interview Ted Stimpson


pre-purchase their attraction visits, which is Stimpson’s other big obstacle. He calls it DOU – or Day of Uncertainty – the barrier to pre-purchase. “Three weeks ahead, you don’t know if your flight will be delayed, what the weather will do or if your kids will be sick. People are not willing to commit.” ffering more flexible pass options  as LPG is now doing – eliminates DOU, he argues. aving different product types is a key expansion tactic. The ondon ass, for example, is an all-inclusive product, offering more than 80 attractions. “When we asked how many they visited, 48% said three or less; that’s not an all-inclusive customer.” or the , Explorer ass now offers a choice of between three and 11 attractions from a range that can be more than 50, but at a much lower cost. Explorer has been a success since its launch in Europe early in 2018. It’s five times our budgeted volume expectations, timpson says.


Online opportunities Another boost to the sector is coming


from the Ts. Expedia’s Things To Do tab plays into LPG’s hands by raising awareness, as does TripAdvisor. “People are being educated, they will run into us either on these sites or Googling ‘things to do’.” Stimpson believes the OTAs are playing catch-up and blames them in part for the lack of awareness about the attraction pass industry. “I think historically the sector was left behind, primarily by the Ts. They offer the big-ticket items – air, hotel, car. Attractions are small commission and many were not wired up, so they left it.”


e cites the example of a paddle-


board operator in Hawaii, to which LPG is able to offer mobile ticketing and global earning opportunities. “We are wiring up the long tail attractions,” he says. In plain language, these are the niche products – such as paddle-board operators – normally overlooked in favour of the mainstream attractions. “They were left behind technologically and fragmented, but that’s all changing.” In terms of where LPG operates, Stimpson has attempted to broaden its mainly Europe and North America footprint since the three brands were merged, opening in Sydney, Hong Kong and Dubai, with plans for “two to three” cities a year. He names Macao, Singapore and Seoul on his hit list, and has already begun work in China, which presented challenges, as many attractions are government-owned, making sealing a commercial agreement difficult. “In Europe, it would take three months and cost $100,000, but in China we would struggle to get those relationships off the ground, so our approach is a partnership, timpson explains. LPG’s


partner is Ctrip, China’s largest online agency, which assembles LPG’s product there and also sells LPG’s Europe and North America passes under its own


Pic caption for here please


Dolphin Pass brand. Wherever and whichever way the


relationship is established, it’s a no-brainer for the attraction or the local tourism body, he believes. “They obviously give us a discount, but we bring them incremental customers from all over the world and spend tens of millions on marketing. “If you’re a free-sale attraction like a museum with no capacity constraints, the cost of that extra customer is virtually zero. We have over 1,000 attractions and in the last five years two have left. One came back.”


Marketing the world


In this digital age, another advantage is market intelligence. “Our customers are almost entirely purchasing online before they travel; 65% is on our own website, 30% from other sites and less than 5% is local purchase – 80%-plus is delivered via the app.” This has obvious data- harvesting benefits We know where they have come from, where they were before and where they go afterwards.” Ancillary sales are another obvious opportunity, given all this data. “The general rap against passes is they are low-yield, but if you can push clients through gift shops or cafes, you can up that,” adds Stimpson.


For the destination as a whole, there


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The company’s operations have expanded to Sydney


are also big wins, he stresses. “Their job is to market to the world and that’s exactly what we do. ew ork has a five boroughs’ strategy (to spread tourists). We have 80 attractions there, almost half of them off Manhattan. This is, he says, on trend with the local host-led, off-the- beaten-track’ Airbnb traveller generation. LPG also licenses its software to secondary cities whose tourism chiefs may want to offer a pass with less of a commercial motive. Gothenburg and Blackpool are among them but Stimpson says this is less than 10% of LPG’s business and not a big priority. For the future, it is the big cities that he has his eye on, with Exponent keen to maximise its investment. There is a lot to be getting on with, and Exponent’s clock is ticking. Given that private equity firms’ investment cycles are usually three to seven years, the investor must have an exit plan. timpson


says it will likely be “probably less than seven years” but says he has “a patient owner”. “The business is already 10 times the size it was when I started five years ago. o one is saying ‘we have to get to this level and then we sell’. I think very little about that – I’m just here to build the business.”


30 wtm insights winter 2018 wtm.com


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