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While Blackpool might as well be pay one price, Drayton Manor has already gone POP.

Reportedly, once the park made this valiant move, visitor numbers dropped considerably, although it’s worth noting it was a quiet year for the park; G Force has since opened and won back many visitors.

Drayton Manor have resisted the urge to refine their entry policy of choice for quite some time. While many of Drayton Manors’ initiatives seem to follow Alton Towers as reliably as man’s best friend, even parks like Oakwood have offered pay-one-price entry for a considerable amount of time.

Along with the new ticketed entry, Drayton Manor’s entire entrance area was rebuilt with a row of ticket booths and a Tussauds-style covered turnstile plaza.

We asked Colin Bryan a while ago why they dared gamble on a pay one-price structure when the park had been operating the wristband scheme for so long.

“The new pay one price system has reduced theft dramatically, which was becoming an increasing problem.

“The old system was easy to cheat. Even though there are still teenagers who climb over fences, at least they can be ejected from the park now if they don’t have a valid ticket”

While people going against the spirit of wristbands sounded their death knell at Drayton, Brighton Pier had the opposite problem when they moved towards giving visitors the option to pay one price.

During a trial in early 2005 problems arose with people taking liberties on rides like the Dodgems where there is no discernable loading area meaning that a antisocial minority were riding over and over again and causing trouble when being asked to let other riders on.

In this form, the wristbands have never returned to Brighton Pier, and it does perhaps show just how many variables there are that should be taken into account when considering a change to the way rides are paid for.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that it has historically been the larger parks that have offered pay one price entry; while it’s unlikely that Brighton Pier would ever move towards paid entry, at least in our lifetimes, a wristband would have had a place on many a peoples’ wrists – rides like the Dodgems, the cramped layout of the pier and the limited capacity of rides like Booster mean that perhaps there’s no place for wristbands in some parks.

While you can’t put a price on the convenience of a wristband or pay-one-price entry, there are a few reasons why parks choose to go this route.

Firstly, in the case of Blackpool, they can accurately see trends within the park per visitor. Every visitor has a bar-coded wristband and has it scanned as they go through the turnstile of each ride.

Consequently, the park can accurately report on what rides are popular and at what time as well as getting a broad snapshot of visitors’ tastes – for example, if they ride the Big One whether they’re likely to be interested in Valhalla.

Information like this is priceless when it comes to running a theme park.

Another reason is the prestige that is associated with paying one price. Historically, large American-style theme parks have been pay-on-price, while pay-per-ride encompasses anything ranging from Pleasure Beach Blackpool to a grotty run-down seaside resort.

In fact, many fairs have used a pay-one-price entry system to help the case that they are not fairs, but in fact are ‘travelling theme parks’.

We’ve seen this before for Elliot Hall’s Winter Wonderland, Wilson’s Euro Fun Park and Funderworld. All three of these events market(ed) themselves as ‘travelling theme parks’, and capitalise on many of the facets that make a theme park a theme park, including what is the biggest departure for fairs; paid entry.

While paid entry makes the event more marketable, another reason is, apparently, security – having paid entry and a perimeter fence means that it is often more trouble that it’s worth for the more unsavoury clientele. Continues...