Smart tourism and the connected experience

Our daily lives are increasingly connected through technology, with our actions and behaviours constantly tracked. This evolution has profound implications for the visitor attraction sector, offering new ways to engage guests and enhance their experiences. Ignoring this digital shift risks falling behind competitors in an increasingly experience-driven economy.

Understanding the Connected Experience

In 2017, IBM published a paper, 'Ushering in the era of connected experiences,' defining this concept. Their research highlighted how data from automated processes and self-learning software builds meaningful customer relationships across various channels. These 'connected experiences' are consumable, adaptable, and enable customers to achieve their objectives anywhere, anytime, in a personalised and efficient manner.

While initially aimed at corporations, this warning is highly relevant to the experience economy. Attractions that fail to embrace digital transformation and understand the connected customer journey risk visitor discontent and disconnection. Traditionally, attractions have relied on more conventional engagement methods, but today's 'always-on' audience expects curated, technology-driven experiences.

Technology now plays a central role in delivering these curated experiences. An increasingly savvy audience can easily switch allegiance if their experience falls short. The 'connected experience' creates a seamless, integrated, and interoperable digital environment, where millions of pieces of data are exchanged constantly.

For visitor attractions, adopting a technology-driven approach to the 'connected experience' offers numerous benefits for both operators and audiences.

The Power of Data and Adaptive Engagement

At the core of connected experiences is data. The ability to interpret data quickly and convert it into meaningful information that connects with users is crucial. Over time, this data can predict behaviour, helping to build deeper, longer-lasting relationships – a goal for any brand. Marketers have analysed consumer behaviour for decades, but the sophistication of data gathering, and the speed at which insights are generated, have transformed.

Today, smart technology processes data, learns, and adapts, enabling 'adaptive engagement'. For example, Amazon uses habitual purchase data to predict when customers will run out of groceries, send reminders, and upsell complementary items. This benefits Amazon by enabling sales prediction and planning, and customers by offering convenience and seamless engagement.

Smart Tourism and Visitor Data Generation

In the 'age of consumability', visitor attractions can engage guests to increase their consumption of information or learning. The goal is to understand what activates each unique visitor, prompting them to absorb information while simultaneously generating data for smart technologies like cloud-based audience engagement platforms.

The Scale of Data Generation

Each person in the digital ecosystem generates millions of data pieces daily. According to Statista.com, 79 zettabytes of data were generated worldwide in 2021, projected to reach 181 zettabytes by 2025. With the Internet of Things (IoT) gathering momentum, even more data will be created as our world becomes increasingly connected.

The question for the experience economy is whether it has the capabilities to capture and unlock this vast amount of data to benefit the sector's long-term prosperity. Every byte of data a visitor creates represents potential revenue and insight waiting to be unlocked.

Overcoming Data Challenges for Attractions

Small to medium-sized attractions often face significant barriers to digital transformation, including technology affordability, lack of technical expertise, and limited resources. However, the past two years have seen rapid advancements, including the advent of Audience Engagement Platforms (AEPs).

To create a truly connected experience, attractions need to collect visitor data, harvest it, and transform it into valuable insights for personalised engagement. An Audience Engagement Platform (AEP) addresses these challenges.

How Audience Engagement Platforms Work

• AEPs capture data generated by visitors through a customisable, audience-facing visitor app.
• Powered by an easy-to-use operator platform, AEPs continuously track, analyse, and translate audience engagement data into actionable insights.
• By creating trackable digital engagement, operators gain insights into visitor behaviour, enabling personalised experiences and marketing communications to drive revenue.

AEPs facilitate two-way engagement through features like push notifications, emails, triggered content, and feedback, providing operators with a continuous loop of rich data and insights.

Real-World Impact of Connected Experiences

Consider a family visiting an attraction. Traditionally, they might use a paper ticket and map, with limited insight gained by the operator without manual surveys. With an Audience Engagement Platform, their experience is transformed:

• The family arrives with the app pre-installed or downloads it on-site, using it for advance ticket purchase and admission.
• They access an interactive map with wayfinding, pre-planning events and routes.
• The venue operator configures the app with beacon-triggered exhibits, interactive content, object recognition waypoints, and gamification (e.g., quizzes) without needing technical expertise.

After their visit, the family can continue to engage with unlockable content, reliving their experience. The AEP, recognising their unique digital signature, understands which exhibits resonated most. It can then facilitate pre-programmed, personalised activations such as push notifications for additional information, upcoming events, or new attractions, all based on their behaviour, thus extending engagement.

This approach conveys knowledge in a way that promotes retention and creates lasting memories. For the operator, the AEP tracks and monitors engagement from beginning to end. Attractions can determine which exhibits perform best by measuring dwell time and viewing heatmaps of visitor flow. Over time, this provides data-driven insights for informed decisions and better curation, leading to increased knowledge uptake, retention, and ultimately, greater revenue generation.

The 'connected experience' brings everyone together, creating a smarter, more engaging involvement for all concerned.