The Welsh theme park which beats Alton Towers and Thorpe Park on value for money

A new study has revealed the UK’s best-value theme parks.

And for the owners of The Dinosaur Park in Tenby there was much to celebrate as the park ranked second in the best-value list, coming in above the likes of Alton Towers and Thorpe Park.

The research analysed 47 theme parks across the UK to determine which provides visitors with the best experience for the most affordable price.

The study examined various factors, including online ticket prices, number of rides and attractions, review ratings, and the number of good value-related terms in customer reviews to create an overall score out of 100 for each park. These results were then used to create a ranking of the best to worst value theme parks in the UK.

Adventure Island topped the rankings as the UK’s best value theme park, with a score of 65.00. The Southend-on-Sea park has a combination of affordable day tickets (£25.00) and annual passes (£40.00), plus a substantial offering of 33 rides. The park also performed well in value perception, with 22.10% of its Tripadvisor reviews mentioning “value,” one of the highest percentages in the study.

The Dinosaur Park in Tenby secured the second-best spot with a score of 60.61. The park offers day tickets at the low price of £18.95 and features 26 attractions despite having just 12 rides compared to other top-ranking parks. A significant 26.14% of its reviews mention the word “free” which indicates visitors appreciate complimentary features within the park.

Paultons Park in Romsey ranked third with a score of 60.59. While its day ticket price of £45.00 is relatively higher than many other parks, it achieved excellent review ratings of 4.55 out of 5 on Tripadvisor and 4.7 out of 5 on Google. The park offers an impressive 37 rides and 27 attractions to help justify the cost to visitors.

The Web Adventure Park in Wigginton placed fourth with a score of 60.14, with day tickets priced at a mere £12.50, the lowest among the top-ranked parks. The park has a decent balance of 11 rides and 15 attractions, and it also scored highly for value perception, with 21.03% of reviews mentioning “value” and 10.44% mentioning “cheap.”

Alton Towers Resort, one of the UK’s most famous theme parks, rounded out the top five with a score of 60.09. Despite charging £29.00 for day tickets, it has an average Google rating of 4.4 and a whopping 40 rides, the highest number in the study. Well-known rollercoasters such as The Smiler and Oblivion are extremely popular with adrenaline junkies, which helped secure its position as one of the best value parks.

The ever-popular Folly Farm park and zoo in Pembrokeshire came in at 10th in the list.

TOP 20 BEST VALUE UK THEME PARKS

A spokesperson commented on the findings:

“It is interesting to see that the best value theme parks aren’t necessarily the most well-known. The data clearly indicates that parks which offer an excellent combination of affordable pricing and many rides are better value compared to those with fewer rides and higher prices.

“Most well-known parks like Thorpe Park and Legoland Discovery Centre rank relatively poorly in overall value. This suggests that visitors may be paying a premium for the brand name rather than the actual experience, and as a result, are disappointed with the overall experience.

“For families looking for a great day out whilst out on a budget, considering smaller parks like The Web Adventure Park or The Dinosaur Park could offer better value than the more heavily advertised options. With day tickets under £20, these parks prove that a great day out doesn’t have to break the bank.”

Sources:
Tripadvisor
Google Reviews
Theme Park Websites
Methodology:

Tripadvisor was used to create a list of 283 theme parks based in the UK. Theme parks with fewer than 1,000 reviews and those that weren’t considered traditional theme parks were removed from the analysis. This left 47 theme parks in the final ranking.
Data was gathered for 11 factors to determine which theme parks offer the best value for money. Each factor and its corresponding weighting are listed below:

1. Tripadvisor Rating (8.0%)

2. Google Rating (8.0%)

3. Percentage of Tripadvisor Reviews including the term “bargain” (3.0%)

4. Percentage of Tripadvisor Reviews including the term “cheap” (3.0%)

5. Percentage of Tripadvisor Reviews including the term “deal” (3.0%)

6. Percentage of Tripadvisor Reviews including the term “free” (3.0%)

7. Percentage of Tripadvisor Reviews including the term “value” (3.0%)

8. Number of Rides (30.0%)

9. Number of Attractions (15.0%)

10. Day Ticket Price (15.0%)

11. Annual Pass Price (9.0%)

Each theme park was scored out of a maximum of 100 points based on these 11 factors. Theme parks that scored higher were considered better value for money.