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Alton Towers Incident Causes Other Theme Parks to Rake It In

The recent incident at Alton Towers has meant other theme parks will be seeing a rise in profits this summer. Many people have been put off by the accident that happened on the 2nd June 2015. It’s thought that Merlin, the company that owns the theme park, could lose a huge amount of profits this year. Whereas other theme parks around the UK could see a slice of that pie instead.

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Alton Towers Incident

On the 2nd June, a terrible incident happened at the popular Alton Towers theme park. The Smiler roller coaster malfunctioned, causing a carriage full of people to collide into one that had stopped. The second carriage was empty, but still sixteen people were injured in the accident. One of them was a 17 year old woman named Leah Washington. She was on the ride with her boyfriend when the incident occurred. She was rushed into hospital due to a severe leg injury, but the doctors were unable to save her limb. She had to have it amputated not long after. She has since been pictured back home, enjoying her 18th birthday. Vicky Balch, another young woman on the ride, also had to have her leg amputated. All of those who were on the ride at the time have received their first compensation payment and will continue to be compensated for the accident. However, many people were shocked and appalled that this could happen in the first place.

Merlin’s Profits

The company have now reported that this incident could cost them up to £47 million in profits. The theme park was temporarily closed after the malfunctioning of the roller coaster. Not only that, but they stopped advertising Alton Towers for a short while as well. Rides in other Merlin owned parks were shut down, temporarily. This all happened at the beginning of what should have been a busy summer period for the theme park. Merlin now say that this could cost them a fortune in potential profits. Not least because many people are too frightened to attend Alton Towers.

Other Theme Parks in the UK

While this incident may have put adrenaline lovers off of Alton Towers. It hasn’t stopped people from attending theme parks altogether. It’s thought that other companies will now begin to rake in the profits that Alton Towers are losing out on. People are still going out to buy theme park tickets for their summer holidays. Particularly in some of the smaller parks, or those not owned by Merlin. The breakdown of a roller coaster certainly hasn’t put theme park lovers off from attending completely. It just seems as though there will be more caution as to which ones are visited this summer. This is good news for some of the lesser known attractions, despite it having come from a terrible accident.

One man’s loss is another man’s gain. This statement is something that many of the theme parks in the UK will be thinking about this summer. What happened at Alton Towers was truly terrible, but at least it hasn’t put the population off from getting their adrenaline fix.

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