Thanks to the generous partnership of Thorpe Park management team, MBA students were able to hear about the challenges of a quite remarkable business, which not only faces the typical challenges of a leisure business, a particularly wet summer, the 2012 Olympics, and competing for share of spend in a slow growing economic context, but one that also includes a special ecological considerations, operating as it does in a site surrounded by a wetlands wildlife sanctuary.
Thorpe Park is one of 93 attractions that form the Merlin Group, a global operator that currently lies second only to Disney. In close proximity to other Merlin Group attractions (Legoland and Chessington) the Thorpe Park mission is carefully targetted at the mercurial 16-24 age group. The Royal Holloway MBA group were given five real business questions to respond to after having been given the chance to visit the park 'behind the scenes' and fire questions at a panel of Thorpe Parks senior management.