TowersTimes was first established more than 20 years ago as a website dedicated to covering the latest developments at Alton Towers Resort, as well as documenting its history. Since then, through the collective effort of many individuals who share a passion for the Resort, TowersTimes has evolved and expanded across multiple social media platforms, now producing a full suite of different types of content whilst the website receives over 450k views each year. We are driven by a desire to maintain a positive outlook and celebrate the best of Alton Towers Resort, both through our online presence and via the events we have held at the Resort since 2013.
Below we have set out our highlights from 2024 (so far)!
Nemesis Reborn opening
Social coverage – the opening day of Nemesis Reborn represented the most significant day of social media coverage in TowersTimes’ history with our posts across Facebook, X and Instagram achieving total reach in excess of 3 million; this was driven principally by Facebook where our three top performing posts reached audiences of 1.3m, 563k and 270k.
Community photo – to celebrate the reopening of this iconic roller coaster, we organised a community group photo in the same location where we had taken similar photos on Nemesis’ closing day in November 2022; this again saw a sizeable turnout, demonstrating the key role TowersTimes has established in the community.
Articles – following opening weekend we published two long-form articles: the first combined all of the images captured by our team with an overview of Nemesis Reborn and the wider Forbidden Valley transformation, and the second was a detailed ‘before and after’ deep-dive that showcased the technical changes arising from the track replacement project (this is something which we had the idea for back in 2022 and pre-emptively captured the required content).
Short-form videos – using content captured over opening weekend we created: an exciting off-ride comparison video (98k TikTok views, 40k Instagram plays) and a video highlighting the new zero-g smoke effect (27k TikTok views, 85k Facebook plays, 23k Instagram plays).
On-ride POV – we continued our collaboration with the Resort to safely film on-ride, with our POV now being the most viewed on YouTube at 239k views (plus a further 175k views on our side-by-side POV comparison); we also shared the POV on our social media platforms, achieving 162k TikTok views (plus a further 56k views on our horizon-levelled POV) and 44k Instagram plays.
High performing social media content
CBeebies Land Sensory Space – achieved mass international reach of 2.2m on Facebook, with an overwhelming positive reaction to the Resort’s latest accessibility initiative.
Bluey hotel rooms – achieved reach of 539k on Facebook, generating significant interest in the new additions to the CBeebies Land Hotel.
Early Ride Time returns – we were on-site for the start of the Summer holidays, achieving a reach of 255k on our Facebook post celebrating the return of this perk for hotel guests.
CBeebies Land 10 Years Celebration – achieved reach of 404k on our Facebook post covering the start of the event’s summer run, which also highlighted to our audience that it would run daily through to 1st September.
LadBaby’s Greg the Sausage Roll Takeover – achieved reach of 1.2m on Facebook upon the announcement, followed by 356k reach on our post covering the event on 16th August; although the reaction sentiment was mixed, our posts were written to be informative for those with a positive interest in visiting, rather than present an opinionated viewpoint.
2024 events
Tickets for Twisted Vengeance and Summer Festival sold out in less than 15 minutes of going on sale – with each having a capacity of 150 guests, our events bring a large number of the community together and provide a platform for key individuals at the Resort to engage directly with them. We believe events are one of the best examples of what can be achieved when we work collaboratively with the Resort, as reflected in the volume of positive feedback seen across social media.
