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Business Guidance

Increased demand for technology innovations in Attractions

Contents

Contents

Increased demand for technology innovations in Attractions

1. Virtual reality (VR)

Virtual reality is key when looking at attraction technology trends. VR is evolving to include social interaction, a good story and gameplay, and its application goes far beyond theme parks alone, with Museums and historic houses, castles, indoor and outdoor attractions now using this technology to enhance the visitor experience making it more immersive and memorable for the newly curious returning visitor.

Holoride, Universal Pictures and Ford launched the world’s first in-car VR experience, Universal Monsters Presents: Bride of Frankenstein Holoride, at Universal CityWalk.

The use of virtual reality in Attractions will only continue to grow and evolve, however there is also an emerging trend in the Industry towards Low-Tech immersion, with large players in the industry such as Disney concentrating upon immersive themed lands in real life.

2. Augmented reality (AR)

AR is an augmented view of the real world. This school of thought is preferred by Disney CEO – Bob Iger, preferring to keep visitors in the theme park, and not a virtual world.  It is a technology extremely suited to the Museum environment, but the key is to ensure the content is relevant and adds value to the experience, rather than detracting from it.

This technology is particularly useful for collecting and (careful) use of the data it provides from your visitors, as they will be using the AR application from their own mobile phone.  This use of Wifi technology and ‘BIG DATA’ could certainly be harnessed by Attractions operators to enhance and optimise the guest experience and understand visitor behaviours to shape the product.

Some examples of AR:

In Theme Parks: 

In Museums:

Other uses:

  • The Smithsonian Channel also launched the ‘Apollo’s Moon Shot’ augmented reality app, which allowed users to experience Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing of 1969. Users were put on the surface of the moon, virtually moonwalking around the craters in a state of altered gravity.

3. Robots

There have been mixed fortunes for Robot technology.  The Henn na chain of hotels in Japan, famed for its robot staff, removed almost half of the bots as they caused more work for human staff.  There are still robots in place in the futuristic ‘FlyZoo’ hotel features robot staff delivering cocktails and fresh towels.  Innovative robots will assist wheelchair users at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. They can carry food and other goods, guide people to their seats and provide event information.

In attractions, plans were unveiled for a Robot Science Museum built by robots in Seoul, South Korea. It will be constructed using robotic construction techniques and drones.  Disney have stated that Robots are being trained to perform acrobatic stunts, and such an a animatronic Spiderman will soon be swinging above the Avengers Campus.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Interesting developments over the past year include:

Deep fake

This technology we are becoming increasingly aware of due to the sinister applications and featuring in TV crime dramas.  The development of such technology – where software is now available which can generate videos using just one image is now being used in Attractions to enhance experiences and interpretations come to life.  The Dali Museum used AI and machine learning to create an uncanny lookalike of Salvador Dali, who welcomes and interacts with visitors.  Use of face transfer and voice conversion technology has applications within the Attractions industry – avatars who look like real people and this could be applied in Ips such as actors from film/TV franchises.  One to watch.

5. Interactivity

Now that Covid has enhanced people’s expectations of personalised service and the trend is that they are willing to pay for this, Interactivity – previously an ongoing attraction technology trend from the last few years - is becoming increasingly important. Static exhibits and beautiful theming have their place, but in the post-covid world expectations are heightened from all demographics, and a wider range of demographic are now more digi-savvy than ever,  It is not only now just Millennials and Gen Z, Attractions need to embrace smartphones and the opportunities they bring to all types of visitor.

To capture this opportunity to enhance the Attraction product, and in doing so improve the guest experiences, grasp repeat business and engender guest loyalty, interactive technology can be used to make the guest experience it more engaging, immersive and personalised. Smartphones have altered visitors’ expectations when it comes to engaging with attractions and interactivity without contact – i.e. with visitors’ own technology is the perfect solution to the challenge of contactless visitor experiences.

Examples from around the world:

Personalised experiences and a new kind of storytelling are now being seen.  There is a growing desire for experiences which people drive themselves – especially in the world where people are hesitant to interact with strangers and those outside their social grouping.