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Table of Contents
- A year of growth, innovation and consumer-driven booking experiences
- Market overview
- Visitor attraction trends - industry performance
- Key drivers of growth
- Ticket pricing trends: 10% average increase
- Consumer Behaviour
- Advance booking times and out-of-office booking growth
- Mobile-first experiences dominate
- A dramatic reduction in admin time
- Streamlining the path to purchase
- Cart abandonment remains an opportunity for optimisation
- Faster checkouts drive conversions
- Upsells and add-ons increase revenue per transaction
- Next steps for 2025
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Visitor Attraction Trends Report 2024
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Explore Beyonk’s 2024 Visitor Attraction Trends Report for key insights on industry growth, changing consumer behaviour, and mobile-first booking trends. Discover how to optimise your offerings and boost revenue in 2025.
A year of growth, innovation and consumer-driven booking experiences
Market overview
Visitor attraction trends - industry performance
The visitor attraction industry experienced a 6.5% rise in visitor spending in 2024, surpassing growth seen in many other non-essential sectors (e.g. culinary experiences, relaxation and wellness). This was driven by increasing tourism, shifting consumer preferences, and advancements in digital technology, all of which contributed to the sector’s resilience.
This report highlights the critical shifts in consumer behaviour, technology adoption, and operational efficiencies that have shaped the past year. More importantly, it provides actionable insights from Beyonk to help experience providers and visitor attractions optimise their current offerings and drive sustainable growth in 2025 and beyond.
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Key drivers of growth
Tourism played a crucial role in the industry’s success, with both the UK and US seeing travel demand roar back after the pandemic lull. In the US, domestic travel rebounded to near pre-pandemic numbers, leading to higher footfall at attractions, tours, and events. The ongoing demand for experiences has reinforced the sector’s strength, even as other industries faced economic pressures.
Despite inflation and cost-of-living concerns, Barclays reports that consumers have continued to prioritise experiences over material goods. More people chose to spend on tours, outdoor adventures, and festivals rather than physical possessions, highlighting a cultural shift toward making the most of the present. Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, are shifting away from pub culture, favouring more experience-focused social activities, creating new opportunities for experience providers.This trend has helped increase visitor numbers even in tighter economic conditions.
According to a study by Arival, innovation and digitisation have further accelerated the industry growth making it easier for visitors to book experiences online and engage with attractions directly. Seamless online booking systems, paid ads and mobile optimised experiences have improved accessibility and increased conversion rates. While some smaller operators have yet to fully embrace digital tools, the wider adoption of technology has lowered barriers for consumers and contributed to overall spending increases.
Ticket pricing trends: 10% average increase
Visitor attractions took a more dynamic approach to pricing in 2024, leading to an average ticket price increase of 10%.
Early in the year, price increases appeared to be driven by a combination of strong consumer demand and operators' need to offset rising operational costs. As the year progressed, pricing strategies evolved into a more balanced approach, with operators carefully monitoring performance while remaining sensitive to consumers' increasing cost consciousness. Towards the end of the year, some providers implemented strategic price reductions, likely responding to both seasonal attendance patterns and the growing economic pressures facing their target markets. Throughout this period, the industry seemed to be finding an equilibrium between operational necessities and consumer affordability in an evolving economic landscape.
Consumer Behaviour
The buying habits of consumers today indicate a growing expectation for flexibility and convenience as standard across all industries, and booking experiences is no different.They’re booking earlier, often outside traditional office hours, and expect seamless mobile-first experiences. Self-service options are also becoming essential, allowing visitors to manage bookings independently (with the additional benefit of reducing administrative tasks for attractions!).
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Advance booking times and out-of-office booking growth
In 2024, visitors booked their attraction experiences an average of 11 days in advance through Beyonk's platform, a full day earlier than in 2023 and notably above the industry average of 9 days. This trend highlights the growing importance of the "early planner" demographic, a valuable customer segment that Beyonk helps providers capture effectively.
Data reveals that in all months, bookings are made up to 12 weeks in advance, underscoring the critical importance of publishing schedules early to maximise revenue potential. Attractions that make their availability known well ahead of time are positioned to capture 100% of potential revenue, rather than missing out on these forward-planning customers.
Beyonk also recorded an 11% increase in out-of-office hours bookings during 2024 compared to 2023, with January, October, and November seeing the highest increases. This pattern suggests that consumers are increasingly planning their experiences during evenings and weekends, often in preparation for holidays and seasonal events.
For attractions, these trends present a clear opportunity: by partnering with Beyonk, providers gain a competitive edge through earlier average booking times and enhanced ability to reach the growing early planner demographic. This advantage becomes particularly valuable during peak planning months, where having schedules published 12 weeks in advance can significantly impact revenue outcomes.
Recommendations from Beyonk
- Capture after-hours planners
- Targeted email campaigns: Schedule email campaigns to coincide with after-hours, offering discounts, limited-time offers or countdown reminders to capitalise on this peak booking window.
- Evening focused social media engagement and advertising: Maximise visibility by posting engaging, last-minute booking reminders on social media and paid ads for after-hours where booking activity spikes.
- Secure 100% of potential revenue
- Publish schedules 12 weeks in advance: Given that data shows bookings take place three months ahead, early schedule publication is crucial to capture the growing “early planner” demographic
- Implement strategic retargeting campaigns: Offering early-bird incentives and retargeting campaigns for past visitors to drive advance bookings particularly for high demand periods in January, October, and November.
- Assess current ticketing system: Partnering with Beyonk gives you a competitive edge, with booking lead times 22% above industry averages. This means you can better capture both last-minute visitors and those planning well in advance.
Mobile-first experiences dominate
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The data speaks for itself: 88% of all bookings in 2024 were made via mobile, marking a 1% increase from the previous full year and an 8% jump from H1 2024. Furthermore, 26% of all bookings were completed via Apple Pay and Google Pay, proving that visitors expect a frictionless, tap-and-go experience when booking.
This shift is undeniable and if your booking system isn’t fully optimised for mobile and digital wallets, you are at risk of missing out on customers. Today’s visitors demand fast, hassle-free checkout experiences, justas they experience in mainstream ecommerce buying.
The trend is even more notable during the July-September summer holiday period, where digital wallet usage spiked, suggesting that families and visitors prioritise speed and simplicity when booking. The move away from manual card entries is clear, the need for tap-and-go transactions, isn’t just a “nice to have”, it’s now the expectation and norm.
Recommendations from Beyonk
- Improve mobile experience: Since 88% bookings are made on mobile devices, ensure your website is fully optimised for mobile with easy navigation, quick load times, and secure, simple checkout options. Beyonk ensures your bookings are fully mobile optimised and seamlessly embedded into your website, delivering a fast, hassle-free checkout experience that keeps visitors engaged.
- Offer digital payment methods: It's essential to offer digital payment options that provide a secure and instant transaction process. With Beyonk, Apple Pay and Google Pay are instantly added to your checkout experience, catering to the growing demand for fast, mobile-friendly payments. This seamless integration allows your customers to complete their purchases quickly and easily, enhancing their overall booking experience.
A dramatic reduction in admin time
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Customer self-service functionality has had a transformative impact on operational efficiency, reducing admin time by up to 75% in 2024, a significant leap from 45% in 2023.
Providers who have enabled customer self service through Beyonk and have empowered their visitors to manage and modify bookings have freed up a significant amount of valuable time. This growing preference for self-managed bookings reflects a movement in convenience and flexibility. It has also resulted in fewer inbound customer queries for attractions, freeing up time for them to focus on their business and ultimately providing an easier experience for them and their visitors.
Recommendations from Beyonk
- Assess your current ticketing system: This surge in self-serve bookings indicates a valuable opportunity for attractions to streamline their ticketing systems, reduce admin workload by a significant amount and enhance the customer experience. With Beyonk's self-serve booking tool, you can allow customers to easily manage their bookings, while also gaining valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors. This shift towards self-service bookings can lead to increased customer loyalty and improved operational efficiency.
Streamlining the path to purchase
Streamlining the path to purchase is key to improving conversion rates and boosting revenue. Reducing cart abandonment, speeding up booking times, and offering relevant add-ons are critical components.
Cart abandonment remains an opportunity for optimisation
In 2024, only 40% of carts were abandoned with Beyonk, far outperforming the industry standard of 70% abandonment. With Beyonk’s Visitor-Centric Ticketing™ (VCT), attractions see 30% fewer drop-offs, thanks to seamless on-site booking, eliminating redirects to third-party platforms.
Recommendations from Beyonk
- Implement cart abandonment campaigns: Use email reminders to nudge customers to complete their bookings, offering small incentives or discounts to encourage them to finish the purchase. With Beyonk’s cart recovery tools, automated email reminders make it easy to re-engage customers and turn abandoned bookings into confirmed sales. On average, they recover 12% of lost bookings, all requiring no extra effort from the provider.
- Optimise your booking system: Identify and assess friction points in your booking system, including slow load times, limited payment options, or poor mobile usability. With Beyonk’s comprehensive data analytics, you can track metrics such as cart abandonment and see exactly where customers drop off and make targeted improvements to keep bookings on track.
Faster checkouts drive conversions
With 64% of visitors completing their bookings in under two minutes, up 5% from 2023. It’s clear that reducing friction in the checkout process leads to higher conversion rates. The integration of one-click digital payments has played a major role in expediting this booking journey, minimising drop-offs and increasing revenue for providers.
A fast, seamless booking process is crucial for delivering the ultimate shopping experience, keeping customers happy and reducing drop-offs. Eliminating unnecessary steps such as forced account creation or third party redirects helps prevent frustration and ensures a quick and convenient checkout, especially on mobile.
Upsells and add-ons increase revenue per transaction
When visitors completed their bookings, they were more likely to spend more when add-ons were also available to purchase directly from checkout. The average transaction value increased by 26% when add-ons were included at checkout, demonstrating that effective upselling, whether through merchandise or other experience add-ons, significantly boosts overall revenue for the providers.
Recommendations from Beyonk 💡
- Optimise your booking journey: Use our comprehensive Beyonk checklist to assess the gaps and improve your booking process - Booking conversion checklist.
- Include add-ons in your strategy: Make add-ons an essential part of your sales approach by offering extras like food and beverage packages, merchandise, and professional photos that enhance your guests’ experience and increase your revenue.
Next steps for 2025
The visitor attraction industry grew in 2024, with demand for experiences on the rise as consumers prioritise spend on their experiences and entertainment. As visitor attraction trends indicate, this growth is set to continue in 2025, making it crucial for attractions to simplify booking, use data effectively, and focus on the visitor experience to stay competitive.
To tap into the shifting customer expectations, providers will need a seamless and mobile-friendly checkout process, smart upselling opportunities, and tools to re-engage potential buyers.
Beyonk’s Visitor-Centric Ticketing™ helps attractions reduce admin, boost conversion rates, and enhance guest experiences. Features like automated cart recovery, frictionless upselling, and flexible ticketing options make it easier to drive direct sales and keep visitors coming back.
Schedule a VCT demo with our team today to find out how you can be staying ahead of the curve in 2025.
