Destination Restructuring Analysis: Black Pool and Thrope Park

This report delves into the concept of destination restructuring, using Black Pool and Thrope Park as case studies. It begins with an introduction to innovation in the service sector and its importance in achieving growth and competitive advantage. The main body of the report provides background information and insights into both destinations, including their historical development, current attractions, and ownership. It then analyzes the past and present states of the destinations, highlighting key developments and investments made over time. The report evaluates strategic changes relevant to the destinations, exploring innovation theories such as incremental, disruptive, architecture, and radical innovation, and how these theories could be applied to improve the destinations. Finally, the report suggests potential strategic changes that could lead to destination restructuring, recommending specific innovation strategies for each location to enhance competitiveness and attract more visitors. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations.

Individual Portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Background and insights..............................................................................................................1
Analysis of past and current state of the destinations..................................................................2
Evaluation of strategic change relevant to the destinations.........................................................3
Possible strategic change that could lead to destination restructuring.........................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Innovation in service sector can be defined as the generation of an idea which can help
the organisations to attain growth and competitive advantage in the industry. While planning to
generate higher profits it is very important to make sure that unique concepts are used by
business entities as it may result in higher number of customers. Present report is based upon
restructuring of destinations. For this purpose, two different places are selected which are Black
Pool and Thorpe Park. First one is a seaside resort in North West England and another is an
amusement pack located between towns such as Chertsey and Surry England. This report covers
various topics such as back ground of insights of these destinations, analysis of past and current
state of them, evaluation of strategic change relevant for them etc. Additionally, possible
strategic change that could lead to restructuring are also covered in this report.
MAIN BODY
Background and insights
Black Pool Resort: It is a sea side resort which is based in North West England. It is
also a town which is on the Irish Sea between two estuaries which are Wyre and Ribble. There
are various amazing attractions which attract end number of customers. These are Sea Life,
Pleasure Beach, Tower Eye and 4D experience, Madame Tussauds, Tower Dungeon and
Nickelodeon Land etc. All these insights are attracting large number of individuals towards it. It
is considered as one of the mostly visited tourist attracting in England. Slogan of it is See it, Feel
it, Love it. It is owned by Thompson Family and founded in year 1896. There are total 38
attractions in it from which 10 are the roller coasters and 5 are water rides (Background of Black
pool Resort, 2020). There are various records which are hold by it which includes largest number
of roller coasters in United Kingdom in an amusement park. It was the first resort in whole
Europe to introduce fully inverting steel coasters and the last resort that still uses it. Total area of
it is around 42 acres.
Thrope park resort: It is an amusement which is situated between two towns of
Chertsey and Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It was founded in year 1979 and its owner of
Merlin Entertainments. General manager and divisional director of it is Helen Bull. Total area of
it is around 490 acres. There are total 26 attractions from which 7 are the roller coasters and 4 are
the water rides. It is also a tourist attraction which provides hotel facility to all the visitors
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(Background of Thrope Park Resort, 2020). Some of its famous attractions are Port and Base
camp, Amity, Lost City, Swarm Island, Old Town, The Jungle, Angry Bird's Land, The Dock
Yard etc. Now it has grown as one of the famous theme parks of UK that are attracting large
number of visitors annually.
Analysis of past and current state of the destinations
Black Pool Resort: It was founded in year 1896 when the founder William Geroge Bean
failed in becoming an advertising agent. Right after returning to UK George opened two separate
amusement parks which are Yarmouth and Black pool. In past the area of it was very small and
in 1903 for the purpose of expanding it 30 acres of land Watson Estate was purchased. Currently
the total area of it is around 42 acres which is making it more attractive place for visitors. First
notable attraction was opened in Black pool resort in year 1904 which is a flying machine and it
is still in trend and attract large number of customers (Bridge, 2015). Another ride which is The
River Caves of the World was opened in 1905 and it is also available for clients currently so that
they can enjoy. With the passing time different investments were made to make it attractive. In
1994 Big One was opened in the resort which is considered as the most notable investments. It is
the fastest and tallest roller coaster in the world. The largest investment was made in Valhalla
which is a large indoor ride opened in year 2000.
The above discussion shows that past and current state of destination is very different
when it was introduced there were various attractive rides but with the passing time various
hilarious and adventures rides were introduced. For this purpose, notable and large investments
were made by the owners. Main aim of them is to attract large number of visitors so that higher
profits could be generated. Currently it is bordered by Bond Street, Clifton Drive, Burlington
Road West, Balmoral Road, Promenade etc. Now the park is split in three parts. First one of
North Park, Second is South Park and Third is Nickelodeon Land. On the other hand, the main
park is divided into different themed areas which are Heidi Strasse, The Watson Overpass, North
and South Entrance Plaza, Bean Street etc. There are no planning restrictions in Black pool resort
but the attractions which are over 200 feet in heigh have to meet all the crucial regulations of
Civil Aviation Authority (Dewhurst and Thwaites, 2014). Some of the regulations which are
currently fulfilled by it are placing which and red lights at the top of the ride etc.
Thrope park resort: It was opened in year 1979 by Ready Mixed Concrete Limited. In
year 1930 Thrope Park Estate saw that a land is converting in scratchy pit which was owned by
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RMC. In 1970s this part of the site was flooded by the organisation and a new exhibition park
and water leisure was created which was opened in 1979 currently known as Thrope Park Resort.
There were various new attractions were opened in it with the time. One of them is No Way Out
which was opened in 1996 and started to attract large number of individuals because of its
adventurous experience (Kane, 2016). With the time various other new attractions were also
opened in this resort. For example, in 2000 Tidal Wave, in 2002 Colossus, in 2003 Nemesis
Inferno and in 2006 Stealth were opened. All of them are attracting large number of tourists
because of the unique concept of them. According to the owners the targeted audience for them
are young adults, teenagers and the individuals who love to experience such rides which are
adventurous.
Currently a new announcement is made by Thrope park Resort that a new addition of
Live action black mirror will be opened on 27th March 2020 which will be a new attraction for it
(New ride of Thrope park Resort, 2020). In last few years some of the new rides are being
opened by it for the customers which were not available in past. These are Timber Tug Boat
(2017), Lumber Jump (2017), King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (2014), Rusk (2005) etc. All of
them were not available when it was established therefore it is enhancing current experience of
visitors.
Evaluation of strategic change relevant to the destinations
Strategic change can be defined as alteration in the business processes so that competitive
advantage in future could be enhanced. For all the organisations it is very important to make sure
that timely improvements are made within the business processes so that possibility of adverse
impact of environmental factors on operations could be reduced. In order to attain higher level of
competitiveness in the service industry different theories could be applied for same purpose
(O'Dell, 2016). Some of them which could be adopted by Black pool and Thrope Park Resorts
for bringing innovation of following the concept of restructuring are described below:
Incremental innovation: It is the most common theory of innovation which is used by
most of the organisations now a days in hospitality and tourism industry. In order to attain
success in low budget management of entities can use it effectively. It is mainly focused with the
use of existing technology which may result in higher value to the customers. While using it
enterprises make changes in features and design of the products or services that are delivered to
clients (Penrose2016). It could be used by Black pool and Thrope Park Resort for the purpose of
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bringing strategic change to attain competitive advantage (Different theories of innovation,
2020). The top level authority and the owners can plan to use existing rides in more specific
manner so that efficiency of organisation could be enhanced. It will help them to improve
profitability by investing very low amount in business.
Disruptive innovation: It is one of the most common and important theory of innovation
which was developed by Professor Clayton Christensen's in the book The Innovator's Dilemma.
This theory is mainly based upon the analysis of the reasons which may result in acquisition of
large companies by small entities. Disruptive innovation focuses upon introduction of a new and
unique offering in the market for a subset of market so that responses of customers could be
analysed to take further steps. In order to bring strategic change this theory could be used by
Thrope Park and Black pool Resort by using a new technology to enhance competitive advantage
(Phillips and Smith, 2014). For example, as Thrope Park is planning to introduce a new ride in
March 2020 therefore it can set lower price for the same to attract large number of customers. It
will be a disruptive innovation which will enhance its competitiveness in the tourism industry.
On the other hand, by making changes in the business processes this innovation can also be
brought within the operations.
Architecture innovation: This theory comprises upon the process of analysing skills and
technology which could be adopted by organisations and they can introduce them in a new
market. With the help of it, customer base could be enhanced as it results in large market share.
The level of risk in it is very low because it totally relay upon proven technology which will be
reintroduced in a new market segment. It is one of the effective theory which could be used by
Black Pool and Thrope park Resorts to bring strategic change because it helps to increase new
customers with the receptiveness of the market. By focusing upon it both the amusement parks
can introduce their services in a new country of city so that higher profits could be generated
(Sinclair, 2016).
Radical innovation: This theory of innovation is related to the launch of a new
technology in the market which creates higher level of competitive advantage. The risk involved
in it is very high because a new concept is introduced in the market and stability of it depends
upon customer adoption. This theory could be used by Thrope and Black Pool Resorts for the
purpose of bringing strategic change within the business. While using this theory these parks will
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be required to introduce a new technique in the market which will help them to attain
competitive advantage or restructure the resorts.
All the above described theories of innovation could be adopted by different destinations
for the purpose of going through restructuring. By applying one of them possibility of attaining
competitive advantage in the industry could be increased.
Possible strategic change that could lead to destination restructuring
Destination restructuring can be defined as the process of bringing changes in existing
stricture of a destination. Main purpose of it, is to attract large number of visitors so that
competitive advantage could be acquired. In order to bring possible strategic change different
theories could be used by Thrope and Black Pool Resorts. All the theories are incremental,
disruptive, radical and architecture innovations. The suggested theory which should be adopted
by Thrope Park Resort is Disruptive and for Black Pool it is Architecture (Snell, 2017).
Disruptive innovation is mainly focused with carrying out innovation in the process or
policies which are used by organisations to execute operational activities. By using it Thrope
Park will be able to attain competitive advantage in the industry as it helps to attract large
number of customers. With the help of it, the park can introduce its new ride on a lower price
from other entities within the market. It will be beneficial for it to attract large number of
audience and motivate them to experience the adventurous rides on lower price. It is the best
suitable theory that should be used by the amusement park so that large number of customers
could be attracted. Currently Thrope park Resort is planning to offer a new ride to the customers
which will be opened in March for the audience. By following the concept of disruptive
innovation it will be able to strengthen its market share. It will be beneficial for it to restructure
itself by bringing this strategic change in the policies.
Architecture innovation is mainly related to introducing skills and technology in a new
market so that large number of new customers could be attracted. This theory should be adopted
by Black pool resort as it will help it to restructure itself (Trowell, 2017). By using it the
organisation will be able to capture new market so that high level of competitiveness could be
acquired. This theory will guide the owners of resort to use existing skills and technology to
establish the amusement park in a new city. By paying attention towards this theory Black pool
will be able to expand the business in different locations which will be beneficial for it to capture
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larger market share. It will be the best suitable strategy for it to restructure itself and grow in the
industry.
From the above discussion it has been analysed that by paying attention towards
appropriate theories of innovation various destinations can bring strategic change in the structure
(Wright, 2018). If they are planning for restructuring then it is very important for them to make
sure that appropriate theory is used to bring change because ignorance of it may affect attainment
of goals.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that there are various destinations
around the world which are attracting large number of audiences from different locations. It is
very important for all of them to make sure that effective strategic changes are brought by them
in the structure for the purpose of restructuring. With the help of it, they will be able to attain
competitive advantage in the industry. There are various types of theories of innovations which
could be used for the purpose of bringing strategic changes. These are incremental, disruptive,
architecture and radical. Any one of them could be selected by entities according to the plans that
are formulated by them for attaining success in future.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bridge, M. G., 2015. Principles of English Commercial Law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Dewhurst, P. D. and Thwaites, E., 2014. Visitor attraction management. Entertainment
Management: Towards Best Practice, p.272.
Kane, J., 2016. The architecture of pleasure: British amusement parks 1900–1939. Routledge.
O'Dell, S. M., 2016. Post-war Tourism in the Tendring District and Beyond: The Rise of the
Holiday Caravan Park, c. 1938-1989 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex).
Penrose, B., 2016. Rinkagate: the rise and fall of Jeremy Thorpe. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Phillips, C. B. and Smith, J. H., 2014. Lancashire and Cheshire from AD1540. Routledge.
Sinclair, S., 2016. The Blackpool Rock: Guns, Gangs and Door Wars in Britain's Wildest Town.
Milo Books Ltd.
Snell, K. D., 2017. The Bibliography of Regional Fiction in Britain and Ireland. 1800–2000.
Routledge.
Trowell, I., 2017. From Battersea to Alton Towers: in search of the great British theme park.
In The Amusement Park (pp. 71-88). Routledge.
Wright, D. W. M., 2018. Terror park: A future theme park in 2100. Futures. 96. pp.1-22.
Online
Background of Black pool Resort. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/>
Background of Thrope Park Resort. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.thorpebreaks.co.uk/>
Different theories of innovation. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskillicorn/2017/07/15-most-important-
innovation-theories-your-company-should-be-using/>
New ride of Thrope park Resort. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-thorpe-park-reveals-black-mirror-inspired-
maze-20200228>.
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