In the face of the cost-of-living crisis, the lasting impacts of the pandemic, and the rapid advancement of technology, visitor attractions face unprecedented challenges. Globally in major cities, after much enthusiasm and online hype, new commercial attractions seem to shut as quickly as they open.

At BOP, we've concurrently observed an increase in organisations, both non-profit and commercial, seeking our support to develop the resilience of their operation models.

These are challenging times for the sector, and the key to navigating them lies in both a strong operating model from the start, and the ability to pivot when an existing model isn’t working. In analysing a variety of cases, we have identified three key factors that can help visitor attractions get it right from the very beginning:

1. Experiential Depreciation

2. Communicating the Proposition

3. Revenue Mix

Experiential Depreciation

Attractions often struggle with maintaining their appeal over time. Factors contributing to this include the 'Instagram effect'—experiences designed for short, shareable moments that don’t translate across the attraction—and technology fatigue, where visitors find attractions quickly outdated compared to the rapidly changing tech in their daily lives.

In addition, active participation is key. If the experience doesn’t ask the viewer to interact with the material, it can lose its impact quickly and affect repeat visits.

Communicating the Proposition

There is a common misconception that if you build it, they will come. This is not always the case. Cities are crowded markets and organisations need to invest in communicating their unique proposition. Often this investment is underestimated, and not enough traction is generated, or values and authentic messaging has not been a priority – significantly hindering an attraction’s success in an already competitive market.

Revenue Mix

Diversifying revenue streams is essential for sustainability. Often, attractions have an overreliance on ticketing revenue. In charging attractions, you typically look for ancillary spend to represent 30-35% of revenue, ticketing 30-35% and events/hires 30%. For free attractions you want the revenue mix to be spread across as many revenue streams as possible to minimise risk.

How to Create Resiliency

The most important thing for a visitor attraction is to be honest with itself at the outset of planning. To address the above requires rigorous feasibility and viability studies, which are often confused by organisations. These studies need to be performed for internal stakeholders and must be brutally honest.

In addition, there needs to be a deep understanding of the audience's needs, place, and organisational values to ensure all three are aligned.

And finally, its vital to ensure there is an agile system in place for monitoring, evaluation, and that this is used for evidence-based decision-making that is driven by a strong governance structure.