Should Alton Towers Keep The Smiler?

[spacebum]

id like to hope that it won't be removed. as I still have to ride it.
hopefully what ever is needed to be done gets done efficiently and effectively.

 

[Jake]

I think it will stay shut for a while (at least the rest of the season) and then quietly reopen when the dust has settled. I'm secretly a big fan of the ride, music, brand etc so to me it would be a shame if it's all changed. Time will tell.

 

[Thekingin64]

I'm mostly with Jake here but I do also think an entire re-brand is on the cards, just to attempt to rid the ride of all its negative reputation from the crash and numerous breakdowns beforehand. For example, over recent years, my local village pub has closed down, reopened and closed down again numerous times in the past few years, leading people not to trust that it will stay open long enough to get the word out about it and hence have stopped going. Due to this, the current owners are in the process of completely refurbishing the pub and re-branding it with a new name. This is what I think might have to happen with the Smiler.

 

[Ayy Lmao]

They should scrap it and re build it to trick the gp.

 

[Treybleed]

I think a re-brand would be the best for it .. Shame though as i really liked the smilers theme.

 

[QueenOfSkyrush]

I think yes, there's nothing mechanically wrong with the ride.

I think it all comes down to PR. I may be a little bias, since I'm in Comm & PR, but still. I think the park could have handled the situation a bit better when the crash initially happened, like releasing an official press release, etc . I'm looking at this incident as a case study for a few of my classes, including Crisis Communications. We (it's a group project) are also suggesting a re-branding, and then marketing it as a brand new coaster (like what CP did with Rougarou). Since it's a new coaster, it wouldn't be as difficult to do a re-brand like it would be with a coaster that's been around for a while. As for the safety, again, more PR. They need to reassure their audiences and publics (including the media) that they've done everything possible to prevent anything like this from happening again. As long as the park doesn't get anymore bad PR and publicity, they should be ok.

 

[Hyde]

^ Indeed Alton did not get out in front of this one, nor provide any sense of transparency with their investigation - both of which would be musts for any regular crisis response strategy.

It's almost a tale of two parks - Cedar Point saw a crisis scenario with the guest who was struck and killed by Raptor. While this case was clearly the fault of the guest, CP still had to be sure to get the message out on its safety precautions and protocol for demarcating hazard areas. They also had a coaster-expert-witness-for-hire crop up trying to place blame on Cedar Point, requiring further finesse of getting CP's word out and tamping down as much controversy as possible.

From the onset, it was reasonably clear operator error was to blame. Given another go, I'd recommend Alton admit guilt sooner rather than later, and allow time for the story to dissipate, allowing for a nice, quiet reopening in 2016.

 

[cjbrandy]

^ Indeed Alton did not get out in front of this one, nor provide any sense of transparency with their investigation - both of which would be musts for any regular crisis response strategy.

It's almost a tale of two parks - Cedar Point saw a crisis scenario with the guest who was hit by Raptor. While this case was clearly the fault of the guest, CP still had to be sure to get the message out on its safety precautions and protocol for demarcating hazard areas. They also had a coaster-expert-witness-for-hire crop up trying to place blame on Cedar Point, requiring further finesse of getting CP's word out and tamping down as much controversy as possible.

From the onset, it was reasonably clear operator error was to blame. Given another go, I'd recommend Alton admit guilt sooner rather than later, and allow time for the story to dissipate, allowing for a nice, quiet reopening in 2016.

I agree, they should be screaming to the world that the accident was their fault- obviously not an ideal situation for any park but I reckon its better than leaving the GP to think the coaster itself was inherently unsafe and worse yet- that all coasters are dangerous. I've had people say to me "I won't be going to Alton Towers because their rides are dangerous and I want to keep my legs"

 

[mouse]

Now that Alton has issued some form of closure on the investigation I can't imagine we will hear anymore about this in the media, unless there are some disputes over compensation which I'm sure Merlin will be trying to avoid.
At this point I don't think rebranding is necessary, pretty much all of the attention has died down and by next season it will be largely forgotten. As long as there is a soft opening of the ride alongside the others I don't see the media picking it up, what would the headline be - 'theme Park re-opens ride that was proved to be safe'?
A rebranding will only bring more attention to the ride, and will probably cause accusations that Alton are trying to 'hide The Smiler's dangerous past' to visitors or something.

 

[Hixee]

As long as there is a soft opening of the ride alongside the others I don't see the media picking it up, what would the headline be - 'theme Park re-opens ride that was proved to be safe'?

I think we'll see a couple of "TEENAGE MAIMING COASTER REOPENS TO THE PUBLIC!" type **** when it does actually reopen, but I suspect that that will quickly fade. God help them if the coaster rolls back again though... :lol:

But yeah, I do agree with you. Most of the media attention has shifted off this now, so hopefully Alton can get things back together for a smooth start in 2016.