Outdoor attractions: How to stay competitive and keep guests coming back 

It’s a well-evidenced fact that people love spending money on experiences. Which is great news for outdoor attractions like zoos, Halloween trails, festive light shows and u-pick farms. But still, it takes a lot of work to keep your attraction fresh and the customers flocking in. If a significant portion of your audience is made up of locals, for example, it’s likely you’ll rely on repeat visitors to keep your business going. 

So, in a competitive world where everyone’s always looking for the next amazing experience – how do you make sure your attraction remains exciting and appealing... Even to those who’ve been many times before? Keep reading to find out 😌.

🌶️ Variety is the spice of … outdoor attractions! 

People love to try new things – it’s science! There are tons of stats out there to back this up. Like this study, which reveals connections between new experiences, happiness, and increased brain activity. In fact, one of the reasons people tried your outdoor attraction in the first place was probably because they were excited to experience something new. All this to say that:

It’s crucial to keep things fresh if you want customers to return to your attraction again and again. That doesn’t have to mean constantly reinventing the wheel. Rather, complementing your core offering with fun new elements and experiences. And making sure to mix these up often enough to keep attendees engaged; their interest piqued. Here are some ideas:

• Oursource the fun – bring in guest performers, speakers, or teachers to run fun classes and workshops at your attraction.
• Roll with the seasons – plan fun events, decor and photo opps based on the current season and cultural happenings e.g. Easter egg hunts, Santa’s grottos, and summer markets.
• Regularly work on upgrading your offering – plan bigger goals to budget and work towards, like the implementation of a new ride, play area, or cafe.

🧘 A stress-free experience is a memorable one 

Even the best attractions can be made unbearable when logistics fail. Things like long queues and poor signage add to a sense of chaos and frustration. This can lead visitors to feel underwhelmed and even annoyed. The result? Customers who don’t return at best and, at worst, leave you a bad review or warn others against your attraction. 

Make sure this is not the vibe at your attraction by taking extra care over all those extra little details. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Use online time-slot ticketing to keep the crowds flowing smoothly. This is hands down the best way to avoid bottlenecks from forming at your attraction. And it can be super easy to implement with a platform like Ticket Tailor. Once put in place, visitors simply go online to book a time that suits them – meaning you’ve got full control and oversight when it comes to crowd management.
• Use Ticket Tailor’s free check-in app to make sure entry to your attraction runs smoothly. No fancy hardware needed as it'll work from a mobile phone, and better yet it doesn't rely on wifi, if you're in an area with patchy signal – just quick, easy digital ticket scanning that helps you keep track of who’s entered your event and who hasn’t. 
• Regularly reassess your signage – is it clear? Does it help visitors seamlessly navigate their way around your attraction? Is it up to date with any new additions you’ve made to your attraction? Check out our guide to event signage to learn more. 
• Employ an adequate number of cleaners – sparkling clean toilets and a general neat and tidy attraction will help visitor’s leave with a positive overall impression of their experience.

💫 Your website or box office page is like a cool shop front

Human beings have very short attention spans when it comes to browsing the internet. So if your website or box office page is slow to load, or information isn’t easily accessible enough, you might lose out on business to another attraction with a better online experience.  (Not to mention the fact that search engines penalise slow websites, meaning a slow-loading site will show up further down in results pages 😬.)

It’s also worth thinking about your website or box office page as a shop front for your attraction. It’s often the first impression of your business a customer will get. So it’s worth making sure it’s aesthetically pleasing and reflective of your core brand.

In short: it pays to put effort into honing your online assets. But don’t panic! This does not have to mean forking out a fortune to pay for a snazzy website.

Case in point: Ticket Tailor has just launched a really exciting new box office design tool with eight bold event themes to choose from, and endless customisation. So you can create a professional, beautifully designed ticket-selling page in just a few clicks. This can be especially great news for you if you don’t have the resources to set up a website, but still want an eye-catching event page that’s not overloaded with your ticketing platform’s branding. 

Check out the new Ticket Tailor box office design tool >

📣 Word-of-mouth is extremely powerful 

We get told time and time again by event creators on our platform that word-of-mouth is their most powerful marketing tool. (Here’s an example, and another one, and another one!)

Lesson learned? Your existing customers are your best promoters! So it pays to do anything you can to nudge them in the right direction when it comes to spreading the word about your attraction. 

A great example of this can be read in our recent chat with Chris Hester, owner & performer at Hester’s Theatre of Magic. 

“Currently our best seller is word of mouth,” Chris explains. “We’ve used banners and even billboards but there’s no better marketing strategy than converting people in town into fans of the show. 

From waitresses, to other business owners, or anyone in a position to recommend things to do for tourists, we visit them, perform magic, and then invite them to the show so they can experience it for themselves. It’s exponential marketing because a tourist will ask a waitress for their favorite things to do in town several times a day! If you treat them special, they’ll do the same in return by recommending your show.”

So, so smart. We love this example of how you can get creative when it comes to encouraging those all-important word-of-mouth recommendations. 

Of course, this type of activity won’t be within everyone’s remit – here are some other (perhaps more practical) things you can try:

• Send follow-up emails to your customers politely asking them to leave a review of your attraction, with links to your preferred review platforms.
• Create a hashtag for your attraction and make sure you’re taggable on social media platforms – encouraging visitors to pose for photos and tag your attraction across their socials.
• Run social media competitions. Ask for a like and share on a post in return for the chance to win a prize. 
• Sell wearable merchandise – kitting fans out in fun branded t-shirts and baseball caps can be a great way to get people chatting about your attraction! ( 👀Did you know you can sell merch and all manner of other products and add-ons at the point of checkout with Ticket Tailor?)
• Don’t be shy! Literally just tell visitors face-to-face how much it would mean to you for them to leave a review as they’re arriving at or leaving your attraction. People are generally nice, and most are happy to help a business out! 🤗

💒 Your attraction could be someone’s dream wedding venue

Is your outdoor attraction situated in a beautiful location? Take heed from the stunning Thorington Theatre and diversify your offering by turning your business into an wedding venue.

“The beautiful thing about Thorington Theatre is the intimacy the space creates,” Oscar Brennecke-Dunn, Theatre Manager at Thorington Theatre, tells us. “During a wedding, the couple can stand in the sweet spot on the stage (the place where even a whisper can be heard throughout the theatre) and the energy they give off then spreads throughout the congregation. To date we have only hosted a couple of weddings but it’s something we’re keen to do more of. Thorington really is a fairytale location for a magical, romantic and nature-filled day.”

Inspiring stuff 💫.

Beautiful farms with historic buildings on-site could prove very popular as wedding venues. Even more niche attractions could be appealing to those looking for a personality-filled wedding. Aka Halloween trails for fans of all things gothic and horror. Why not? 👻

Diversifying in this way will give your attraction a whole new string to its bow, helping to get tongues wagging about your beautiful location – in turn, boosting business overall. 

🎨 Pricing your tickets is a fine art

Honing your ticketing strategy is crucial to staying competitive. To do so, it’s so important to keep an eye on what other attractions in your area are doing. Raising your ticket prices, for example, is a fine art – if you go too high above the competition, you may lose out to other ‘better value’ attractions. But if you let your pricing stagnate as other attractions all implement increases, you could find yourself in a position where you’re simply not turning enough profit to stay competitive. Talk about a double-edged sword.

Our 2024 end-of-year Survey of Ticket Tailor users revealed that just under a third of event organisers (31%) planned on increasing their ticket prices by 1-10% in 2025. And that almost half of event organisers (40%) said their ticket prices will stay the same.

But ultimately, it’ll be important to carry out your own, more detailed research here. What are other attractions in your local area doing regarding pricing? Or, if yours is a national attraction, what approach are similar attractions country-wide taking? 

👀Tip: If you find that your costs are increasing, it can be worth trying to negotiate with suppliers before raising your ticket prices. If that doesn’t work – you might find this article useful: 

• Tips for sensitively increasing your ticket prices in the face of the cost of living crisis

🧑‍🏫 Classes can help you grow your community

Another great way to diversify your attraction is to consider running regular classes or workshops. We’re thinking – veg growing classes at petting farms. Christmas craft workshops at festive light show attractions. And pumpkin carving sessions at Halloween trails. Savannah Kilpatrick, co-owner of thriving family farm business, The Farm on Central, has some pretty sound advice on this topic: 

“Don’t be afraid of inviting people into your area of expertise! Michael [my husband] has done several beginning gardener classes that are very well attended. 

Lean into the thing you love. If you make soaps or herbal tinctures, invite people in to learn that process. You could even invite someone to use your space to teach, with you sharing the profits if you’re doing the marketing and legwork. Think about what people will need. When I teach our sourdough classes, I make sure our attendees have instructions and starter, two of the most important parts of making sourdough. I also offer support after the class via a Facebook group!”

Expanding your offering in this way will help to enrich your brand, while opening up your attraction to a wider audience. Plus it’s a great way to turn some extra profit on top of your usual business activity.

🎟️ Memberships & season passes keep attendees coming back

The idea of selling memberships or season passes to your attraction is that loyal customers benefit from a discounted rate. When they buy a membership or season pass, the price they pay for each individual entry to your attraction is less than for those who buy on a one-off basis. 

Offering memberships or season passes is a fantastic way to reward fans of your attraction, while simultaneously helping to keep your attraction packed out with enthusiastic visitors. It can also help to boost your profits and improve cash flow – essentially, attendees are bulk buying their entries to your attraction, which means they’re committing to a certain amount of attendance up front. Nice.

Thankfully, selling memberships and season passes to your attraction couldn’t be easier with Ticket Tailor. You can read all about how to do that here.

“We’re super excited about [implementing Ticket Tailor’s] season pass feature. It’ll allow us to manage season pass holders easily, meaning we can send emails and export their information as needed. We’re also looking forward to the data we’ll get on how often the season pass holders visit [our] farm, so we can figure out how many we can sell without compromising the farm experience. Very excited to put it to use.” Megan Neubauer – Pure Land Farm, Texas

Got big plans? We’ve got your back

Whatever your plans are for your outdoor attraction, Ticket Tailor can help bring them to life with industry-leading low fees, round-the-clock customer support and tons of useful features. Think time-slot ticketing, beautiful box office design, a free check-in app and so much more.

Ready to get involved? Find out more about ticketing your outdoor attraction with Ticket Tailor. Or dive straight in and create your free Ticket Tailor account.