“Ticketing systems are in the midst of a significant evolution to keep pace with the changing needs of venues and guests.

Mobile ticketing is one of the biggest trends. Last season three to five per cent of a venue’s overall online ticket sales came from mobile devices and we expect this number to continue to grow substantially over the next few years.

Operators also want mobile point-of-sale solutions, so they can deploy staff to their front entrances on busy days to help cut queues.

Integration with Apple’s Passbook application is a recent development, which allows iPhone users to collect and easily access digital versions of boarding passes, loyalty rewards and even tickets in one iPhone app. This solution enables guests to import ticket purchases from a number of attractions.

The tradition of waiting at the gate to buy a ticket or enter a park will quickly become obsolete. Disney is making some bold moves with its MyMagic+ initiative.”

“The shift to online, hosted services has made a big impact on how facilities can serve their customers while creating a better way for owners and managers to keep costs down and create a more secure environment.

Guests want a seamless experience, from the moment they buy a ticket to how they enter the facility. It should be easy and intuitive. Customers don’t want to buy a ticket online and then have to stand in line at the ticket counter so an attendant can exchange it for a gate pass. They want bar-coded tickets, which can be printed or sent to a mobile phone and scanned directly at the gate.

Maintaining security on admissions is an ongoing challenge, especially when a facility is using two systems that aren’t communicating. Relying on an attendant to reconcile a ticket purchased online with a gate pass, whether through a separate computer programme or by keeping track in a notebook, makes a facility vulnerable to loss. Having one system to do it all in an integrated manner increases security, gives a better guest experience, saves on labour costs and enables accurate reporting.”

“Operators want ways to be more innovative with tools in order to drive revenue. Many operators are looking at integrated solutions, where one system is used to sell tickets, passes, memberships, educational programmes, retail, food and more. This provides them with the ability to cross promote across their outlets and drive overall cap revenue.

Many operators are asking how they can get their passholders and members to spend more when they visit. Creating innovative packages, which include stored value, retail and food items, as well as having the ability to incentivise through a custom loyalty programme, are tools that drive revenue.

Also, collecting spending trend data through one solution allows operators to make educated business decisions and takes the guest experience to a new personalised level.

Guests want convenience and to spend more time on rides than in lines. They also want one-stop shopping – to buy their admission ticket, event ticket and stored-value card in one go, increasingly from their computer or phone.

The full implementation of chip and pin payment technologies (EMV) in the US by 2015 presents a huge, potentially costly, challenge for operators, who will have to implement chip and pin readers, or face a shift of liability.

There’s a vibrant conversation around cloud ticketing: how it can benefit operators and how it can be made more reliable and safe. For large facilities, I’m not sure they’re ready to bank on the speed of a cloud ticketing system to get 10,000 people or more through their gates quickly. For smaller facilities, it’s a great option to weigh against their overall maintenance and running costs of a local application. I predict a hybrid approach for those who need speed customer facing transactions and a cloud/web based approach for back office functions.”

“Operators are looking at introducing as many sales channels as possible, to ensure visitors have every opportunity to purchase tickets from a variety of sources – web from kiosks, mobile devices and third party outlets.

We’re finding that operators are keen to introduce promotional items on tickets. These could be in the form of tear off vouchers for discounts in the retail or catering areas on the day of the visit to encourage third party spend, or to provide incentives to promote repeat visits.

More recently, we’ve seen an increase in operators seeking a fully hosted software solution, where in-house staff are accessing software and data held on remote serviced and managed servers. This allows operators to implement systems quickly and efficiently, with much reduced initial capital costs.

An area where we see potential for growth is in tracking visitors within an attraction to see what areas, exhibits and rides are being used and when. One way of achieving this is by use of RFID tickets, which can provide real time feedback as visitors move around an attraction.”

“Operators biggest ticketing concern is getting as many guests into an attraction as possible, in the shortest period of time, while capturing the maximum amount of demographic data for future marketing campaigns, and at the same time controlling all finances.

Guests want the ability to glean as much information as possible about their upcoming visit during the pre-booking process, so they can make an informed decision on their ticket purchase. On arrival, they want their entry experience to be smooth and trouble-free.

One of the challenges for ticketing companies is second-guessing the next emerging technology, which will require integration into ticketing. I think the next major step will be greater use of NFC (Near Field Communications – or RFID) capability in mobiles, which lends itself perfectly to contact-less ticketing technologies.”

“The key move in ticketing is the change from box office to online purchasing. Many attractions operators are now looking at their social media strategy and how it relates to these changes.

Attractions operators also want increased functionality, especially in the area of visitor analysis, to inform promotions and marketing initiatives. We’re constantly enhancing and upgrading our solution to meet these requirements.

The biggest challenge at the moment is related to new communication technologies and how we keep abreast of all that’s happening, particularly regarding smartphones and even intelligent televisions, where the ability to obtain any type of goods and services is going to be almost predominantly electronic. We can envisage this happening, but don’t know within what timescale, so our development work has to be very much a suck-it-and-see process and then hope that we’re ready when the big changes come.

With new electronic forms of communication, physical tickets may eventually cease to exist. Cloud based computing will continue to develop and suppliers will have to move to this method of delivery or be left behind.”