Alton Towers

Alton Towers, the most famous theme park of the UK, gets its name from a semi-ruined gothic country house on its site, north of the village of Alton in Staffordshire. The park attracted 2.5 million visitors in 2005. The theme park is home to several new rides or ’world’s firsts’: vertical drop roller coaster, Oblivion; as well as Nemesis (Europe's first inverted roller coaster, a roller coaster in which people hang with their legs dangling down or up depending on orientation from the floorless ride cars) and Air, the world’s first B&M flying rollercoaster.

A T theme park opened in 1980, and it was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1990. In 2005, Alton Towers was bought by the investment group Dubai International Capital (DIC) when it purchased Tussauds for £800million. The Tussauds Group was bought by Merlin Entertainments in March 2007 for over £1billion from DIC, placing Alton Towers under their control.

Also on site are two hotels ñ the Splash Landings Hotel and Alton Towers Hotel. The Splash Landings Hotel is a combination hotel and water park. The water park, Cariba Creek, is also open to the public. In 2007, near the Splash Landings Hotel, Alton Towers opened Extraordinary Golf, 2 nine-hole themed golf courses. As with Cariba Creek, this facility is aimed at the ticket purchasing general public as well as park and hotel guests. Alton Towers has a reputation of offering original and unique attractions to its guests.