Complete a survey about holidays – Merlin annual passes to be won!NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

With Christmas behind us and the start of the holiday booking season about to begin we’ve beenasked to speak to Mumsnetters about their holidays.

This survey is open to all UK Mumsnetters.

To complete the survey please click here.

Everyone who completes the survey and adds their details to the end will be entered into a prize

draw where:

One winner will receive a Premium UK Merlin Entertainments Annual Pass for a family of 4 (worth a value of £676).

Two winners will receive a UK Merlin Entertainments Annual Pass for a family of 4 (worth a value of £516)

The UK Merlin Annual Pass gives its holders access to 31 top attractions including: Alton Towers Resort, Chessington World of Adventures Resort, LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort, THORPE PARK Resort and The London Eye.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

[Madcatgirl]

Done. The survey is running slow on my iPad though.

[MsBug]

Done. Survey was more about VAT than holidays though!

[FourAndDone]

Done!

[Ladyface]

Done.

[Methe]

Done :)

[LLJ4]

I complained in my reply (sorry) but it's not a great survey - about as good as the first year undergraduate ones we get spammed with.

[grinch]

[poorbuthappy]

Done! But with a quizzical look on my face....

[QuintlessShadows]

Ok, I see what they are getting at, and I do not like the idea of that at all.

Merlin could cut their entrance fees in order to attract more visitors to their venues, as opposed to getting the country to scrap all vat on tourist attractions - wouldnt that mean the UK lose out on taxes from all the foreign holiday makers?

[ThreeQuartersEmpty]

What Quint said.
I'm actually a bit disappointed my MP has signed up for this, surely he has better things to be worrying about.

[junebaby2011]

Completed!

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Very Euro-centric.

Agree with Quint too - if tourist attractions or accommodation cut their ridiculous prices the VAT would come down too.

I can't imagine they would reduce the headline prices even if they were paying less VAT, anyway.

[CalamitouslyWrong]

You left out the 'I could not care less how the UK rate of VAT compares to the european average' there.

Honestly, this is an utterly pointless campaign. It is not the VAT that makes a UK holiday less attractive to people (both British citizens and people from abroad). Let's all just ignore the unreliable summer weather and pretend it's the difference in VAT that does it.

And I agree with Quint, Merlin could cut their own prices (or improve their offerings) if they wanted more visitors rather than expecting the treasury to take the hit for them. The legoland queue is always awash with people with half price vouchers and you still feel like you've been ripped off once you get in and spend the entire day in a queue looking at badly maintained railings for a 1 minute ride. Or sitting on the ground (because there are very few benches) watching your child play in the (very nice) playgrounds wondering why you didn't just dave your money and go to the park instead.

[Greencurtain]

I wouldn't support this, sorry to those who are campaigning.

The government needs to collect taxes to fund the massive outgoings it has. When I think of the cancer treatments my mum needs (and does not have government funding for due to postcode lottery), I cannot agree with cutting taxes on non essential things like attractions and accommodation.

I understand that the campaign would say that more revenue would be generated by this proposed cut in VAT but I completely disagree. Take Legoland - it's completely overcrowded and to get a chance of getting on many rides you need a Qbot device to jump ludicrous queues. Why would we cut taxes on Legoland entry - there are already too many people in there at the current cost so it makes no sense to reduce it by reducing taxation. Lots of decent attractions in the UK are similar.

We take a cheap package holiday to a place like Spain for the weather and beaches and attractions. You can't guarantee the UK weather - you could go to Cornwall for a week in August and it could piss down the whole time or you could have a glorious week. It's more "guaranteed" in the Mediterranean area. But even if you went in the glorious week, you could take a trip to the Eden project and not be able to move because of the volume of people! I just don't see a cut in VAT changing this.

Foreign tourists come to see famous stuff here. Eg Big Ben, Wimbledon etc. The streets of London are packed in summer and Wimbledon is sold out. It comes back to the same point about capacity! Reducing prices will not make extra space on the pavement or extra seats at Wimbledon.

There aren't many VAT reduced things and I think getting taxes reduced on something like this (accommodation/attractions) would open the flood gates for all sorts of other things trying to get a VAT reduction.

I also think the comparison with VAT rates in Europe is irrelevant. Different countries, different economies. You can't just suggest cherrypicking the most attractive elements of them.

[LLJ4]

The government needs to collect taxes to fund the massive outgoings it has. When I think of the cancer treatments my mum needs (and does not have government funding for due to postcode lottery), I cannot agree with cutting taxes on non essential things like attractions and accommodation.

Times a million.

and best wishes for your mum.

[QuintlessShadows]

I need to go back and verify whether MY MP is backing this, if so, I am going to pen my first ever letter to an MP!

The NHS is cutting left and right, the police force is cutting, and now Merlin is spearheading a campaign to cut VAT on tourist attractions, it beggars belief.....

I would turn it around and say Increase vat on theme-parks to fund the NHS!

[wannabestressfree]

Have we already done a VAT one recently? When talking about holidays?

[Aethelfleda]

Interesting.....

[jetSTAR]

done

[ldt87]

Done.

[pieceofpurplesky]

Done

[BackforGood]

Have to agree with everyone else - this is a survey about VAT, rather than holidays

Also, I particularly agree with Quint and others. I am very glad my MP has better things to do than support this. With all the cutbacks that have been made over the last 4 or 5 years, and those still to come, I cannot believe that anyone would consider it an important campaign to cut back on VAT for expensive days out

[Bisgetti]

Done

[amigababy]

done

[HelpMeGetOutOfHere]

If they reduce vat would we see a reduced price? I doubt it. The price would probably stay the same increasing the profit for the tourist industry.

[NotCitrus]

Taxes that mainly apply to tourists and those with money to spare are a good thing in my book.
Most Merlin attractions can scarcely deal with the number of visitors they have already!