Good News And Bad News (PBB/BPB Entry Charge)

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Good News And Bad News (PBB/BPB Entry Charge)

Postby cliffc » 26 Feb 2008, 10:30

Hi All

I have just been reading the following from the BBC Web Site Blackpool Pleasure Beach was the number 1 tourist attraction with 5.5 Mlillion visitors last year proving that allthough not the numbers that it once attracted admittedey but 5.5 million people still go to the seaside and still enjoy the seaside fairground.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 264213.stm

Now for the bad news also from the BBC web site

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 248539.stm

It would seem the management at BPB just dont learn from there mistakes thay are going to introduce a £5 entry fee for the pleasure beach from 2009, ok this will include 3 rides, but thay saw what happend at southport when thay introduced a £2 charge to come in, In but a few short years I think Nick and all may be having to create a new Campain Save Blackpool Pleasure Beach. This story is also covered on BPB Guide website and forums http://www.tbppbguideforums.info/bpb/vi ... sc&start=0

Every one there is saying what i am saying here its the begining of the end for BPB

I would suggest any one who wants to still get in for free gets there this season while entrance is still free. I know I will not go in there any more once thay start chargeing a fiver and i dont think i will be alone.

Cliff C

P.S Please feel free to move this to another section if its too off topic

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Postby EAS » 26 Feb 2008, 20:09

It has been raised here also:

http://www.joylandbooks.co.uk/forum/vie ... php?t=1431

Scotsman today:

Published Date: 26 February 2008
Source: The Scotsman
Towering above the rest


Before low-cost airlines and the Costa Brava, there was Blackpool. With its seven miles of sandy beaches and the iconic tower (all 520ft of it), the Lancashire resort became the world's first mass-market seaside resort. By the early 1880s, it was attracting more than a million visitors a year, mostly working-class families taking their one precious week of holidays. For many Scots from the Central Belt, Blackpool was a little piece of heaven.
The rise of the package holiday abroad in the 1960s seemed to spell the end. Blackpool's image became faded, even a bit tatty. Who else but politicians would go there? But all that could be changing.

In recent years, the town has been investing heavily in both physical renovation of its buildings and in diversifying its visitor product. As a result, tourism numbers are booming – more than six million went last year, and bookings are rising. Now the UK Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has announced that Blackpool is back at the top of its list.

There is a lesson here for other British resorts, including old Scottish favourites such as Rothesay, which was a competitor to Blackpool in its heyday. People are thinking twice about clocking up air miles. If the traditional resorts make the right investments – as Blackpool has done – folk could soon be going "doon the water" again.



The full article contains 231 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.Last Updated: 25 February 2008 9:26 PM
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Postby Jim Douglas Jr. » 27 Feb 2008, 02:10

Hmmm.
Without exception, the larger parks here simply charge one entry price, and all attractions are covered. Most of the bigger parks here have lots of rides and lots of fun little hourly live shows and stuff.
Our big parks here are huge and you can easily spend 8-12 hours in them and not do everything. Never having been there, I don't know how big the place is or how it compares.

I think an entrance fee and then additional charges seem sort of weird and off-putting.
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Postby cliffc » 27 Feb 2008, 13:55

Jim Douglas Jr. wrote:Hmmm.
Without exception, the larger parks here simply charge one entry price, and all attractions are covered. Most of the bigger parks here have lots of rides and lots of fun little hourly live shows and stuff.
Our big parks here are huge and you can easily spend 8-12 hours in them and not do everything. Never having been there, I don't know how big the place is or how it compares.

I think an entrance fee and then additional charges seem sort of weird and off-putting.


Hi

Blackpool Pleasure Beach (BPB) is not a theme park its a sea side amusement park, much like coney island, allthough it is a large site with many rides check out there web site for more info Jim

http://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/

Thay are trying to sell it a theme park at the moment you have 2 methods to ride buy a wiistband and then you can ride as and when you like or free entry and you can buy tokens/tickets to pay as you ride the number of tickets to ride depends on the ride you want to go on. From 2009 as far as i can see you will pay £5 to enter the park this admittidly will include unlimited rides on 5 of the lesser rides for example the Noers Ark. If you then want to go on other rides you will still have to buy tickets or a wristband, there is no word yet as to if the £5 will be discounted from a wristband price if you decide to upgrade.Because of the seaside nature of BPB some people will just want to in look around and then thay may see a ride thay want to go on thay can buy tokens and away thay go, thay will not be able to do this from next year.



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Postby Zoidstar » 27 Feb 2008, 14:21

I cant see the charge for even going in to the park will last very long, think it will proove unpopular for those with large familys to have to pay to enter and then pay for the rides is a bit too much to ask.

Hopefully people will vote with thier feet. Sadly I dont think they will though.
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Postby furie » 28 Feb 2008, 09:44

'Apparently' visitor numbers to PBB have dropped, but wristband sales have increased.

If this is true, then you can understand the idea behind it. There's probably very little profit in 'foot trade', and they're losing more of that every year, but gaining more pay to play all day.

Of course, that was based on last year, with their 'new' ride. I'd not like to comment on whether this year will be as successful or not.

The cynic in me still says it's a great ploy for the excuse to sell off the Pleasure Beach. If it fails, the park loses money, they need to sell because the company doesn't have the funds needed to invest.

If it succeeds, well, it's the perfect time to sell, as the park is profitable, but the company has been suffering poorly for years and as a family business can't afford to invest - still, it's a good time to buy the beach.

cliffc wrote:In but a few short years I think Nick and all may be having to create a new Campain Save Blackpool Pleasure Beach.


I don't know if I'd bother actually. As EAS will go along with, we put in some effort to try and raise awareness of the delicate situation Blackpool is in. EAS especially was turned on by the Blackpool fans, and the place you'd expect the most support, was quite vitriolic in it's response to potential danger. It puts you off a fair amount...
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Postby Susan » 28 Feb 2008, 11:02

According to the news items in the NW visitors fell by 3% but it was still the most visited attraction in the country. Taking account of the poor summer it doesn't sound that bad.
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Postby kevinashe » 28 Feb 2008, 17:45

phil a lot of the comments to eas were unneccesary and were probably aimed at her because of her dealings with pleasureland.Most people who are for the charge are season ticket holders and it wont affect them whereas it restricts my entry to once in the week even though i spend more going in up to 3 times.Also its a bad time to announce a charge when parks like alton towers are giving 2 free tickets per family for collecting tokens in the sun,perhaps they are trying to take trade from other parks or are thinking that a family of 4 are more likely to go there if they get two tickets free and spend more once their in the park
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Postby paul69 » 28 Feb 2008, 19:26

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Postby EAS » 28 Feb 2008, 19:31

As EAS will go along with, we put in some effort to try and raise awareness of the delicate situation Blackpool is in. EAS especially was turned on by the Blackpool fans, and the place you'd expect the most support, was quite vitriolic in it's response to potential danger. It puts you off a fair amount...



We sure did, and as you say, had to put up with a great deal of vitriol.

The Nash etc etc - many of the supposed 'fans' of PBB thought demo was fine as long as Amanda and co kept on making a profit.

It's the same old story, whenever anything much is proposed as an important part of our national heritage, others say we are 'hindering progress'.

They seemed to think that forever and a day PBB will keep on building bigger, better rides.

Me, I think the site is being prepared for selling off for housing... and 'mixed use development'... it's worth a fortune. Hand wringing. inability to make it pay - we've heard it all before.

Watch this space, but nothing there will be listed as the Scenic was. The Casino is the only listed structure there, and will, I have no doubt at all, remain so.

Amanda Thompson won't care - she will have made her millions. And those 'fans' who think they need sunglasses to view her from behind will no doubt carry on thinking it was all for the best.

As at Pleasureland.

Ya can fool some folks all of the time.
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Postby paul69 » 28 Feb 2008, 19:52

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Postby EAS » 28 Feb 2008, 20:14

Rubbish - don't believe all you have been told. And that's from me. Who knows a thing or three.

AT deliberately ran the place down and creatively accounted it so she could flog it off and make millions from the site.

Spitefully and deliberately bulldozed Cyclone. Wrecked the site on leaving.
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Postby paul69 » 28 Feb 2008, 20:59

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Postby EAS » 28 Feb 2008, 21:21

But what has this to do with Dreamland? That now has a planning brief and a listed structure and cinema, and there is national guidance from EH on what is enabling development. It's not for the profit of the developer.

I'm very aware of garden grabbing too, but that's not got a lot to do with saving Dreamland.

But PBB is another matter, and I wouldn't trust the management an inch. If it suited AT to bulldoze the remaining woodies, she'd do it overnight. She has the legal right (dating back a century) to do whatever she wants within the site without planning permission. What's there is hers.

And there's nothing to stop her - as at Pleasureland. Which I and a handful of others worked our butts off to try to stop being flattened.
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Postby paul69 » 28 Feb 2008, 21:33

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