It is getting quite expensive now. Even if you're only paying half the price.

We used to always get annual passes and did so for several years as they used to be great value for money. But now the prices have gone up and they've added loads of restrictions the value for money has gone and we haven't had annual passes for the last couple of years.

This year I've only been to Thorpe once to get The Swarm credit and I've had to wait all the way till Scarefest to go to Alton as I just can't afford to go more than once this year. It's a shame as I haven't been able to afford to go to any CF lives or meets in about 2 years.

It's not just the entry price either. There's transport, parking, food and drink and anything extra you want to buy like fastracks and merchandise.
 
I've pretty much skipped Merlin parks the last few seasons. I used to whore them to death, but I've not been to Thorpe in almost 3 seasons, went to Alton twice last year (one an unexpected trip, I must add), not been Chessington in almost 3 seasons too and always skip Legoland due to it's ludicrous pricing.

Merlin parks are just massively expensive, and I'm actually pleased to see the 'smaller' parks in the UK benefiting from it. LWV for example are brilliant in their social media whenever Merlin announces price rises of charges - very tongue in cheek. Drayton Manor have also had big TV ad campaigns the last few weeks for £20 entry. And good on them for doing so, I'd rather go to Drayton than Alton at the minute (never thought I'd say that) and they're both very close to me in Derby.
 
The BOGOF ploy is genius. It means they can increase the price astronomically, giving the illusion of a more quality experience that's SO good it's out of most people's reach. Then they flood the place with BOGOFs, which currently bring the cost down to a good value day out and, psychologically, that makes people happier than if the non discount cost had been the same as the discount cost.

Even if the price rises to £50, £25 for a day at Alton Towers is a value price. If it reaches £60 as a gate price, then from there it'll be a nope.

I agree with whoever said it's a ploy to get people to buy an annual pass. Definitely. Most of their money must come from food sales.

The more they can make it seem like they are being awesome to their guests by providing such an AMAZING (*cough*notreally*cough*) experience for so little money, the better off they will be.

If Ian's right, and only 5% of people actually pay the full entry cost, then wow. I didn't think it'd be THAT low. I wonder how many of those guests are odd ones out in family or friendship groups?
 
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