Would the UK benefit from a lot less theme parks?
- Thread starter slappy mcguire
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slappy mcguire
Mega Poster
To be fair, wasn't that relative4ly successful, until Granada pulled the plug? Attendances, from memory were certainly over the million mark, until the spiral of underinvestment struck.
Enicomb said:
The North Doesn't need more theme parks, the existing ones barely gather enough attendees to warrant their own position, let alone a competitor. It would make far more sense for a company like merlin to acquire one and invest in it.
Mushroom
Goon of the Year
With the north of England, not many people know about the smaller parks, they only really know Blackpool and Alton. I have spoke to a couple of people from Yorkshire, and they haven't really heard of Lightwater Valley and Flamingo Land. If they have, they would prefer to travel to the better parks like Alton and Blackpool. Heck they don't know they had the longest coaster in the world (and still europe).
If Flamingo Land got big time into gear with something spectacular, like a major worlds first, then a lot of people would travel there to ride it. Yes I know they had the steepest coaster in the world. If someone could find out attendances for all the UK parks for the past couple of years, that would be helpful.
If Flamingo Land got big time into gear with something spectacular, like a major worlds first, then a lot of people would travel there to ride it. Yes I know they had the steepest coaster in the world. If someone could find out attendances for all the UK parks for the past couple of years, that would be helpful.
The biggest issue for Northern parks like Flamingoland is quite simply their location.
FL can be a three hour drive from Stafford. Now, it's fair that Alton is also a three hour (plus) drive from North Yorkshire and farther North. However, Alton is also three hours from London. Four hours from Norfolk, four hours from Cardiff, etc.
Even if Alton Towers was in Malton, gate figures would simply not be as high as Alton's because it makes the trip to the park a full day. While it can be a long way and a real trek to get to Alton, it's always just inside reasonable for one day.
Merlin aren't worried about their unholy trinity down south. They have a massive captive audience in London (which Alton also feeds off).
I think Drayton is very lucky to be alive so close to Alton. I think they invested just right, at just the right times to keep them afloat (which American Adventure failed to do, or simply couldn't).
I don't think the Unholy Trinity are competition for either Alton or Drayton, and certainly not FL or LWV. I don't even think Drayton is really competition for Alton, they're just the cheaper version, with enough to make them worth visiting (let's not get into which is actually the cheaper day otu based on bogoffs, food, etc
).
However, the presence of the other parks are all vital to the active competition. Flamingoland is unlikely to be stealing customers off Alton, but if it's getting all the roller coaster media attention by unveiling Europe's tallest, steepest, fastest and better than Boulder Dashist wooden coaster (hint, hint Nick) then Alton are caught on the back foot. They don't want people discussing other parks because it makes them forget about Alton. Likewise Thorpe...
So the competition keeps the parks from getting lazy. Flamingoland I suspect are in competition primarily with LWV and it could be argued that's pushed them to excel the way they have. It may not be much competition, and it's a bit like kicking sand in a baby's face, but it will encourage them. Likewise, if they can expand enough, they CAN compete with Alton by offering the dreaded "resort" option to visitors.
So no, the country wouldn't benefit from less parks. It would be rubbish. I don't think we need any more, but some of them certainly need to either get investment help, or better management in to bolster their national appeal. Come on Oakwood, get with it
FL can be a three hour drive from Stafford. Now, it's fair that Alton is also a three hour (plus) drive from North Yorkshire and farther North. However, Alton is also three hours from London. Four hours from Norfolk, four hours from Cardiff, etc.
Even if Alton Towers was in Malton, gate figures would simply not be as high as Alton's because it makes the trip to the park a full day. While it can be a long way and a real trek to get to Alton, it's always just inside reasonable for one day.
Merlin aren't worried about their unholy trinity down south. They have a massive captive audience in London (which Alton also feeds off).
I think Drayton is very lucky to be alive so close to Alton. I think they invested just right, at just the right times to keep them afloat (which American Adventure failed to do, or simply couldn't).
I don't think the Unholy Trinity are competition for either Alton or Drayton, and certainly not FL or LWV. I don't even think Drayton is really competition for Alton, they're just the cheaper version, with enough to make them worth visiting (let's not get into which is actually the cheaper day otu based on bogoffs, food, etc
).However, the presence of the other parks are all vital to the active competition. Flamingoland is unlikely to be stealing customers off Alton, but if it's getting all the roller coaster media attention by unveiling Europe's tallest, steepest, fastest and better than Boulder Dashist wooden coaster (hint, hint Nick) then Alton are caught on the back foot. They don't want people discussing other parks because it makes them forget about Alton. Likewise Thorpe...
So the competition keeps the parks from getting lazy. Flamingoland I suspect are in competition primarily with LWV and it could be argued that's pushed them to excel the way they have. It may not be much competition, and it's a bit like kicking sand in a baby's face, but it will encourage them. Likewise, if they can expand enough, they CAN compete with Alton by offering the dreaded "resort" option to visitors.
So no, the country wouldn't benefit from less parks. It would be rubbish. I don't think we need any more, but some of them certainly need to either get investment help, or better management in to bolster their national appeal. Come on Oakwood, get with it
Enicomb
Mega Poster
^^^ By far and away the problem with parks like Oakwood is their location; Oakwood is a particularly good example of this as it's an utter arse to get to, even by car. They could have the worlds biggest and fastest coaster and I still think they'd struggle because of the location; they really are miles from anywhere.
I was originally thinking someone more north west (more north than west) would be a good place for a major park (weather it be new or heavily invested in) simply because there are a lot of large cities in the area. But that just led on to the fact there's nothing really north than that and although north Scotland is sparse the south is not so much; Glasgow and Edinburgh being major cities that I'm thinking of and of course many Scots travel for Alton Towers. All this leads me to think a major park (with world class attractions) would do well in that area; parks like M&Ds and Loudoun don't cut it.
I think I've gotten widely off topic now so I'll just finish and say that less parks would be awful, and I think more major parks (preferably not run by Merlin) would be a great thing.
I was originally thinking someone more north west (more north than west) would be a good place for a major park (weather it be new or heavily invested in) simply because there are a lot of large cities in the area. But that just led on to the fact there's nothing really north than that and although north Scotland is sparse the south is not so much; Glasgow and Edinburgh being major cities that I'm thinking of and of course many Scots travel for Alton Towers. All this leads me to think a major park (with world class attractions) would do well in that area; parks like M&Ds and Loudoun don't cut it.
I think I've gotten widely off topic now so I'll just finish and say that less parks would be awful, and I think more major parks (preferably not run by Merlin) would be a great thing.
slappy mcguire
Mega Poster
Yes and no; Blackpool, and Flamingoland would take up to 5 hours to reach from London, Lightwater on the other hand is just off the A1, with the journey taking nearly an hour less, making it on paper as viable as a trip to Alton from the North East.furie said:
The older coaster freaks amongst us will remember when in the early eighties, Lightwater was seen in a similar light to the fledgeling Alton, with the Rat, and the Soopa Loopa, but perversely, the thing that made it famous is probably the thing that stopped it ever reaching the heights - the Ultimate.
The ride broke and bankrupted LWV, indeed they have only finally paid it of in more recent times, which has lead in turn to chronic underinvestment in the park, and frankly no real reason to visit. For it's location LWV under-performs massively at 300k visitors, nearly a million less than Flamingoland, which has probably the right number of visitors for it's location and ride selection.
For that reason, Merlin would be unlikely ever to acquire and develop Flamingoland, but a good case could be made for Lightwater.
I'd also argue that Drayton thrives precisely because of Alton, in the same way that Park Asterix has a symbiotic relationship with Disneyland Paris, playing to the younger and alternative audiences that the Larger parks pander to. Perversely, the thing that would probably help Flamingoland most, would be if Lightwater provided some genuine competition, rather than picking up the scraps.
furie said:slappy mcguire said:
Yeah, but you have to pass Alton to get there
Lightwater is not worth the trip though unless you are going to other parks as well.
From Southend it takes the same amount of time to get there as it does to Alton, Flamingoland takes hours longer.
We need a new park in Essex or Kent there is just nothing big round this way at all. Adventure Island is ok but we need a bigger theme park. Due to the M25 it can take us 3 hours on most runs to get to Thorpe.
slappy mcguire
Mega Poster
marc said:
That's the point I was trying to make; if LWV was comparable with something like Chessington, (and given it's starting point, that is possibly where it should be by now), then it's location should mean it is capable of a million plus visitors, but it's current collection of rides gives people little reason to travel there, if they have already experienced the Ultimate.
The last couple of years suggest a possible corner being turned, but it's hard to argue that without substantial investment, it will ever reach the level with it's size, natural beauty and location it should be capable of.
slappy mcguire
Mega Poster
Definitely, and the merchandise to. Apparently something of a focus this year, with the new pirate area getting a proper food venue. Even just a place to get proper chips would be welcome. The trouble is the park tends to try and cater for everyone in all places, rather than varying quality and price structures around the outlets, like the likes of the Merlin's do, and end up delivering what no-one actually wants...marc said: