Alton Towers ‘starts to recover’ after 2015 Smiler crash
ALTON TOWERS has seen its trading performance start to recover after last year’s Smiler crash, but it remains “some way below” 2014.
The theme park’s owner, Merlin Entertainments, was fined £5m this week after a Health and Safety Executive prosecution into the incident in June 2015 which resulted in “life-changing” injuries to two people on the ride.
The impact of the crash, both reputationally and on the operation of the theme park, reduced income last year.
Nick Varney, Merlin Entertainments Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Resort Theme Parks Operating Group has seen an improved performance, with like for like revenue now showing year on year growth. Trading over the summer at Alton Towers has started to recover, although the absolute visitor volumes still remain some way below the 2014 level.”
Investments across the group, including 28 Knight’s Village lodges at Warwick Castle, helped drive overall revenue up 10.2% for the 38 weeks to September 17. Like-for-like performance was up 1.3%.
