Expansion Recommendations for Alton Towers as a Tourist Attraction

This report discusses the expansion possibilities of Alton Towers as a tourist attraction and provides recommendations for its growth. It includes a SWOT analysis, findings on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and discusses the importance of visitor attractions in the UK tourism industry.

Contemporary Issues project

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Aim:........................................................................................................................................3
Tourist attraction....................................................................................................................3
Literature and Method......................................................................................................................3
Definition of Swot Analysis...................................................................................................3
Literature Review...................................................................................................................4
Methodology...........................................................................................................................4
Findings and Discussions.................................................................................................................5
Recommendations............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Tourist attraction can be referred to be a place which is of interest of tourist which a
number of people visit due to its inherent or natural or cultural as well as historical significance
of value. It is often seen that they have a built beauty naturally and also offer various leisure and
amusement to the visitors who visit such places (Chiou and Hsieh, 2020). It is important for
travel and tourism industry to attract customers to these certain attractions for their holiday or
visiting in order to run the economy and earn profit through it.
Aim:
” To provide recommendations for expansion of Alton towers as a tourist attraction”
Tourist attraction
In the following report a discussion on tourist attraction in Stafford Shire England Alton
Towers resort which is the theme park is discussed. This is situated near the village of Altron.
The park is run by a group of incorporates which is Merlin entertainments group. In the
following park there are theme park, water park, mini golf, hotel complex and spa [Online: Alton
Towers, 2020]. The following report discusses about various ways through which this tourist
attraction can increase visitors. Alton Towers was a private estate which was opened in 1860 to
raise funds. The theme park opens new rights from 1980. In 2017 it was the second most visited
theme park in United Kingdom. The theme Park acknowledges 2,100,000 visitors per year.
In the following report a discussion on swot analysis of the theme park is conducted in order
to understand what are the expansion possibilities of Alton Towers. The report consist of
literature review and the methodology used for completion of this report. After this there are
findings and discussions regarding the literature review which are discussed in this report.
Recommendations is provided for Hilton Towers in order to enhance their business and also
various uses of this research in future and the limitations regarding this research is also discussed
in the following report.
Literature and Method
Definition of Swot Analysis
Swot analysis is a tool which helps in understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats for a particular company or organisation. Swot analysis is an efficient tool which

helps in pointing out various situations in an organisation. In the following report swot analysis
can be useful in order to prepare detailed description of tourist attraction. It will help in
managing the vast amount of data regarding the tourist attraction Alton Towers which is been
used in this project. It will help to simplify things and understand the opportunities for the tourist
attraction [Online: Swot Analysis How to develop strategies for success,2020] . However swot
analysis can sometimes have negative impact such as oversimplification of the situations for an
organisation. They also provide lack of objectivity and some biases while conducting the
research. Also, while researching swot analysis may result in something which is limitless and
are also in initial stages. There is also no obligation for verification of the judgements passed out
during this analysis which can have negative impact on findings.
Literature Review
According to Alves, P., 2020, there are a number of importance of visitor attractions in
United Kingdom tourism which includes that the revenues from visitor attractions are brought
from overseas. It helps in stimulating the domestic tourism of country. It helps in supporting
regeneration areas of the country. It also contributes towards the local as well as national
economy as a whole. The promotion of cultural changes can be effectively done with the help of
visitor’s attraction. Conservation of historical monuments and places can also be done by
creating them as visitor attraction. The major purpose of an attraction is to make sure that the
consumers attention is grabbed at certain places and explode in order to form attractions for
holiday. There are basically four types of attraction which are namely purpose built, natural
attraction, event as attraction and heritage attraction. Alton Towers can be classified as a
purpose-built attraction which is for a leisure theme park. The purpose-built attractions are
attracting the visitors and they are purposely built to earn profits through them. It is the general
thinking of tourist that the purpose-built attractions will automatically bring them fun and are
designed for their convenience. In this way Alton Towers is a visitor attraction which have
various areas of expansion possible.
Methodology
There are a number of different types of methodologies which can be used by a researcher in
order to complete a research (Marcotte, 2020). The major to methodologies is primary and
secondary. Primary methodology consists of first 10 data which is collected by the researcher
itself. In the following research second hand data is used which is included under secondary

methods to conduct a research. In this the already present data in the market is used by the
researcher in order to draw recommendations and findings about the given topic. A number of
books, journals, online sites, webpages, newspaper articles are used to conduct the following
research.
Findings and Discussions
Strengths:
 Alton Towers is a great visitor attraction which appeals a number of people every year. It
is seen that there is greater range of age which Alton Tower targets which include
children, young adults as well as senior citizens. This is one of the major strengths of the
tourist attraction
 The marketing communication plan which is handled by the marketing team of Alton
tower is headed by specialist marketing agencies who have employed excellent marketing
strategies to market this tourist attraction. This provides great media impact to the theme
park attracting a number of customers.
 The brand name which is anchored by the tourist attraction is headed towards a rich
history. The quality of rides is also well known throughout the world. There are high-
quality facilities and products provided by the theme park which is one of its major
strength.
 The digital media communication done by the company through its web designed and
direct mobile ticketing provision is convenience for the customer to get easy access to all
the information about facilities and products which are provided by Alton Tower. This is
a great strength for the company in satisfying its consumers.
Weaknesses:
 The seasonality is highly affecting the forces of the company to be open only in particular
times during the year. During the rest of the time Alton Towers have to charge lower
prices which also result in lower profits as well as revenues for the tourist attraction.
 There or have also been some occurrence of accidents in the theme park which are
leading to words weakness in technical operations in the park. This is having an effect
upon alarming the customers who are thinking to visit the theme park.
 The location of theme park is also one of the weakness for the Alton Towers. It is located
in a rural location and this results to be difficult for customers to visit.

 When comparing the prices which are charged by Alton Towers to its competitors it is
often seen that they are expensive during the peak times. This is one of the weakness of
theme park.
Opportunities:
 Innovation is one of the greatest opportunity present with Alton Towers. They can
innovate more advanced and innovative services as well as products in order to have first-
time customers and also increase customer loyalty towards them.
 The company can effectively form collaboration with a number of different brands such
as Cadburys. This will help to enhance the brand image and also attract more visitors
towards the tourist attraction.
 A number of seasonal events can be invested in by the theme park in order to make sure
that they have consumers traffic throughout the year and do not have to face losses in
certain season.
 They can also invest in transportation system which will help them to facilitate the
transportation for consumers who are visiting the park through the surrounding towns.
Threats:
 There is increased possibility of technical faults in the theme park which is a major threat
as it can cause injuries to the visitors and may lead to legal lawsuits against Alton
Towers.
 A number of new innovations and development in the competing industries which are
major tourist attraction are undermining the performance of Alton Towers and resulting
in lower profits. There are a number of direct competitors for the theme parks such as
Thorpe park which is a major threat as it is introducing a number of new products and
services recently.
 There are also a number of different legal legislation is formed by government which
have a negative impact on the performance of theme park. This might relate to various
safety rules and health rules which may result in modification of different rights and
products in the theme park. This may require huge investment by the theme park and
prove to be a threat for them.
There are a number of possibility for expansion of Alton Towers theme park. It can
efficiently increase the number of services and product which it is providing to the customer and

become the first most visited theme park in United Kingdom. Along with it they can also
effectively set up their brand in different countries increasing their brand value and enhancing
their brand name. There are a number of people who are visiting such tourist attraction in order
to relax, have fun and enjoy their vacations. The tourist who travel around the world are
increasing and the tourism industry is also at its peak. There for the tourist attraction Alton
Towers have great opportunities for expansion which might bring revenues and profits for the
theme park in future.
Recommendations
Some of the recommendations on how Alton Towers should strategize their future moves in
order to expand their business are mentioned below:
 Alton Towers can work on their operational functions and increase the quality of their
technical stuff. This will help them to reduce the incidents and accidents which are
negatively impacting the image of theme park in the market.
 Company has a great opportunity of starting their transportation system which will help
the people from nearby towns to visit the theme park.
 They can effectively spend on digital media platforms and link up with different social
media influencers in order to communicate their products and services in the market
throughout the world.
This research can be used in future by Alton Towers to affectively bring in changes in the
organisation. It will help them in attracting more tourists towards them and increasing profits and
revenues. Using the recommendations they can effectively fulfil all the goals and objectives and
meet all the customer requirements.
There were some limitations while conducting the research which included no primary data
due to the current COVID-19 situation. Also due to lack of time not much information could be
gathered which resulted in limited recommendation and findings. Researcher could not contact
the staff and employs of Alton Towers which would provide a detailed description of operations
in the tourist attraction
Conclusion
With the help of above research, it can be concluded that tourist attraction is necessary for
tourism industry. It is required by government as well as private companies to make sure that

they are generating purpose-built tourist attraction as well as enhancing the historic tourist
attractions. These tourist attractions are a great way to boost up economy in a number of
countries. There is research conducted on Alton Towers which concludes that the company have
great opportunities for expansion in future. there are various areas such as transportation, digital
media, foreign countries and so on in which the tourist attraction can expand in order to make
sure that they are attracting a number of tourists towards them. With the help of the
recommendation provided in the above research Alton Towers can move towards their objective
and also increase the brand awareness of their theme park in the industry. This will help them in
satisfying their customers and also building core competitive strength in order to stay in the
market for a longer period of time.

References
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2020. “Alton Towers” Available from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Towers
Emarald Works, 2020, “Swot Analysis How to develop strategies for success” Available from:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm
Song, H. and et. al., 2020. Impact of accommodation sharing on tourist attractions. Annals of
Tourism Research, 80, p.102820.
Chiou, Y.C. and Hsieh, C.W., 2020. Determinants of tourists’ length of stay at various tourist
attractions based on cellular data. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science, 16(3),
pp.716-733.
Marcotte, J.E., 2020. Security for Secondary Research-Data.
Alves, P. and et. al., 2020, July. Modeling Tourists' Personality in Recommender Systems: How
Does Personality Influence Preferences for Tourist Attractions?. In Proceedings of the
28th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 4-13).