To increase visitor numbers, mall owners try to fill the unrented spaces with entertainment, but realise often that this only partially helps to increase footfall. A solution might be to look at other similar industries that are successful in attracting guests; one of these is theme parks. Bart wrote an article about this, which was published at the leading retail and entertainment magazine RLI. Please find a link here: https://www.rli.uk.com/retail-insight-bart-dohmen-tdac/

or read it in PDF: 2024RLIFebIssue-RetailInsight-Bart

I am one of the lucky ones who had the opportunity to work at a company where clients allowed us to work with respectable budgets. During my time at BRC Imagination Arts we were focused on creating projects which were more exiting and interesting than the market standard, aiming to get beyond the clients and visitors expectations.

Let’s be honest, it is fantastic to work on those kind of projects and it is important for our industry to raise the bar on quality and experience all the time. Raising the bar in the right way works: Heineken Experience was setting a higher standard when we reopened it 10 years ago and became immensely successful. And most of us recognise the success of Universal Studio’s when they raised the bar in the Theme Park world with the Harry Potter projects.

Since I left BRC and started my own consultancy firm, I had the pleasure to work on projects on the other end of the spectrum: with very low budgets. My first low budget project was a favor to a friend who wanted to enter our industry. We were brainstorming about his dream: a kids play area without using any artificial play structures, where kids play naturally. We tried to remember what we liked when we were young – playing with water and sand or in other words – getting dirty.  Even with a limited budget, we wanted to find a way to raise the bar: something we couldn’t do as kids, but always wanted to – a big sand play area, with water, where kids treasure hunt for small pieces of gold in the sand, not limited to a special area, but everywhere. A very simple idea, interactive and low investment – it turned out to be hugely successful.

It made me realize that raising the bar can be done on any budget. Moreover, small budgets are more fun creatively and the rewards are much higher.

Global Village

My recent visit to Global Village in Dubai made me realize again that raising the bar is not about budgets. For those who have never been to Global Village: this is a six-month event, every year, where guests can experience the world in different pavilions. All facades are rebuilt with temporary structures every year, behind the facades you’ll find more than 100 privately operated food outlets, many shops and a fun fair. You pay as you go. What makes it really unique: for an entrance fee of 15 Dh (Euro 3,60, USD 4,10) visitors enter a fantasy world, with live music, street performers everywhere, fountain shows, amazing free spectacles….an evening outside their ordinary world.  During its 6 months opening, Global Village attracts more than 6 million guests every year.

My last visit to Global Village was with a group of more than 200 industry professionals during the IAAPA leadership conference. During the conference we visited capital intensive projects like IMG World of Adventure, Dubai Parks & Resorts and Warner Bros Abu Dhabi. Out of all these parks we visited, Global Village was, by far, the park with the lowest investment.

At the end of the conference most of us concluded that we enjoyed the evening at Global Village the most. Despite the high investments of the other projects we visited, the atmosphere at Global Village made the absolute difference. The right balance of entertainment and F&B offerings in a pleasant themed environment, with the right entrance price, draws an enormous amount of people to Global village. Every evening, creating a unique atmosphere and thus, raising the bar in Dubai…..

That visit to Global Village made me realize more (and enjoy) that raising the bar is not about budgets, but knowing who your audience is, and having the creativity to realize something unique that exceeds your visitor expectations.

With great interest I always read Andreas Andersen’s Blog: Reflections, where he shares his personal perspective on our industry. It always makes me reflect on similar experiences of my own. In his first blog of this year he made a very interesting point: Quantity vs Quality. https://reflections.liseberg.se/quantity-vs-quality/ , including three great examples of what is happening in our industry,

It immediately reminds me of many discussions I had (and have) with operators and investors when I ask them the very basic question: “ Why are you doing this?”. Besides the remarkable fact that many board members don’t have a clear answer to this question, I seldom get an answer in which they say: “I want as many visitors as possible.”

The answer on”why are you doing this?” is sometimes ” I want to have a certain ROI “, but often they answer more idealistic e.g. “I would like to do something back for the community” or “I want to leave a legacy” or “I like the smile on people’s faces when they visit us”. Surprisingly these answers often come from successful investors. In Brand Center projects I mostly get answers like “ We want to create ambassadors for our brand”.

Almost no one invests or is interested in our business because they want to get as many visitors as possible in. But I increasingly get a feeling that our industry is driven by visitor numbers. Maybe because visitor numbers are the main topic in the yearly TEA/AECOM report. Or maybe it is driven by press articles which measure success by the increase of visitor numbers; the higher the numbers the more successful you are. For me the reason for this focus on visitor numbers is simple: our accountants see every extra visitor as extra revenue and therefore every extra visitor counts. Besides that, these numbers are tangible and easy to understand.

But we are not in the hard numbers industry. We are in an industry which is much more complex. In my opinion the goal of our industry should be: creating memories by touching emotions. This sounds very idealistic, but it isn’t just that. There is certainly an economic side to this as well: by touching emotions visitors are willing to spend more money in our attractions and parks. Research has shown this many times.

By focusing on visitor numbers there is a fair chance of jeopardising the goal of our industry. Like Andreas Andersen wrote in his blog: “There is without a doubt a negative correlation between many guests and guest satisfaction.” I strongly believe that in the long term focusing on increasing visitor numbers doesn’t improve your business model and the success of our industry.

Maybe while we are driven by the accountants we have forgotten the wise lessons of Pine and Gilmore in “The Experience Economy”, the book written already 20 years ago. In the book they perfectly explained how to create revenue: not by creating masses, but by creating emotions. And this is especially valid in our industry.

Let’s give all our accountants a copy of this book, and let’s start to value the success of attractions and parks by revenue instead of visitor numbers. Let’s stop with focussing on capacity and get back to what our industry really is about: Creating Emotions. And I am sure that in the long run we will benefit all, including our accountants…..

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Thank you for reading my first Observation. With more than 25 years of experience in the local based entertainment industry I started to observe the industry in a certain way and define more and more opinions about our great industry. Some (business) friends asked me to write them down, which made this the first one.

Please let me know your thoughts and your opinion !

Many cities and towns around the world depend on tourism and work hard to attract new visitors. Can these destinations learn some tricks from Walt Disney?

by Bart Dohmen, TDAC International

Previously published on Blooloop

To get the attention of potential visitors these destinations spend a lot on marketing, including great slogans. But often, these are so general that they could be used for almost any tourist city.

When we take a closer look at this, the reason becomes clear: many of these tourism-focused towns and cities have lost their identity and their uniqueness, becoming comparable to others.

Spending a lot on marketing is often the chosen way to get out of this situation. But is this the solution, or might it be worthwhile for these destinations to rediscover their DNA?

Where did my identity go?

There is a reason why tourists first begin to visit certain cities: they have something special to offer. These initial tourists then tell their friends about this, causing the city’s popularity to rise. Then, when destinations become popular with tourists, they will start receiving increased requests from shops, attractions and more, interested in creating new businesses in the city.

However, these businesses are not always in line with the main reason why tourists were originally visiting the city. At a certain moment, the city might then reach the point where these new businesses attract a different kind of tourist, visiting purely for entertainment.

For tourist cities, having a unique identity is important

When this happens, these destinations can be in danger of losing their identity. And, for tourist cities, having a unique identity is important. It differentiates them from competitors and creates the opportunity to attract a preferred target audience.

A clear identity helps potential guests choose one city, or its neighbour, or competitor, or indeed instead of any other free time activity they could do that day or weekend. More and more cities recognize that they need an identity in order to successfully attract visitors.

Having an identity and how to deal with it

An interesting insight into developing an identity can be learned from theme parks. The theme park world is highly competitive, especially in Northern Europe. Guests have many choices, which often leads to price erosion. But some of them outperform the rest; they don’t need to join the race for the most attractive ticket price.

There might be several reasons why they perform better, but there is one consistent factor. The better performing parks have a clear understanding of their target audience and how to attract them. To do so, they have created a DNA which fits this target audience.Walt Disney

Walt Disney can be seen as the inventor of DNA based visitor attractions. When Walt Disneystarted planning his first park in Los Angeles, he thought about target audiences and created a central theme for the park, followed by supporting storylines. Everything in the park had to be relevant to the theme.

In his vision, working with a central theme created the right environment for guests to be truly immersed, forgetting about their daily lives and making an emotional connection with the park.

We can still see the results of this vision today, more than 60 years later: Disney parks are by far the most visited parks in the world and also have the highest average spending per guest.

Other extremely successful parks also work along these lines. Efteling and Puy du Fou are two well-known examples.

Theme park lessons for tourist cities

The first lesson we can learn from theme parks is that by having a clear identity, potential guests understand more about a destination and what they might expect when visiting. Secondly, if operators meet this expectation, they will have satisfied guests. If they go beyond this expectation, they create ambassadors.

But how to apply this to a city? A theme park is a private development, which easily can make decisions to go in a certain direction. Compared to a private development, a city has limited power to execute a direction. However, a city can find or create its touristic DNA and use this as a focal point for tourism development and marketing.

Setting the direction

The first challenge these destinations face is to find out who they are, or who they want to be.

Cities with a long tourism history might want to rediscover who they are – the reason why tourists began to visit in the first place. It is worth exploring this tourism history again, focusing back on the destination’s natural DNA.

London is an example of a tourist city with a clear DNA

On the other hand, cities with no or limited tourism history might lean more towards who they want to be. They can develop a DNA which fits the type of audience and tourist that they want to attract. Now, we can look at some example of both these scenarios.

Rediscovering the tourist city of Valkenburg

Recently I had the pleasure to work with a city in The Netherlands which has a very long tourism history; Valkenburg. Tourism is rooted in this destination, as shown by the fact that it is home to the first tourism office in the country, established in 1885.

In the early years, tourists were mainly from the higher class. By becoming popular, Valkenburg attracted new businesses, making the city known in the seventies as the place to party. Because of this, it lost its identity.A building in Valkenburg

Since then, Valkenburg has worked hard to become attractive to a different audience. Throughout the years it positioned itself into five diverse directions, making the average potential guest asking themselves; “What is special in Valkenburg and why should I go there”? The city lacked a clear, focussed identity.

I worked with a selection of the city’s citizens, business owners and historians, going through a process to first find the DNA of Valkenburg and from there move towards a Theme Statement.

Defining future development

Based on this Theme Statement the city now has a defined direction for its future development. New public and private tourism initiatives can be mirrored against the Theme Statement and the statement can set a tone for the marketing campaigns.

By working with the Theme Statement in the future, the city will ensure that visitors will once more know what they can expect in Valkenburg. And, when implemented well, the offering in Valkenburg will meet or exceed the expectations of these tourists when visiting the city.

Another example is the industrial city of Wolfsburg, where I worked on several similar sessions. This is close to the touristic Harz area, however, tourists usually went to Braunschweig and other historical cities.

To address this, the city of Wolfsburg created a theme for their city, invested in related attractions and tourists came. Based on that success of focusing on the theme, other private tourism-related businesses decided to invest in Wolfsburg. Since then, everyone in Europe knows Wolfsburg as the car/technology city.

Wolfsburg lives up to this image by providing mainly automotive and technology-based attractions to millions of tourists every year.

Creating a completely new DNA

Many cities have a historical DNA they can build their tourism on. But some others see possibilities in targeting an audience which does not necessarily fit with their historical DNA.

Bilbao is a good example of this. Bilbao did not build its tourism out of the city’s history. Instead, it created a new DNA as an art city.The Guggenheim, Bilbao

Bilbao was an industrial harbour city in Spain. While it had an old town and an interesting location, not many tourists were interested in visiting. Then, on a former shipyard, the city built the (now famous) Guggenheim museum, designed by Frank Gerry. This was followed by all kinds of investments, based on the city’s new cultural tourism DNA.

Before focusing on this, Bilbao had almost no tourists. Now, the city creates around €150 million in tourism income every year.

Tourist cities: finding the right DNA

Finding a unique DNA is possible for every city that takes tourism seriously. Those destinations with historical DNA are at an advantage as, in general, historical DNAs are unique and not easy to copy.

Meanwhile, some destinations don’t have a historical DNA interesting enough to attract visitors or are seeking a new DNA to attract a particular target audience. If this is the case, these cities can create something new. But in that case, it is important to choose something unique and to implement this touristic DNA in such a way that it is not easy to copy, to avoid becoming just like other cities.

Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right

After a city has discovered its DNA, it can set up future plans in line with this vision. Destinations must, however, make sure they continue to keep this strategic plan and DNA in mind, being bold enough to say no to any future touristic development that is not in line with it.

Walt Disney became successful by creating DNA for his parks that still fits the audience. Many successful tourist cities do the same, succeeding when they follow the famous Walt Disney phrase: “Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.”

Previously published on Blooloop

Located about 70km apart, in Rotterdam and Amsterdam respectively, the Rotterdam Port Experience and new-look Heineken Experience may share part of their name, but otherwise differ in a number of ways.

By Owen Ralph

Whereas the Heineken attraction is based around a global brand that has a clear set DNA and, one hopes, appreciative audience, the Rotterdam Port Experience must engage its guests with what by definition is a less accessible topic. It also has the disadvantage of being located in a city with far fewer tourists than Amsterdam.

Located underneath the Erasmus Bridge, which links the port (Europe’s largest) to the rest of the city, the Rotterdam Port Experience makes clever use of its space, commandeering part of a car park and using a number of tricks to convince visitors this 1, 800 square metre building is much bigger than it really is.

The illusion begins when guests take an elevator ride, engineered by Lagotronics, to the top of a fictional skyscraper that, were it real, would replace the Euromast as Rotterdam’s tallest building. As they alight onto the observation deck on the “200th floor, ” guests take a dark ride around the top, peering down at the lights of the city down below.

And this is about as far as the storytelling goes, in terms of deliberate narrative. The attraction was created for the Rotterdam Harbour Company by Krandendonk Experience Network, which also designed the original Heineken Experience eight years ago. Rather than devise a single theme to thread the experience together, the team decided to use a more freestyle approach: “We do not take you by the hand – we want the visitors to piece together their own view of harbour life based around what they see inside, ” says project director Reinder Holtkamp.

Over 70 Dutch companies were involved in supplying the technology and equipment inside the Port Experience, but as with many of the best ideas, some of the most effective are also the most simple. In the foyer a huge map made from glass panels allows guests a unique perspective of Rotterdam and a sense of just how big the port is. Elsewhere there is a clever take on the timeline, using small displays with content that changes as users slide them along the line.

The largest, most expensive and hardest to install (they had to take out a wall to get it in) part of the Port Experience is the Harbor Ride, a simulator attraction comprising eight two-seater lifeboats that escape into the harbour for a perilous but action packed journey. The ride was by built to order by four companies, based around a concept from Kranendonk Experience Network.

Guests can also ride a jet ski through the harbour or, if they wish, sing a Dutch sea shanty, in a “blue screen” exhibit that superimposes their image onto a video backdrop. The resultant film can then be e-mailed to the friends, a nice viral marketing opportunity for the attraction’s operators.

Secondary spend opportunities though are few and far between, and while the end of tour gift shop features plenty of maritime-related merchandise, there is little dedicated to the Port Experience itself. Outside the attraction, signage is at a minimum, to the extent that the attraction’s existence may, unfortunately, go unnoticed by many of those passing by.

When it first opened in 2001, the Heineken Experience replaced a brewery tour that had gained a certain reputation amongst beer-thirsty tourists, and the brewer  now presides over one of Amsterdam’s most popular attractions.

Cleary Heineken wanted to communicate more about its brand, something that made it unique compared to other alcoholic beverages. BRC Imagination Arts, which was responsible for the recent overhaul of the Heineken Experience, defines it succinctly using a three-point outline: “Born in Amsterdam, raised by the world …cheers!”

The facility used to entertain around 350, 000 guests a year, and following the BRC revamp can now cater for closer to half a million. Both sets of figures are respectable for an attraction of this kind, particularly when one learns that the Heineken Experience is located “the wrong side of the canal” from most other Amsterdam tourist outlets.

“For Heineken though, the message communicated inside is more important than attendance, ” says Bart Dohmen, who heads up BRC’s European office in the Netherlands. “If, however, you can educate more people to become brand ambassadors and take your message around the world, then it is a win-win situation. The new-look attraction has only been open a short time, but already the indications are that it is working.”

Built inside what was a fully functioning brewery until 1988, the Heineken Experience takes guests on a tour that exploits the beer’s Dutch heritage but intertwines it seamlessly with the brand’s global ambitions in the 21st Century. Visitors are immersed in every aspect of the brewing process and get to see, smell, touch, and taste everything – the quality raw ingredients, the incomplete brew in progress, and the pleasure of a finished beer in the futuristic Star Bar.

BRC also adapted a motion base (by Rexroth Bosch) from the old Heineken Experience to create a theatre-style effects “ride” called Brew U. Although there’s a lot of technology at work behind the scenes throughout the attraction, it never distracts guests from the experience, or the brand.

At the end of the tour there is the chance for one more Heineken, which guests enjoy surrounded by 360-degree moving images of cities such as Hong Kong, London and Paris, chosen for their aspirational connotations. “Corporations with valuable brands recognise the importance of connecting fans to the values and ideals associated with their company and products, ” notes Dohmen.

Unlike the brewery tour of old, the emphasis now is on success, without excess. They may look bigger, but both beers served at the Heineken Experience are just 250ml each. Try getting drunk off that.