How To Make Your Visitor & Tourist
Attraction Cashless In 2022

Visitor attraction management solutions have increased in popularity over the last couple of years, these systems allow attractions to engage with their customers in a new intelligent way.

As technology has evolved and changed so has the visitor journey, that can now start before they even enter the park with the purchase of online tickets. So what does the future look like for this ever evolving industry?

Going Cashless

You only have to look to visitor attractions over in China or America to see what the future could hold. Many attractions in other countries started to adopt the idea of a cashless park or attraction long before COVID-19 changed the world. The idea of a cashless attraction means that no EPOS system within the park holds physical money or cash. Instead they would only use any card, pre-paid cash cards or contactless payment for all the items within their park, meaning money would never physically change hands between two people. Strange idea? We think not.

Most of the world has been shaken by COVID-19, it has changed the view on handling of cash, that was already being pushed out much like the idea of ‘writing a cheque’ is now very rare. Most families or attraction visitors will be focused on having a great day out, the demand for seamless and fast service is higher than ever. By making your attraction cashless and only accepting card or contactless payments you can speed up queues at retail and food outlet, plus you’ll have peace of mind that every transaction is safe and reliable. From retail outlets like your cafe’s and restaurants, to ticket admissions and gift shops, you can apply cashless payment systems throughout you park.

How you can make the customer journey cashless:

• Online Booking – Before you guests even get to your park you can make a first impression on them. The difference between an easy-to-use online booking system and a difficult one can make a world of difference. Ensure that at this initial booking stage, your ticketing system provides the user with a smooth experience and informs them your site is cashless.
• Parking – Paid or Free? If you’re onsite attraction has paid parking, you could simply move to a contactless payment system there too. Many locations have adopted contactless payment for parking over the last few years as it begun to get harder and harder for people to carry the exact cash required for the machine.
• Admissions – If your visitor has completed the online customer journey, you can help them skip the queues and enter straight into your park with simple QR code scanning. If a customer needs to purchase a ticket at the front entrance again this can be done through chip and pin or contactless payments. At this point you can inform them it is a cashless complex and if they would prefer to pay in cash, they have the option to pre-load a cash card to be used around the park this would work similarly to gift card functionality.
• Donations – If you are a heritage site, museum, cathedral or another site that simply asks for a donation towards entry you can set up contactless payments upon arrival. Having a small payment station at the entrance of your attraction for donations means as visitors enter they simply tap their card and an amount determined by your site is taken. Alternatively self service donation stations could be located around the attraction. You can still keep the cash boxes for donations as the more traditional visitor may want to use them.
• Food Outlets – Restaurants, Cafes, Delis, Ice-Cream Kiosks, Takeaway food trucks, contactless payment is generally the norm for most visitors to these outlets. Pre-COVID-19 the contactless card payment limit was £30, it has now increased at most places to be £45, plus there are limitless payments through Apple and Google pay.
• Retail Outlets – Preloaded payment cards for your attraction, contactless or gift cards, retail outlet EPOS systems can handle it all. Speed up queues at your tills with faster payments in your gift, farm and souvenir shops.