Marketing teams win massively with advance online ticketing, as they have access to the purchasers contact data allowing them to analyse visitors and to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

They can also follow up with surveys after the visit to measure customer satisfaction, as well as communicate with those customers in the future to advertise upcoming events.

Analysing the data generated through advance sales also gives a better understanding of customer behaviour, highlighting popular and quieter periods, so the operator can design promotions to drive visits on less busy days.

Our customers have found that when tickets have been purchased in advance, people tend to forget about the money spent and are then more inclined to spend more money on the day of visit, leading to increased levels of secondary spend, or even trading up to an annual pass.

Advance ticketing also allows operators to sell tickets to limited capacity or timed attractions and events, as well as selling passport tickets which can allow different levels of attraction access.

Payment card industry compliance is probably the single largest barrier which visitor attractions will face over the coming year, as achieving auditable compliance is a time-consuming and expensive task for any attraction.  

It used to be that an online store was considered a bonus. Now it’s table stakes to be in the game. To be competitive in the attractions market, you have to sell online. What we see with our customers is that when they launch their online store, the sales ramp up, then level off or steadily increase over time.

People have a much higher propensity to buy tickets in advance and the easier you can make that process for them, the more they will buy. It’s important to note that advance selling doesn’t mean necessarily buying tickets at home either. You can use it as an effective strategy to shorten lines. If people are waiting in line and see that they can buy tickets on their phones, they can skip the lines and have a better experience and, better yet, not get discouraged and leave.

The design and feel of the online store is important. Empire State Building does a great job with advance ticketing. Their website and online store tie together nicely and you get a really good feel for them as an organisation and what the experience would be like if you go there. Consequently, they have robust online sales. The better the online presence an attraction has, the more appealing the facility feels and the more likely people will make a purchase.

Capitalising on advance ticketing really involves testing what works for your consumer base. For theme parks in general, most studies have found that Mum makes the purchase decision. Mum is the one doing the research, looking at pricing and planning the vacation. So tailoring your website to appeal to her when she’s doing her shopping is important and makes a difference in the conversion. Appeal to her by highlighting the things available for kids and families, and that your attraction is a safe place to be, rather than the wild, action thrill rides you have.

Point Defiance Zoo, the Warner Bros Studio Tour – the Making of Harry Potter and KidZania London are examples of our customers who offer advance ticketing.

Advance ticketing offers an exceptional opportunity for operators. Across our portfolio of clients we see attractions selling between 20 to 40 per cent of their total tickets through eCommerce. Within that percentage we’re seeing huge shifts in purchase behaviour.

In 2012, mobile ticket sales were only 2 to 3 per cent of our total online sales volume. Three years later and we’re quickly approaching a “mobile majority” where anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent of online ticket sales come from mobile devices.

This shift in purchase behaviour is overwhelming evidence that an attraction’s website needs to deliver the content appropriately on whatever device a guest is using, and provide an easy way to purchase when, where and how they want to buy.

The more guests buy tickets online, the more other items guests buy online. If an attraction is fully leveraging its eCommerce and mCommerce sales channels, the number of overall guests who purchase tickets online in advance will increase dramatically. If the online store is easy to use, guests buy more than just their ticket: they’ll buy parking, meals and more, helping to increase the overall spend per cap. 

A recent example is Accesso’s deployment of the Passport ticketing suite at the One World Observatory, providing convenient access to advance ticket sales through desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices and offering flexible solutions that keep pace with ever- changing consumer buying behaviours.

Advance tickets sales allow those who have purchased tickets in advance to be fast-tracked at the point of entry, which reduces queue times. The advance ticket data can be used to forecast daily admission numbers and accurately predict staffing requirements, which means the attraction can save money on staffing costs by cutting down on the number of admission desks they have to open.

However, in order to make the most of these advantages, it is important that the visitor doesn’t need to go to the admissions point on the day of the visit to collect tickets. This can be achieved by emailing them the ticket to print out at home, or using self-service kiosks or mobile handsets for ticket collection.

In the future, emailing directly to wallet applications on smartphones and iWatches will become more popular, further streamlining the transaction for both the operator and customer.

Cashflow can be improved by using advance ticketing, as some people buy tickets up to six months in advance. It makes the visitor figures less vulnerable to bad weather, as if people have made the purchase they tend to visit anyway, and if they decide not to, the attraction has already secured the income.

Advance ticketing enables attraction operators to create a dynamic and flexible pricing structure, offering different rates depending on the day, time of day, or season.

Offering customers discounts for buying tickets in advance, but charging full price on the day, can give people a further incentive to go ahead and make the booking. This can also be used to help boost attendance during quiet times.

Advance ticketing also allows pricing structures to be set up through third parties. Many operators depend on partnerships with tour operators and group organisers to sell tickets on their behalf. Giving them the option to book through a customised portal which changes the ticket price accordingly aids efficiency and improves customer service.

By allowing partners to book online, operators get a better overview of bookings throughout the year, and can immediately see volumes per partner. For London’s the View from the Shard attraction, we created a dedicated trader portal enabling trade partners to book tickets in advance and only see events and tickets which are relevant to them. We can restrict the quantity of tickets they can sell by time slot and day, giving the Shard complete control over which days and or periods they sell.