Ticketing
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The days of a ticket being simply a piece of paper to allow access to an amusement park or attraction are long gone. Today’s ticketing systems provide guests with an extended array of services including cashless
payment, ride reservations, social media interaction and more. Crucially for attraction operators they also provide a lot of useful data as well as driving incremental revenue. And where just a few years ago we were having the “paper ticket Vs e-ticket” debate now, as technology takes hold, the question is more what kind of electronic tickets are your guests using? In this special feature, Park World talks to six ticketing suppliers to examine some of the current trends.
Our panel comprises OmniTicket’s John Davies (JD), Gateway Ticketing’s Scott Lobaugh (SL), Julie Acomb (JA) from Gatemasters Systems in the USA, Iqbal Mohammad (IM) from India’s Semnox Solutions and Stephanie Dieryckx (SD) from Syx Automations in Belgium.
Ticketing all the boxes
Why today’s ticketing systems offer more than just a ticket to ride
How do sales differ between traditional walk-up tickets and pre-booked e- tickets according to the size and location of the park? John Davies, OmniTicket Network – Larger parks in destinations with a high international visitor rates have more success in pre-selling tickets, both paper and electronic. These parks work with a variety of distribution channels and partners and can often achieve a higher advance sales volume than their walk-up volume. The smaller parks in a local or drive market still tend to have a higher volume of walk- ups, but their advance sales volume are growing. We see that online promotions or offers that reward advance purchases can help drive up the advance sales volume. Scott Lobaugh, Gateway Ticketing – We are seeing the percentage of pre-booked tickets increase, regardless of size and location of the park. Even more, we are seeing the number of pre-booked tickets on mobile device increase drastically. As well increasing overall online bookings, this helps guests avoid the ticket lines. A better guest experience, along with reduced ticket booth labour presents a
win-win scenario for park operators and visitors alike. Stephanie Dieryckx, Syx Automations – Pre-booked tickets offer many advantages both to the customer and the facility. Visitors often benefit from cheaper prices when buying in advance, while the park is guaranteed a financial commitment which can help it anticipate visitor numbers and plan accordingly in terms of staff, catering etc. Other benefits for the customer include fast track entry to the venue and being notified of special promotions etc before they leave home.
What are the most popular forms of e- ticket? SL – For us, print at home is the traditional leader, along with “print on web” – a barcoded ticket that appears directly in the browser window during check- out, allows the guest to get the ticket instantly as opposed to waiting for an e-mail with the PDF tickets attached. It also bypasses potential issues with print at home ticket emails being sent to spam folders. But by far and wide, mobile ticketing is quickly catching up and even by-passing these "traditional" forms of online ticket fulfilment. JD – An e-mail, print at home ticket still seems to be the most popular, especially since these can also be displayed on a mobile phone screen for scanning at the gate with a handheld scanner. SD – E-tickets are a great way for the park to communicate with the visitor in advance of the visit. This can include information about the park, discount vouchers or terms & conditions. Mobile tickets, however, often appeal only to certain target groups and require equipment to function properly both the mobile device and the on-site scanner.
OmniTicket’s interactive turnstile installation at Dollywood’s Splash Country 36
Is ticketing suited to an app-based model, and what products do you offer? JD – Yes, in fact OmniTicket’s iPhone app allows visitors to easily buy tickets and can be branded for a specific park or attraction. The app provides visitors with everything they need to plan their perfect experience from beginning to end. Before their arrival visitors can check park operating hours, map out what attractions they want to enjoy and find out current ride wait times. Visitors can also view special event and show information, make dining reservations in advance, get up to date weather information and more.
MARCH 2014
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