.png?table=block&id=24cadd1f-4b82-808a-8a40-e49037e95a9d&cache=v2)
Table of Contents
- Stay competitive despite regulatory and seasonal disruption
- Drive growth through repeat visitors
- Let customers take control with self-service tools
- Optimise your booking journey for faster conversions
- Protect revenue from weather and cancellations
- Adapt to shorter booking windows
- Focus on visitor satisfaction to boost retention
- Target your marketing by travel patterns
- Make data work harder in your marketing
- What this means for you as a provider
Post SEO title
Visitor Attraction Trends H1 2025: Data, Mobile-First Bookings & Growth Strategies
Meta description
Discover how visitor attractions can thrive in 2025 despite regulatory changes, unpredictable weather, and shifting consumer behaviours. Explore insights on mobile-first bookings, self-service tools and data-driven marketing strategies to boost revenue and stay competitive.
The first half of 2025 brought significant change and challenge to visitor attractions and experience providers. A combination of regulatory changes, unpredictable weather, and evolving consumer behaviours disrupted traditional operating patterns, testing the resilience of the entire industry.
However, within this disruption lies fresh opportunities. Our comprehensive analysis of booking data, visitor feedback, and emerging market trends highlights that businesses able to swiftly adapt are positioned to capture meaningful growth as the year progresses.
This report uncovers how booking behaviours are evolving, why adopting mobile-first and self-service solutions has become critical, and what strategies can help protect revenue against volatility. We also identify untapped marketing opportunities that many attractions have yet to leverage, essential insights for staying competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
Get a snapshot of the report’s key takeaways in the video below 👇
Stay competitive despite regulatory and seasonal disruption
.png?table=block&id=24cadd1f-4b82-8086-9c77-ffc5546f6cb7&cache=v2)
The first half of 2025 presented several challenges for visitor attractions. New UK drip pricing regulations and US junk fees increased pricing transparency, changing how visitors compare options and decide to book. Meanwhile, extreme heat and drought hindered crop growth in the UK while prompting many consumers to choose spontaneous beach trips over pre-planned experiences.
On top of this, the late Easter, the latest since 2019 compressed the spring holiday season, resulting in a 9% drop in day visits in Q1 compared to last year. Together, these challenges made revenue forecasting harder and slowed the usual early spring boost.
Looking ahead, seasonal compression will continue to impact performance. With Halloween falling on a Friday this year, the autumn peak is expected to be shorter but more intense, concentrating visitor demand into fewer days. This can increase operational pressure and reduce opportunities to maximise revenue across the whole season.
To succeed in this evolving landscape, businesses need to adopt flexible strategies that smooth demand, comply with new regulations, and protect revenue from unpredictable weather.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Launch seasonal schedules early: Promote autumn and winter events well ahead of time to capture bookings before lead times shorten further.
- Spread events across the season: Avoid overloading weekends by staggering events and promotions throughout autumn to maintain steady attendance.
- Diversify programming: Offer varied and weather-resilient experiences, including indoor or covered options, to encourage repeat visits and reduce cancellations.
Drive growth through repeat visitors
Though the first quarter saw slow activity, visitor volumes rebounded strongly in the second quarter. Average visitor numbers have now increased by 3.1% year-on-year, but the average transaction value has remained stable at £35.20. This means growth is primarily volume-led, with customer acquisition costs rising, focusing on repeat visitors is becoming the most cost-effective way to grow your business. Our data confirms that returning customers convert more easily and offer higher lifetime value than new ones.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Boost loyalty through passes: Introduce multi-visit, family, or season passes that incentivise frequent attendance and build habitual visits.
- Retarget your audience effectively: Launch personalised campaigns targeting past visitors with tailored offers that encourage them to return.
- Keep experiences fresh and relevant: Regularly update your programming with seasonal or limited-time events designed to engage local audiences and foster repeat visits.
Let customers take control with self-service tools
Self-serve booking modifications increased by an impressive 250% in H1 2025, rising from 6% of bookings last year to 21% this year. Visitors now expect flexibility and control when managing their bookings, and offering such options can also reduce the administrative burden on your team.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Streamline with self-service: Self-service booking empowers visitors to make changes, reschedule, or cancel without needing to contact your team. Beyonk’s self-service tools let you offer this convenience effortlessly, freeing staff to focus on delivering great experiences.
.png?table=block&id=24cadd1f-4b82-8028-98da-d342ee6525f2&cache=v2)
Optimise your booking journey for faster conversions
Customers expect a swift and speedy checkout. Providers who simplified their checkout with Beyonk saw cart abandonment drop to 39% in H1 2025, less than half the industry average of 80%. Booking speed also improved, with 64% of transactions completed in under two minutes, up from 35% the year before.
Mobile wallet usage surged as well, with Apple Pay and Google Pay transactions up by 84%, now accounting for 33.9% of all payments. Customers are also spending more via mobile devices, with the transaction value share increasing from 17.1% to 26.8%. This marks a shift from the earlier mindset where mobile wallets were used mainly for smaller purchases, while larger transactions were reserved for laptops or desktops. Today, customers are increasingly comfortable making higher-value bookings on their phones. In addition to this, almost half of all bookings now occur outside standard business hours and a significant 86% of these happen on mobile devices.
A faster, smoother booking experience means fewer lost sales and happier customers. When the process is simple and quick, visitors are more confident and less likely to abandon their cart. This is especially important on mobile devices, where complicated forms or slow loading times can easily frustrate users.
Recommendations from Beyonk
- Embedded checkouts with Beyonk: By integrating the booking process directly into your website, visitors stay on your page without being redirected, reducing dropoffs and creating a smoother experience.
- Simplify your checkout: Remove unnecessary steps and fields to make booking faster and easier. Use progress indicators and cut optional questions that don’t add value.
- Optimise for mobile payments: Make Apple Pay and Google Pay prominent during checkout to speed up the process.
Protect revenue from weather and cancellations
Cancellation rates rose from 2.0% to 2.6% in the first half of 2025, reflecting a growing challenge. Cancellations aren’t only caused by bad weather; they also spike when the weather is “too good”! On unexpectedly sunny days, visitors often swap their original plans for something else, maybe heading to the beach or taking advantage of the rare perfect conditions outdoors. And if that wasn’t bad enough, even when the weather itself is flawless, cancellations can still roll in simply because the forecast predicted rain or storms.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Offer flexible ticket options: Anyday or season passes give visitors freedom to choose their best day, encouraging early bookings without the fear of losing out.
- Combat misleading weather forecasts: Share real-time weather updates via social media and paid ads to correct negative perceptions and encourage last-minute bookings.
- Promote all-weather experiences: Highlight indoor spaces, covered areas, and fun rain-or-shine activities to reassure visitors that your attraction is enjoyable regardless of weather.
Adapt to shorter booking windows
The average lead time for bookings decreased from 14 days to 11 days year-on-year, reflecting a clear shift in visitor behaviour. This shortening of booking windows is influenced by several factors: unpredictable weather patterns make planning further ahead riskier and a growing preference for flexible, last-minute options means visitors often wait until closer to their visit date before committing.
For attractions, it’s essential to stay agile and capture bookings throughout the entire decision window—from early planners to last-minute bookers. While real-time availability and instant confirmation are key for spontaneous visitors, early availability is just as important. According to our Visitor Attraction Trends Report, many visitors still book up to 12 weeks in advance, especially those are defined as the “early planners” who like to plan ahead.
These early planners are often the ones organising family outings or group visits, and their decisions ripple outward. If someone asks, “What are you doing with the kids this half term?” and the answer is, “We’ve already booked with X a few weeks ago on an early bird discount,” that’s powerful word of mouth you don’t want to miss. Missing out on these early bookers could mean losing not just one customer, but their wider network too.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Publish availability early: Ensure your calendar is open and visible well in advance to capture bookings from early planners before they look elsewhere or lose interest.
- Promote last-minute options: Highlight flexible tickets and show real-time availability clearly on your site to build confidence among last-minute bookers who want quick, hassle-free confirmation.
- Create urgency without pressure: Use limited-time offers, flash sales, or availability alerts to encourage bookings, but keep messaging positive and helpful, avoid making customers feel rushed or stressed
.png?table=block&id=24cadd1f-4b82-80db-8ae2-f6d93f648b73&cache=v2)
Focus on visitor satisfaction to boost retention
Since February, the average post-checkout shopping experience score has been an impressive 9.4 out of 10, based on feedback from over 50,000 responses. Remarkably, 70% of visitors awarded a perfect 10. Among the main reasons behind these high satisfaction levels are ease of use, cited by two-thirds of top scorers, and clear, accessible information, noted by 43%.
Complementing this, our post-visit Net Promoter Score (NPS) data collected since April shows an average score of 76.1%, reflecting strong visitor loyalty and willingness to recommend. Visitors frequently highlight their enjoyment of the experience and the quality of staff interactions as standout positives that make their visits memorable.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Prioritise ease of use throughout your booking journey and onsite experience to boost satisfaction and encourage repeat visits.
- Invest in comprehensive staff training to maintain a friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful team, your greatest asset in delivering exceptional visitor experiences.
- Actively capture visitor feedback and demonstrate responsiveness to their input to build trust and continuous improvement.
Target your marketing by travel patterns
Travel habits vary widely by region, and understanding these differences is key to crafting effective marketing strategies. For example, in the UK, half of all visitors travel within just 11.3 miles to reach an attraction, reflecting the country’s compact geography and high density of options. In contrast, in the US, visitors are accustomed to traveling farther, with median travel distances stretching to 57.6 miles.
Recognising these travel patterns enables you to tailor your marketing reach and messaging to fit visitor behaviours, preferences, and expectations. A one-size-fits-all approach risks overspending on broad campaigns that miss local nuances or failing to connect with audiences beyond typical travel distances.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Use Beyonk’s postcode and zipcode heatmapping tool: Use this powerful feature to visualise exactly where your visitors are coming from, identify high-performing areas, and optimise your marketing spend by focusing on key regions that deliver the best returns.
- Use region-specific messaging: Craft messages that resonate with the local community identity, or regional attractions to strengthen emotional connections and appeal.
Make data work harder in your marketing
Data is one of your most powerful tools, yet surprisingly, only 17% of visitor attractions currently use UTM parameters to track their marketing campaigns. This represents a significant missed opportunity to gain clear insights into which efforts are truly driving bookings and revenue. Without precise tracking, it’s difficult to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns or to make informed decisions about where to allocate your marketing budget.
By harnessing the full potential of data tracking, you can not only measure visitor engagement but also pinpoint the exact sources generating real conversions. This enables you to optimise campaigns continuously, improve targeting, and maximise return on investment.
Beyonk gives you the clarity you need with built-in “Where did you hear about us?” surveys, UTM tagging, and reliable server-side tracking. Together, these provide a complete picture of which campaigns deliver results, whether online or offline.
Recommendations from Beyonk:
- Implement UTM tracking: Add UTM parameters to all your marketing URLs to identify exactly where your bookings are coming from, whether it’s email, social media, paid ads, or partner sites.
- Focus on conversions, not just clicks: Track the entire customer journey by measuring completed bookings instead of just link clicks, giving you a true picture of campaign performance.
- Optimise ad spend with data: Use conversion data to shift budget toward the channels and campaigns that deliver the best results, ensuring you invest efficiently and grow revenue.
What this means for you as a provider
The second half of 2025 presents exciting opportunities to get ahead of competitors by embracing change. Data shows that strategies focused on increasing volume deliver stronger growth alongside value-driven approaches.
Mobile-first, self-service experiences are continuing to boost both customer satisfaction and booking conversions. Flexible, weather-adaptive programming helps protect and grow revenue streams, while data-driven marketing unlocks higher returns on investment. By acting now, your business can confidently seize these advantages .
Ready to optimise your experience business for growth?
If you are already a Beyonk client, you can schedule an optimisation call with our team today. If not yet partnered with us, contact our sales team to discover how Beyonk can help you capture every opportunity in 2025’s dynamic market.
.png?table=block&id=1aeadd1f-4b82-80d0-b1a8-d00b5eb308aa&cache=v2)