Resort Profile www.parkworld-online.com


By the 1990s however, both Blackpool and the Pleasure Beach began to feel the pinch experienced by the amusement industry worldwide. The annual 18 million resort-wide visitors during Blackpool’s glory years fell to the 13 million it welcomes today, as people discovered the lure of cheap overseas vacations. Plus, like Coney Island, Blackpool as a seaside resort had aged considerably and needed a facelift. Its hotels had become old and dusty, and in response Geoffrey Thompson opened, in 2003, Pleasure Beach’s 4-star family- friendly Big Blue Hotel. Its smart interior, designed by Geoffrey’s daughter Amanda, increased the park’s marketability as a family destination. Thompson’s vision for the Pleasure Beach and Blackpool appeared fruitful, but his sudden death in 2004, on the day of Amanda’s wedding, sent the park, and the town, reeling.


Fighting Talk Tough-as-nails, Amanda (now installed as managing director, with brother Nick as her deputy) did what she had to do. She doesn’t mince words, and as she told Business Week in February 2012: “Blackpool had been on the turn for many years and things were deteriorating within the town. I had one choice ... and I wasn’t going to sink. I’m a fighter.” In 2006, she closed the family’s other amusement park, Pleasureland, which stood on the coast just 15-miles or so south of Blackpool, in Southport. Pleasureland had been losing money for years, according to Thompson, and its closure was sad but necessary (travelling carnival rides now operate on the site under a different operator). Pleasureland’s TraumaTizer, a Suspended Looping Coaster by Vekoma, was moved to the Pleasure Beach and after an extensive refurbishment reopened as Infusion, replacing the log flume.


A general view of the Pleasue Beach, featuring Six Hiram Moxim’s Flying Machine


In 2009, Amanda closed the Pleasure Beach’s main gate and initiated


a pay-one-price admission, after years of free entry. She also cut back park’s operating hours. Where it was often open as late as midnight in summer season, it now closes between 5 and 8pm. “We had to change a lot of things,” Thompson told Business Week, “and it was difficult and a lot of people were upset. But everything had to change – the way we ran the company, how we operated as an amusement park. It all had to change. We had to work out a way to make the business viable for the future.” In turn, the Pleasure Beach’s new containment programme is thought to have benefited the 35-plus rides and attractions on Blackpool’s


OCTOBER 2012


41


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56