Theme Parks and Crowd Handling May Never Be the Same After the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic makes us look at each other differently; we keep our distance, suspicious of whether others are contagious or not, isolated and atomized in our work and social lives. How will this affect our behavior after COVID-19 has come and gone?

There are two theories: We might get over it and continue our lives as we did before, or, as many scientists predict, we may change our behavior permanently and become more cautious about infections. This psychological imprint could have drastic effects on business, including the theme park and attractions industry. Theme parks are known as crowded places, packed with people every weekend, with queue lines being some of the most prolonged human-to-human contact at a park.

To get a better understanding for how these common park dynamics are being viewed through a more critical lens, Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin sat down with Peter Rødbro, CEO of The Experience Ticket, to get his take on the future of crowd management in public spaces such as theme parks.

Do guests really want to stay in queue lines after COVID-19, or will they be reluctant to do so and prefer to go to theme parks without lines, or avoid them all together? Rødbro mentioned research that has shown waiting in queues was already a top guest complaint, and until now, somehow the parks could get away with it as a kind of fact of life. Pressing health and hygienic awareness, though, could be the tipping point where crowded queues are simply no longer socially acceptable.

How would a theme park with no queue lines operate? Would this affect the business model? Does this impact the daily capacity? And what digital infrastructure is needed to pull off such a major shift? Rødbro and the team at The Experience Ticket share their research and industry experience.

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