Alton Towers has faced strong criticism over its latest marketing campaign which encourages adults to take time off work pretending to be ill in order to visit the theme park.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has slammed Alton Towers over various parts of the ‘I Hate Work’ campaign –including the website www.ihatework.co.uk which promotes discounted tickets.

The FSB also took issue with research commissioned and released by Alton Towers which found that a third of its adult visitors during the week were on unofficial work leave, while male skivers outnumbered females by two to one.

According to the FSB, year on year, absenteeism costs British businesses around £10bn and can have a disproportionate effect on small businesses if even one member of staff pulls a sickie.

David Bishop from the FSB commented: “We take issue with the Alton Towers campaign as we think it’s irresponsible and encourages absenteeism.

The campaign is clearly being supported – but they really don’t have to resort to this kind of marketing to get their message across.”

The FSB has also stated that, if Alton Towers does not take down the ‘I Hate Work’ website, it may consider taking its case to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Marketing manager of Alton Towers, Mike Lorimer, said: “We were actually quite surprised by the number of skivers we appear to have at the park.

“At the end of the day, though, they do all our other visitors a favour, especially families, by spreading visits more evenly and thus reducing queuing at peak times.

“It’s not up to us to reduce absenteeism, and if workers want to take advantage of the mid-week deals, why not?” Details: www.fsb.org.uk or www.ihatework.co.uk