Increase your attraction ticket sales by letting others do the work!

The whole goal of working in the sales department ( or being the sales department if you are a smaller attraction!) is to increase your attraction ticket sales.  Whether that includes strategies on selling to groups, social media initiatives or making tickets available from the home page of your website ( which I discuss in this blog post) most of your daily work should revolve around increasing revenue through admission sales.

So how do you do that with your limited time and resources? Develop programs and get involved with others who can sell your tickets for you. Think of them as your ambassadors, or your ‘virtual’ sales team.

One of the biggest and most successful examples of that is Viator. Viator is an online ticketing platform developed in Australia but now found all over the world. You might have first heard about it originally when Trip Advisor acquired the company in 2014.

Before that, attractions would work with Viator on establishing products and pricing, and their tickets would be for sale online. Viator is more popular in Europe so it was a great way to get your attraction in front of many international guests at no cost.

But once TripAdvisor acquired the company, there was now a seamless way for someone to read reviews about an attraction, and purchase tickets immediately. No more leaving the Trip Advisor website, finding the attraction website, and then looking for the way to purchase a ticket. Seamless. And as an attraction, this purchase chain requires no work on your part. Here is a link to their supplier page and how to have them start selling your tickets.

I will discuss Viator in depth in a future post, so let’s move on to some other strategies to help increase your ticket sales with little to no work on your part.

Many of you are familiar with the Entertainment books that offer discounts for attractions, restaurants, and more. But did you know they have evolved to a mobile format as well? There are a lot of ways to leverage this program and I suggest you look into it.

How about partnering with several other attractions and offering a passport? There are products like Citypass if you are located in large cities, but smaller destinations can still make this work. Start small, and take the time to work out all the procedures. How will payments work and how will you track purchases? As with any worthwhile project, when more work is done on the front end, the launch and first year will be easier.

Does your Chamber of Commerce or local visitor center have the capability of selling tickets for you? If so, it’s like having a remote ticket office. Make sure anyone that staffs that booth has had the opportunity to visit your attraction so they can be an informed sales person.

Do you have any partnerships with local lodging properties? As we all know, most people don’t travel for the lodging options, they travel to go to attractions. So for your local hotels, B&B’s and campgrounds, selling your tickets makes their rooms more appealing. Help them develop packages that they can promote on your website. Maybe they can build in a gift card for your gift shop, or lunch at a nearby restaurant. Packages help sell rooms and this is a win-win idea. Again, take the time to document the process for everyone so it is a smooth transaction for your staff, as well as the lodging partner.

I just found out about another company this week when I went to renew my membership to my local PBS station. With an upgraded membership, I was eligible to get a MemberCard. I immediately put on my tourism salesperson hat and went to their website. It is a discount 2-1 ticket program aimed at PBS members. What I like about it is that it is free, and your business will get free promotion throughout the year. You can choose what station you want to work with. For many of us, getting this high net worth visitor through the doors of our attraction can be a great benefit. For those attractions that have membership programs, you are getting in front of visitors who are already paying members of an organization so they are much more likely to consider becoming a member of yours.

As a small business, you have a lot to do every week. Try out one or more of these sales tools and let me know how they work for you. Here’s to bringing more visitors through your doors!