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Dear TowersTimes Forum,
Thank you for the letter and accompanying comments sent to me recently.
In responding, I would like to take the opportunity to "set the record straight" in a number
of important areas. I do this in the spirit of recognising that the vast majority of you are
passionate about Alton Towers, and that for obvious reasons you can’t always know the
reasons why certain decisions are made.
Firstly and by the way of introduction, I would like to tell you a little about my own
association with the Towers. I joined Alton Towers in September 1990 as Marketing
Director following its acquisition by the Tussauds Group - It was love at first site. During
the next four years, I was privileged to work as part of a team that amongst other things,
launched the Haunted House (now Duel), the Runaway Mine Train and most notably
Nemesis in 1994. It was also during this period that we developed the advertising
campaign that still runs to this day and pushed through the approval for the Alton Towers
Hotel. In 1995, I left the Tussauds Group to become Managing Director of the company
that is now Merlin Entertainments. This company grew significantly and happily I was re-
connected with Alton Towers in 2007 when Merlin acquired the Tussauds Group.
This personal and business association with Alton Towers gives me a privileged and
perhaps unique knowledge of this very special attraction, and l think it would be useful to
share some top line observations that may help to explain certain decisions over the
years.
There are three significant business dynamics at work with Alton Towers-
1. The park is of such a scale that it needs to attract two markets, families and
teenagers/young adults in equal measure to be commercially successful. It
cannot depend on one alone as for example LEGOLAND does with families
with young children.
2. For similar reasons, the park needs to have a national reach, not just the
Midlands. However, to overcome travel time barriers from more distant
locations, a short break or resort message is essential (hence the hotels).
3. We are located in an area with severe planning restrictions which makes
adding new rides a long and expensive process. It also makes rides with any
kind of height impossible.
With these points in mind, the following is a top line history of Alton Towers from a business perspective;
- Early/mid 1980’s : Massive success as the Corkscrew and other rides enable
Alton Towers to "invent" the theme park market in the UK
- Late 1980’s to 1990/91 : difficult times as the then owner diverts profits to try
and start a new park at Battersea Power Station. Short term, second hand
thrill rides such as the Beast and Thunderlooper are introduced with
consequent, dramatic loss of families. In financial trouble Alton Towers is sold
to the Tussauds Group
- Early/mid 1990’s : success again as the 1992 relaunch brings back families
and Nemesis in 1994 takes the UK by storm. This is followed up by the
introduction of the Alton Towers Hotel and Oblivion
- Late 1990’s to 2006 : stagnating visitor attendance is not rescued by the odd
ride launch. Cost cutting removes shows and contributes to significant falls in
customer satisfaction. Family groups fall off again and the park loses its
national market
- 2007 : acquired by Merlin Entertainments together with other Tussauds
Group attractions
- 2008 to present : the resort is successfully relaunched to families via Mutiny
Bay and national marketing is re-introduced. Thi3teen (aimed at both family
and teen markets) is the most successful ride launch since Nemesis. On park
entertainment is re-introduced and focus on customer satisfaction drives this
to the highest levels ever. Programme of longer term investment in place
I am sorry that for reasons of confidentiality, l can’t give you the visitor numbers that
reflect the above, but a roller coaster would not be an unfair comparison! However, the
bottom line is that today Alton Towers is successful again not only in commercial terms
but most importantly of all, in customer satisfaction and national brand pre-eminence.
So with regard to two of your most heated comments;
1. Why is there nothing new this year?
If you observe Merlin, you will see that generally we put in a substantial new ride into our
theme parks every three or four years with intermediate investments in between. This
was the plan at Alton Towers for 2011 with a new family themed area to follow on from
Thi3teen. Unfortunately in December last year, the company we were working with pulled out at the last minute, leaving us with no time to organise a Plan B. What I can say is that rather than save the money we were going to spend this year, we now intend something a bit more special for next year (which I hope you will like!). This will be followed in 2013
by a major new ride which will be awesome in every sense of the word.
2. How could you put Fanta branding on Oblivion?
Following your comments, I recently walked through the entire Oblivion queue and ride
station area. There is no doubt that unlike the original Coke branding, this is not themed
as sensitively to the ride concept as it could have been. I cannot make any promises at
this stage as we have a contract with Coca Cola, but we are making efforts to see what
we can do to improve the situation. We take the integrity theming and "story”’ for our
rides and attractions very seriously, so please regard this as a one off which is not a
symptom of more to come.
I hope you can see from the length of this reply not only that we value your passion for
Alton Towers, but also that we share it. It holds a special place in my heart as it does for
Mark Fisher, (Managing Director of our Resort Theme Parks) who started working at
Alton Towers in 1985, as a costume character. The current resort management team
have an equally strong love of Alton Towers and I know of no—one in our industry more
committed to customer satisfaction than lan Crabbe.
So even though you won’t always agree with what we do, please at least give the benefit
of the doubt that we are doing it with the best motivations.
Thank you again for your comments and please be assured we listen to all views that
are constructively put to us.
Yours sincerely,
Nick Varney
