3 Technological trends on theme park industry. And how they can leverage your customer experience.

A visit to the amusement park, to this day, is an exciting event for everyone, especially children. A fun and adventurous place to hang out with both friends and family alike, theme parks are the go to spot for an easy weekend stress reliever.

But post COVID, the world of entertainment has been changed permanently. The number of other options of entertainment have increased making it less likely for someone to pick a theme park as their entertainment fix of choice.

Moreover, the target audience of theme parks is now changing from millennials to Gen-Z which comes with a whole other array of expectations from a theme park experience. It is thus imperative for the theme park owners, organizers and designers to overcome these challenges and recover from the losses that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused.

How old legacy methods of attracting the public fails to work in this day and age

New rides and attractions are the only source of increasing footfall to these theme parks and for these new rides to be built a large amount of land is needed which ends up as a big investment and a hassle to maintain. But is the introduction of new roller coasters satisfy or noted by Gen Z target audience ? That’s a big question mark. They instead expect something new and innovative to grab their attention and to make them want to choose a theme park for their dose of entertainment.

Moreover, many rides and attractions need a sizable number of workers to operate and maintain them. Thus creating new rides on this scale will lead to more hiring and higher pay to meet the customers rising demand.

On the other side. A year without income has forced most of the regional parks to cancel plans of adding new attractions and this is the only main source of driving attendance in this business for now.

Another problem that will be faced is the long lines in the parks. Most of the times these lines stretch far beyond the actual ride. While distancing is being gradually reduced, we can expect that with some distancing and the increased capacity of people that these lines will be fairly long.

Three technologies that can enhance the theme park experience

Technology can solve many problems and can allow the designers, operators, owners achieve the goal of making the people immersed in a whole new world.

VR (Virtual Reality) is deemed to be the cutting edge technology that will take theme park attractions into the next generation. VR is set to deliver great entertainment and an “out of this world’’ experience.

VR will be used to transport users into an alternate world along with the integration of motion capture technology to allow them to move around and interact with the alternate world that can be tailor made to suit both the theme park owners’ and the consumers’ needs.

The amount of detail that can be achieved with the latest 3D development engines like Unreal and Unity make it possible to make the virtual world that much more realistic for the most immersive experience possible.

VR technology is already adopted in various places. One of the notable attractions is The VOID, a brand new virtual reality entertainment centre at downtown Disney. One of their attractions is Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. People put on their headset, grab a backpack and a blaster to fend off storm troopers and are transported to a galaxy far far away using scents and vibrations to enhance the experience.

Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire — The VOID

The VR experience would cause longer lines even worse, as each individual has to be hooked up with the VR headset and has to be calibrated to his/her specifications.

AR (Augmented Reality) on the other hand is a group experience and it blends in with the real world by overlaying 2D/3D content in our field of view. From a hardware perspective, this is minimal investment for the theme park as it allows guests to use their own devices. Large screen AR setups can be used as digital mirrors where viewers are captured live along with the AR content on the screen.

AR is already implemented in various parks. One of the notable ones is Walt Disney World Resort. Park visitors can take interactive photos with characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse behind them, who appear as playful as ever and can even give guests a virtual hug. Disney fans can also take selfies or videos on their own while wearing an augmented reality version of the trademark Disney World mouse ears cap, with balloons floating in the background.

AR implementation at Walt Disney World Resort

AR wearables like Google Glasses or Microsoft HoloLens can enhance the theme park experience by amplifying roller coasters with digital content, can entertain guests while waiting in lines and can inform guests about a specific ride’s details as an overlay and so much more.

But again the “use your own device” method might put off the consumers due to the fact that they will be required to download an app which no one will be willing to do in reality. The wearables approach will again face the same problem of VR, in that it is a high cost investment and the time taken to set up for each individual will be high, hence worsening queue times.

Another innovation could be the introduction of social robots. They could act as a new way to entertain and engage a group of people at once without any setup needed like VR and AR. It would also be a group experience and would therefore be very easy to share this new experience with your closest friends and family. Queues wouldn’t take long for this as there is no individual calibration or setup required. On top of this the social robot could be used to entertain crowds who are already waiting in line for some other attraction present in the theme park.

This implementation of social robots will create another method for the theme park owners and organizers to market their park outside of the park itself. They can create flash mobs in various public places which will increase the eyes on their brand and ultimately increase the number of people visiting their theme park to see what they have to offer. On top of this, if the theme park has a mascot or an IP ( Intellectual property ), they can bring them to life through these social robots. This would increase brand recognition and would ultimately make the IP itself more recognizable and lovable to the public.

One notable example of this would be Disney Imagineering’s Project Kiwi. It is a free-walking robot modelled after the fan favourite character Groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy series. Unlike the many animatronic figures seen in other parks, it’s not stuck in one place. It walks towards the people, attached by only a thin cable used for programming. The eyes are expressive and it can wave to people as well. The project is still very much a work in progress, there is a lot of work to be done on the way that Kiwi interacts with the public. Hence there are no immediate plans to put Kiwi in parks.

Disney Imagineering’s Project Kiwi in action

There is a problem in that social robots would need an AI on which they would work if they are to be autonomous or would need an operator to control them from a remote location via a dashboard to not break the immersion. The robot would also need a combination of sensors and cameras to not bump into the surroundings. All these have to be tested beforehand to ensure a smooth operation when introduced to the public.

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