As experts in leisure economics, we are often asked about industry trends. Here’s a brief look at what we’ve been seeing over the last few years and our 8 tips for how attractions of all sizes can harness the growing demand from the ‘experience economy’.
Overarching everything is the growing awareness that leisure can act as saviour to the struggling retail sector. This has lead to one of the most far reaching trends we’ve seen over recent years, producing huge opportunities to integrate into retail schemes, into both new developments and struggling high streets and existing malls with under-performing anchors.
This is just a reframing of a concept well-known within leisure; that strong attractions drive visitation to the attraction itself, to the region and now to retail destinations. Both retail and leisure are seeking to maximise returns in harmony with existing assets. Retail is learning from large, traditional leisure offers who constantly ask the question; how can we drive visitation and get more from our real estate?
This search for a truly value-added experience has seen strong growth in ‘integrated attraction’ resorts – for example an aquarium as a backdrop for hotel suites, restaurant and paid guest experiences such as diving lessons. Whatever the scale, ask yourself if you are getting the most of your theming/landscaping and decoration? Could you incorporate glamping or another accommodation offer? Are you able to get dual or triple purpose out of your investments?
These trends are supported by the observation that millennial consumers prefer to spend on experiences rather than possessions. This is certainly felt by the attractions industry, which has always offered experiences but notes demand for more bespoke and memorable activities. There is significant growth in action and extreme sports attractions which place the visitor at the heart of an experience designed to create a memory to proudly share with others. New high-tech experiences such as in-location VR are thriving (‘coaster rides’, walkthroughs, and multiplayer), providing an intense, rewarding and seemingly personalised experience.
.Elsewhere, wildlife attractions have also seized upon the willingness to spend on personalised experiences with keeper and animal interactions commanding premiums (‘be a keeper for a day’, meet the animals and so on). Are there ways you can make your attraction more active? Younger guests (and a lot of older) will pay for memorable, physical and ‘grammable’ experiences.
Being able to recognise trends is one thing, but seeing an improvement to the bottom line requires careful planning. This is a little of what we’ve learnt from working with businesses who have successfully transformed their leisure attractions over recent years.
- Make it engaging and fun; entertaining projects attract greater visitation and spending than worthy, educational ones.
- Avoid single use projects; attractions are fantastic drivers of visitation and deliver ongoing cash flow, but returns are modest compared to other real estate – get the most of your land or site with retail, accommodation and dining
- Listen to the market; ‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t work. Develop the concept and scale the investment to the market
- Be realistic about returns; attractions can be great drivers of visitors. They can be iconic and bring image benefits, they can also be profitable. They are generally capital intensive, though, and it is often the commercial, residential and accommodation uses that they help induce demand for that achieve stronger returns on investment. Wise developers see new attractions in context as drivers and anchors
- Maximise length of stay – longer stays drive a perception of value and willingness to spend – this is true for ‘day out’ attractions where a longer stay typically equals greater spend, but also for integrated attraction resorts where ‘more to do’ can equal another night’s stay
- Keep people on site: Attractions create a lot of economic impact, but make sure you retain as much of it as possible as accommodation, retail, dining, nightlife etc.
- Put the budget where the guests see it and feel it: Iconic buildings may attract a guest once but content will bring them back and spread the word that there is a valuable experience – spend the budget on great content, not architecture
- Understand your market. Different attraction types address different audiences; a perception that attractions are for children and families is not always the case – empty nesters and independent adults can be great markets
For more information about Leisure Development Partners and their sevices, please visit their Experience UK members page.
