On Friday 17 February 2023 Visitor Attraction and Resort Management (VARM) students attended Francis Jackson’s final strategy presentation. This event is always a much anticipated event by the students in their second year of study. However, this would be the last presentation by Francis Jackson, General Manager at Alton Towers Resort. This was an extraordinary opportunity for VARM students past and present to learn more about Alton Towers' strategic positioning and Merlin Entertainments product portfolio. From the global brands that Alton Towers has, ranging from LegoLand to CBeebies Land, to their own strengthened brands such as Wickerman and Smiler, Alton Towers has shown huge growth within the visitor attraction industry over the last 40+ years.
The talk entailed Francis’s journey and how he made opportunities happen, why short decisions are part of their long-term strategy and how we can better ourselves within the visitor attraction industry. Francis especially mentioned the 'five whys', detailing to students why strategic decisions are made, what impact they have on the business, employee culture and how to improve this in line with their strategy. This was all mentioned in addition to the impact of the pandemic on Merlin Entertainments streamlined strategy and the speed of implementation. At the end of the presentation, myself, Alex Parsons and Jake Price presented Francis with a hand-created piece of art drawn by Jake, on behalf of all years to commemorate the VARM partnership. From the current students of VARM we would collectively like to thank Francis for everything he has done at the resort and wish him all the best for the future. And we would especially like to thank Kirsty Holland and Tonia Barret for organising the event.
Written by Sophie Wood, Visitor Attraction and Resort Management student