Getting To Your Attraction
- Have you thought about what the visitors first impression of your site is like? First impressions count a lot towards what sort of day your visitor might have so take into consideration how easy you are to find and how easy it is for families to access your entrance.
- How easy it is to find your attraction entrance, is it well signposted? There’s nothing worse than getting lost on the way to an attraction as it cuts time out of your day having fun, so make sure you’ve got lots of signs and directions.
- How large is your car park and its capacity? When it reaches a certain capacity, do you put notice at your entrance to say it is full or do you have an overflow car park you could quickly set up?
- Think about how your visitors get from their cars to your attraction, can you provide anything else that might help with guiding them like a train, better lighting, footpath suitable for prams etc.
Accommodation & Overnighters
- If you’re looking to attract more visitors from further away have you thought about investing in accommodation on site? Or creating deals with nearby accommodation like hotels for families stays and access to your attraction.
- With overnight stays you could increase alcohol sales as parents may not be driving.
- Early entry into the park – Can you offer incentives such as early entry or evening attractions or events for overnighters? This offers good incentive to spend more in your accommodation and at your hospitality outlets.
- What about offering visitors discount on their return stay or visit if they come back within 12 months?
- You could try making your visitors feel special with exclusive VIP queue jumps or incentives for overnight stays.
Variety & Quality In Hospitality
- What is your speed of service like? Do you offer fast food and self service kiosks?
- Have you thought about mobile pre-ordering? That way visitors can order ahead to collect their food and spend less time in queues.
- Do you offer food or drink bundles for families to help keep their overall costs down?
- Sustainability pledges often promote refillable drinks that can be accessed across an attraction to reduce plastic waste.
- How much variety do you offer in your outlets? Can someone book a VIP table with waitress service at one restaurant and use a self service kiosk in another area depending on their requirements?
- What quality and variety of food do you offer? Families will often plan ahead and look what food outlets you provide and what food is avaliable. Do you cater to all dietary preferences such as Vegan or high quality fast food?
- Picnic hampers are a great idea for families, why not promote these on your website for families to order ahead of their visit and collect when they arrive at your attraction or at a desired time.
Get More From Your Gift Shop
- Do you and your team keep an eye on the latest trendy items such as fidget spinners? This is a great example of a low cost, high volume stock item you could easily brand up and sell in your onsite gift shop. Any small items that can be branded and sold are perfect to help promote brand awareness.
- Parents may be put of allowing their children to create a pick’n’mix if you sell by weight as it could end up costing them a lot. So why not try and sell pre-packaged pick’n’mix bags for prices such as £2 or £3 so that parents are more likely to buy them.
- What can you provide for families outside of the gift shop environment, like maybe having a craft area or some educational trails parents can buy to do a nature walk with their family. Remember families are visiting your attraction to make memories so think of ways to help them do that and they may be more willing to spend.
What else can you do?
So what ways can you be more helpful to families and make your attraction more family friendly? Well convenience is key, if its helpful and convenient then it’s more likely to be used and these small things can help increase revenue in ways you may not have thought of. For example, have you considered what should be in yours shops? Maybe include items that will make parents lives easier i.e. change of clothes, nappies, baby wipes, knickers & boxer shorts for accidents, sun cream, bum cream… all the things families include in their changing bag but might have forgotten. Some more ideas for what you should include around your attraction are:
- Baby change and toilets in all hospitality locations
- Lockers everywhere
- VIP Zones
- Lockers
- Hire buggies
- Hire buggy boards on the back of buggy
- Hire Towels
- Hire Picnic Blankets
So there you have a few easy way to make your attraction more family friendly, but don’t forget that once you have made these great changes to your attraction, shout about it! Tell your audience, advertise on your social media pages or your website that you can order picnic baskets or hire buggys or that your entrance is pram friendly. If you’re an attraction that allows dogs make sure you promote that visitors can bring their pets, after all lot of staycationers take their four legged friends on holiday with them!
If you’d like to find out more about how VisiSoft can help your attraction make sure you contact us or book a free demo of our epos software.
