How Hopetown Darlington Transformed Visitor Experience with VisiSoft

Company Overview

Hopetown Darlington is a 7.5-acre railway-themed visitor attraction, newly redeveloped with a £37 million investment, blending heritage, technology, and family entertainment. The site features a museum, adventure play park, exhibition hall, immersive experience ride, and a collection of over 30,000 artefacts, appealing to both railway enthusiasts and young families.

Since its grand opening in July 2024, Hopetown Darlington has welcomed over 100,000 visitors. With an ambitious target of 300,000 annual visitors, they needed a scalable solution to manage high footfall, simplify operations, and provide detailed reporting.

VisiSoft provided an end-to-end ticketing and POS solution, ensuring seamless transactions across multiple locations. With nine fixed till points and six mobile tablet tills, staff could efficiently process admissions, while the reporting dashboard gave management real-time insights into sales and visitor trends.

Since adopting VisiSoft, Hopetown Darlington has refined its ticketing process based on visitor behaviour.

Key benefits so far include:

✅ Clearer financial reporting – The daily sales summary report provides a breakdown of revenue across play park admissions, exhibitions, and retail sales, giving each department clear performance insights.

✅ Seamless transactions across a large site – With tills and mobile tablets in place, staff can efficiently manage ticket sales and queue flow, improving the visitor experience.

✅ Optimised ticketing structure – Separating ticket types instead of bundling prevents revenue duplication while ensuring accurate visitor tracking.

Beyond ticketing, Hopetown has also started using VisiSoft to explore online retail opportunities, generating additional revenue outside of standard admissions. As visitor numbers grow, they plan to integrate more tablet tills and scanning devices to further streamline operations.

Another valuable benefit of working with VisiSoft has been access to a wider network of visitor attractions. The VIP platform and VisiForum have provided Hopetown Darlington with ongoing support, collaboration, and industry insights that they wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.

• The VIP platform allows Hopetown Darlington to submit feature requests and vote on suggestions from other attractions, ensuring that development priorities align with real customer needs. One of Hopetown Darlington’s suggestions—the ability to archive old events to declutter the system—was implemented after other attractions voted for it.
• VisiForum, a networking and learning event for VisiSoft customers, has been a game-changer. A session on donation maximisation strategies inspired Hopetown Darlington to immediately implement new ideas, increasing their potential for additional revenue.
• A collaborative approach to software improvements – Seeing other attractions face similar challenges has reinforced the value of working within a community rather than struggling in isolation.

Hopetown Darlington’s journey is just beginning. With a major festival planned for later this year, they expect a significant influx of first-time visitors, with the aim of converting them into repeat guests.

Their next steps include:

📊 Maximising reporting capabilities – Refining analytics to better track visitor spending and seasonal trends.
🚀 Scaling up events and activities – Expanding the attraction’s offering to keep visitors engaged and encourage return visits.

With VisiSoft’s advanced ticketing and reporting systems, Hopetown Darlington is well-positioned to manage growth effectively. Being part of the VisiSoft community ensures they always have access to the latest innovations, industry insights, and expert support to help shape their future success.