"Disco Ball" wrote:Its a strange one.
A day-out at Alton Towers isn't cheap.
A weekend away at Alton Towers is anything but cheap.
The park should do well as another aggressive marketing campaign will bring lots more people in, but could Alton Towers be sacrificing gate receipts by getting more people in on vouchers but getting less money from them.
WDW last week has its busiest week ever, yet Disney have lost a lot of money in hotel promotions, so it won't have been the best week ever for profits.
I would think the smaller parks will see the benefit more than Alton Towers.
You can do Alton Towers on the cheap very well actually - using Tes co vouchers a park ticket can cost you just £8.50
There are numerous 50% off deals on the hotels.
I'd think they're profits however will still be up, they run the same 50% offers for a few years now so in the short term I think they'll definitley see an increase in profits this way- and of course once your in the park you're paying for food, drinks, ice creams, cuddly bears etc. Again the same with Disney, costs a fortune to eat on Disney property, then theres food in parks, drinks, and souvenirs.
Our family can't afford a big holiday very often so we often go to AT for 2 nights, and it works out as around £150 at most for rooms and tickets for a family of 6 (so 2 rooms)
Considering our recent trip to Orlando cost £800 in park tickets alone (and we didn't even do Disney in the end which would have more than doubled the cost,just the others) add on £3000+ for flights, then car hire, villa etc and the holiday cost well in excess of 5grand, now you see just how cheap Alton Towers is looking.
Also I wouldn't be so quick to say the smaller parks will grab so much more trade than AT - as we use Tesco vouchers for our tickets it's cheaper for us to go to a Merlin park such as AT or Thorpe. And although we live 2 1/2 hours aware AT is the closest park to our house!