Key Insights from ROLLER’s 2025 Attractions Industry Benchmark Report
ROLLER, a powerful all-in-one venue management platform that encompasses POS, CRM, memberships, and more, has unveiled its inaugural Attractions Industry Report. As we approach 2025, the global attractions sector is undergoing significant transformations. Operators must adapt to evolving guest expectations and new economic challenges to ensure long-term success.
To assist venues in navigating these changes, ROLLER has compiled a new benchmark report featuring hundreds of thousands of data points. This resource aims to help expanding attraction companies gauge their performance against the broader market, understand customer expectations, and identify strategies to enhance revenue. The report is designed to provide actionable insights that can empower venues to thrive and maintain competitiveness in a rapidly changing environment.
Why Now?
The year 2024 represents a crucial juncture for the global attractions industry. With the pandemic behind us and new challenges on the horizon, including economic uncertainties and shifting visitor expectations, operators must remain agile and well-informed. As the industry continues to recover and innovate, having access to the right insights and resources is more vital than ever for sustaining growth and improving the guest experience.
Discussing the purpose of this new report, Finn states:
“One thing we love about the attractions industry is that operators are extremely collaborative and help each other out when they can. Our goal is to honour these collaborations and bring the community together so the industry can thrive together.”
The ROLLER Attractions Industry Report
To develop the Attractions Industry Report, the team collected and anonymised ROLLER data from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024. This data encompassed transaction information, booking trends, repeat visitation rates, and survey responses from operators.
The data has been categorised into three regions: EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), APAC (the Asia-Pacific region), and AMER (the Americas). Throughout the report, the data reveals key insights about guest behaviour, emerging trends, and opportunities for attractions to differentiate themselves.
The primary topics covered include booking and spending behaviour; parties, groups, and memberships; payments; and feature usage.
Booking and Spending Behaviour
This section of the report allows readers to compare their booking performance with others and gain insights into guest spending behaviour. Operators can learn how to optimise booking channels and boost revenue.
“Understanding guest booking and spending behaviour is key to unlocking revenue potential,” explains Sheridan. “When operators optimise their booking process—whether by enhancing the online guest journey or offering flexible payment methods—they’re not only meeting guest expectations but also increasing per-guest spend. It’s all about making the experience seamless and convenient for guests while driving more revenue.”
Online checkouts are on the rise, with a third of all bookings being made through this channel. The online checkout revenue share was 64% in EMEA, 48% in APAC, and 29% in AMER. Notably, 83.3% of these online transactions were completed on mobile devices. This trend towards online bookings is significant, especially as the report indicates that online checkout basket sizes are four times larger than those made at POS, particularly for amusement and theme parks.
Parties, Groups, and Memberships
Next, the ROLLER Attractions Industry Report delves into the performance of party and group bookings in 2024, as these can greatly influence revenue and foster sustainable growth.
The data reveals that most parties are booked 2-4 weeks in advance, providing operators ample time to plan targeted marketing strategies. The average party size ranges from 11.5 to 14.4 guests, with a higher per-head spend compared to standard bookings. Interestingly, while party bookings have seen a slight decline of 3.1% year-on-year, revenue has only decreased by 1.1%, partly due to increased pricing.
Membership is a growing trend in AMER, with 51% of venues offering it. Members tend to visit significantly more than non-members—261.5% more, to be precise.
In addition to generating regular income, parties and memberships are crucial for maintaining visitor engagement and loyalty. Sheridan notes:
“Releasing new products is always a daunting time, so the insights around memberships and party bookings should empower those looking to implement these recurring revenue streams to do so with confidence! The effort of setting up these offerings is more than worth it, as they’re key drivers for customer acquisition and repeat business.”
Payments
One reliable indicator for operators to assess whether their attraction is on a path to success in 2025 is to examine payment preferences in 2024.
This section of the Attractions Industry Report highlights how payments have evolved within the industry. A key takeaway is that offering flexible, modern payment options, such as digital wallets and Buy Now Pay Later, is essential for maximising customer satisfaction and increasing transaction values.
Key findings show that digital wallets have seen significant growth, with a 6.8% increase in EMEA. These payment methods are gradually overtaking traditional card-based systems like Visa and Mastercard, with basket sizes for digital wallets being 43.5% higher. Venues that accept these newer payment methods stand to benefit, underscoring the importance of keeping pace with payment trends.
Feature Usage
Finally, the ROLLER Attractions Industry Report addresses feature usage, focusing on how attractions leverage technology and venue management platforms.
Elements such as digital waivers and online accounts are becoming increasingly vital for venues aiming to streamline operations and reduce staff workload while ensuring visitors enjoy a seamless experience. Notably, 68.2% of venues currently utilise digital waivers, with adoption rates reaching 100% in physical attractions like climbing parks. Waivers are essential for enhancing check-in speed, reducing wait times, and mitigating risk.
89.2% of venues offer gift cards to engage guests and foster loyalty, while 51.7% use flags and bans to monitor visitor behaviour and ensure compliance, creating safer environments. Additionally, 23.8% of venues provide online accounts, which help reduce the number of booking modifications staff must manage, saving time and money while meeting the expectations of today’s guests.
“Maximising feature usage isn’t just about streamlining operations—it’s about enhancing the guest experience,” says Sheridan. “Tools like digital waivers, gift cards, and online accounts can reduce staff workload and improve efficiency, but they also create a smoother, more engaging experience for guests. It’s a win-win that directly impacts both guest satisfaction and revenue.”
Key Takeaways from the ROLLER Attractions Industry Report
ROLLER developed this report to provide operators with a comprehensive overview of the latest industry trends and valuable insights to drive business success.
Some of the report’s most intriguing findings include the increase in online conversion rates, indicating that attractions must have a seamless and mobile-friendly booking system to meet customer expectations. Another key takeaway is that guests tend to spend more when booking online compared to in-person, highlighting the need for operators to optimise their online booking processes.
Moreover, more individuals are booking via mobile devices than ever before, emphasising the necessity of a mobile-optimised online booking process available 24/7, as many bookings occur outside of regular hours.
While party bookings may have declined, pricing increases have mitigated the impact, suggesting that operators should ensure they have the right pricing strategies in place.
Finally, attractions should consider offering flexible payment options, such as digital wallets, which are gaining popularity and can enhance guest spending and transaction values.
“The attractions industry and broader economic landscape is ever-changing,” remarks Finn. “We created the report to provide the community with proven trends and data to help them stay ahead and enter 2025 with confidence.”
To explore these findings further, download the ROLLER Attractions Industry Report here.
