The Information Technology Department
There was a promotional campaign called “tease and reveal”. This campaign included things such as television adverts, icons on campus television and on the Internet. There are promotions such as BOGOF “buy one get one free”, Tower two and Oblivion X-RT. Sponsorship Sponsorship can be defined as an organization or business that invests money into your business and receives advertisement and promotion in return. At Alton Towers Cadbury invested capital in the new ride Air. This was to promote their product Cadbury Hero’s.
Cadbury received a range of things for this investment including entertainment for the que line all of which was Cadbury branded, so that visitors were aware of the association integrated branding was on the back, branded signage, a Cadbury video wall and a Cadbury only pick and mix area. This was a television advertise which featured Cadbury, promotional literature and a website featuring the sponsor, another part of the theme park that was sponsored was the Rehydrator. This was a half subterranean Coca-Cola unit. 4) The Alton Towers Hotel During March in 1996 the Alton Towers first hotel was opened.
It was opened due to the fact that the theme park had now grown too big to experience the magic of the entire place in only one day. It cost 20 million pounds to build and it is unique with themed areas. There are 175 rooms, which can allow a total of 650 guests staying at the hotel. There are plenty of special things on offer inside the hotel that include conferences, family fun weeks, Christmas parties, corporate events and weddings. Some interesting details about the hotel include that the cleaning staff at the hotel vacuums over four miles of carpet, changes around 600 sheets, 1,400 pillowcases and 1. 350 towels.
Due to the success of the first hotel and the growth of the Alton Towers theme park, a new second hotel is in progress. It is set to open in the new season in 2003. 5) The Information Technology Department It is very important to Alton Towers that IT controls systems are used to operate rides at the theme park. There are two main systems, which are programmable logic controllers and photocells. These systems are all directed by a series of proximity switches. As the train follows the track path these act as sensors. If the ride is operating as usual then the distance between these sensors will take a certain amount of time to be reaches.
If the time taken to pass the first switch to the second switch does not match the set time then the ride will shut down and the train will stop on the track safely. The ride Oblivion is fitted with two programmable logic controllers that mirror each other. If they fail to match each other then the ride will; perform a shut down, this system is connected to a pc. Information that has been registered from a ride can be accessed through the pc and the fault can be easily found and fixed. The second system type is photocells. These are beams that are positioned from one side of the track to the other.
As the ride passes through, the beam is broken and the train’s position is detected. This system can stop two trains from colliding. There are regular checks to ensure that the rides operating correctly. The system controls the issue of spare parts; through recording the spare parts being used you are able to get a history of the rides for the future. The information technology department ensures that all the computer equipment works efficiently. 6) The Health and Safety department Health and safety is a vital issue to Alton Towers. It is important that all of the employees and the guests are kept safe.
They also have the law to take into account to comply with legislations that affect the employees and the guests’ health and safety. Alton Towers has to carefully follow acts of parliament, the regulations made under those acts of code and practice. There is a specific code of practice that the theme park must obey, HS(G)81 “fair grounds and amusement parks”. The regulations that are included are: Their operation, maintenance and how emergencies will be dealt with. There is many staff that has been hired to ensure that everybody in the theme park is kept safe.
There is around 30 security staff that is always monitoring the park during the day and night. They ensure that everybody is following the law and that everyone is safe. Height restrictions have been placed on rides to ensure that people are safe on the rides. A few of the restrictions include: Altogether there are around 125 rides at Alton Towers. Each ride is designed specifically for different ages for example there are thrill rides which are designed more for people who are teenagers and young adults and who want to experience the ultimate thrill. These rides include Nemesis and Oblivion.
There are also rides for younger children and families, which includes Toyland Tours and Runaway mine, train. The Alton Towers rides department looks after all of the rides. There are regular maintenance checks set up daily, monthly, weekly and annually. The rides departments are also in charge of checking the popularity of the rides to see if a ride is still attracting guests to the park. This is done through monitoring the size of ques and also through monitoring the amount of people who go on the ride. This is done as every time a person is clicked into a ride using a hand held device.
Using this they are able to see how many people are visiting the ride each hour. 9) The Shows Department The shows department is responsible for the everyday running of shows. They also need to look after the customers who visit each of the shows. Live shows are provided at Alton Towers so the shows department are responsible for the details that are involved in putting on the live performances including characters, costumes, street entertainment and other details that the shows departments are involved in are to design and maintain the shows, the uniforms and costumes but also the theme park must be kept clean.
10) The Technical Services Department The technical services department is an important area to Alton Towers. It is involved in the maintenance of rides, electrical equipment and machines. It is used to maintain rides at the Theme park. Regular maintenance checks are set up daily, weekly, monthly and annually, these are to check how the machinery is working. These checks also monitor and control the purchasing of new spare parts and the tracking of spare parts issued to rides. Through doing these maintenance checks the park is able to build up a ride history that will be useful in the future.
The way that peoples roles and positions are set up needs to be clear so that the employees can see where the level of authority is. An employee’s position can be clearly shown on a businesses organisation chart or diagram. The term ‘p of control’ can be used to determine an organisations structure. The term ‘p of control’ means the number of employees supervised directly by one person. There are usually less levels of authority when the p of control is broader and the business has a flat structure. For a company to have a tall structure it has a narrow p of control and there will be more levels of authority.
A hierarchical structure can show a business in terms of level of management. Alton Towers has a tall hierarchical structure, which means that there are any levels of authority. It shows the chain of demand within a business. The more levels there are effects how well the communication process works within a business. Matrix structures can be employed by a business or organisation. It uses project managers to manage specific projects. The project manager can help to plan a task and will then work with the team to ensure that the task is carried out.
Through having a project manager they can ensure that there is a good level of communication and the activities done can be co-ordinated. A business can also be centralised and decentralised. For a business to be centralised means, that the business is concentrated on under one control. This could mean that the one of the manager could decide at head office or tasks and jobs. For a business to be decentralised means for the business to be divided into different areas or sections, maybe with different management.
This means that the jobs, decisions and tasks could be split up into different areas and sections. They could be being told what to do by different managers. Structure At Alton Towers it is important that all of its objectives are met. Through the theme park having a hierarchical structure, aims and objectives can be met. There are many layers of management and a narrow p of control at the bottom of the hierarchical structure. This means that the employees at the bottom of the structure are given more empowerment and responsibility.
This added responsibility will help to motivate the staff and this will encourage them to have better standards with their work. All of this helps with fulfilling the objective “We will make Alton Towers a magical place to work by developing individual skills, personal responsibility and work that is fun and rewarding”. This also helps the business to perform well because the staff at the theme park will be more motivated and interested in the job that they are doing, this will encourage them to put more of an effort into their work and the job will get done more efficiently with a higher standard.
This will benefit the performance of the park because if the staff are doing such a good job then visitors to the theme park will be more happy with their visit and will want to return again and to tell their friends how good everything was. Alton Towers strongly believes in training up their staff as the staff towards the lower end of the hierarchy structure are skilled for their department, this gives them more responsibility.
Customer service is an essential part to any business being successful as the staffs are in contact with visitors to the theme park all the time and lasting impressions count. If the staff provides a good public image then it will help to build up the magical feeling which with the objective of “We will create magic for all our guests by exciting them and entertaining them with an experience which is unique and totally themed”. If the staff at the theme park have been fully trained up for the position that they work in then it can help with the performance of the theme park.
This will be because if the visitors to the theme park know that the staff are all fully trained up with qualifications then they will be impressed with the park and will believe that the park is of a high standard. If the guests know this then they will be happier with Alton Towers and they will want to return again and will tell people of this high standard. It also helps the performance of the park because it gives Alton Towers a repretation about their high quality an then it will attract more visitors.
