For more than 100 years, Ripley Entertainment has been a world leader in providing family attractions. It has expanded from a small daily newspaper cartoon drawn by Robert Ripley, which first appeared in 1918, to a global entertainment business. Today, the company operates more than 100 attractions in 10 countries worldwide. These include Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Ripley’s Aquariums, Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks, Ripley’s Haunted Adventure, Guinness World Record attractions and many more.
GoPhoto provides visitor attractions with innovative photography services that let guests capture lasting memories of their experience. For today’s visitors, photography is an integral part of a visit. With this in mind, GoPhoto offers solutions to increase an attraction’s revenue and encourage guests to share their experiences online.
The appeal of Ripley Entertainment
To learn more about Ripley Entertainment and GoPhoto’s new joint venture, blooloop speaks to Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley Entertainment and former IAAPA board chair, and Daniel Duivestein, founder of GoPhoto.
“The company is 106 years old, give or take, and started as a cartoon,” Pattison tells us. “Then we got into the business – our founder, Robert Ripley – of displaying very unusual artefacts, which coined the phrase ‘believe it or not’, because you could choose to believe it, or not believe it – but everything we presented was true. Over time, we realised that we’re in the attractions business, so we’ve moved into several other different kinds of entertainment for people.”
“We basically sell time for families and friends to have fun,” he says. “This has evolved into wax museums. We own Guinness World Records and have attractions; we have three aquariums that do very well. We have a hotel water park with more than 400 rooms and an indoor water park in Canada. Plus, we have haunted houses, miniature golf courses, mirror mazes, simulators, and travelling shows. So there’s not too much we’re not afraid to try out, and so far, it’s working out fine for us.”
On Ripley Entertainment’s appeal, Pattison adds: “First of all, you have to be able to trust the brand that you’re going to have a good experience, and your hard-earned money is going to be well spent. You have to have an attractive offering for the audience. You have to know your audience. And your team is probably your most critical to making a difference between a good and great experience. And we have a great team, I will say that.”
Innovative photography services
Amsterdam-based GoPhoto was founded ten years ago while Duivestein was operating an attraction with his brother. “We were working on different photo systems to implement, and I discovered that we lacked efficiency, so we tried to find a better solution. We couldn’t find one. So, I decided to start GoPhoto. We deliver hardware and software to operate your own photo retail business to attractions and theme parks globally,” he tells us.
“GoPhoto delivers everything, an end-to-end solution, and the staff makes us a tech company from the base up. We apply all the tools, including the consumables and staff training, and we monitor your sales just to maximise the potential of that system. Of course, we use a lot of AI technology and enhancements to improve the guest experience and get the most out of every photo we take.”
New joint venture with Ripley Entertainment
As for the strategic collaboration between Ripley Entertainment and GoPhoto, Duivestein says: “It was back during the COVID period that Ripley reached out to us. Jim gave his team instructions to find solutions for more self-operated systems, self-to-order food and beverage, and all those kinds of things.
“One of his general managers at Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach decided to punch into Google, ‘self-operating system kiosk photo’. Then, he came to our website and reached out to us to see what we could do. We explained what we did and that we were working on a self-order station, and they came out to see how it worked. They liked what they saw – and that’s how we started our relationship.”
Pattison says: “What happened, too, after COVID, we had a lot of trouble finding employees, like many people did and still do today. Part of our initiative was to see if we could become more efficient in different parts of our ancillary revenue streams.”
When the two companies started the conversation on entering more markets with the GoPhoto system, they “wanted to know what our presence will be now and in the future in the United States to see how feasible it is to expand to all those markets,” Duivestein says. “When we got into the discussion, I told [Pattison] about our vision and global desires of being the market leader in this field,” he adds.
Taking GoPhoto to new markets
“Of course, you need more than just money to expand into those new markets. You need expertise, knowledge of those markets, and feedback from those attractions to improve your system to become that market leader. Ripley’s is the perfect company that can provide us with all that information and back-office support as well as jumpstart our growth here in the US.”
Pattison says Ripley Entertainment invested in GoPhoto because “we like the product, we like the people, and we like the future.” He adds: “We always try to support new initiatives in our company to stay current. Unfortunately, I’m no longer our target audience, so we have to start listening to what everybody else thinks our guests are looking for, and then we have to provide it.”
“Long story short: we like the product, we like the company, I like Daniel. We met a few times in Europe, and we liked his team, the people we met. Our role as a company is to support young entrepreneurial thinking and businesses, particularly with clever ideas and the will to work. Daniel is moving his family to the USA, which will be a great experience to support his business and the growth of his company. So that’s why we got in it.”
Photo opportunities and products are a good revenue source for Ripley Entertainment and other attraction operators, but the sector has evolved. “Years ago, as soon as they invented the mobile phone and the iPhone in particular, I thought the photo business was over and everybody would be taking their own pictures. That has, of course, evolved – it’s become an important part of everyone’s lifestyle and the different connections they have and platforms they use,” Pattison says.
Photo business continues to thrive
“But what turned out was that the photo business can provide certain backgrounds, certain initiatives to create a memory that you cannot get yourself on your phone – all based on creative thinking. Many companies are out there doing this, and they started to really thrive even after the iPhone or Android showed up.
“I was shocked at this, to be honest with you. I didn’t think it would be a big deal, but because of the backgrounds and different ways that we can present you and your family creating a memory, it’s become more popular than ever.”
He adds: “I’ll also say that with the digital component, now you can download things online, and there are different ways that we can deliver the product.”
Duivestein says: “By delivering the product, the actual tangible photo has become more and more desirable. In our days, we went with the film to the store, then came the CD-ROM and USB stick. Nowadays, if you’re lucky, you make a book once a year with all the photos of your holidays, but you don’t go to the store anymore to print those photos. If you provide that opportunity for instant printing at that location, like Jim mentioned, that brings the success of photo systems and photo operations.”
GoPhoto’s system is fast, efficient and automated. It’s also designed to meet changing guest expectations. Duivestein says:
“No one wants to wait in front of a camera to take the photo, and we don’t want to have long lines, so we need to have an efficient system for high footfall locations. Speed is very important…The efficiency here is very important, and that’s how we build our systems. Everything we try to do is to automate those workflows as much as possible without making it feel all automated.”
Speed and efficiency at GoPhoto stations
The GoPhoto system includes a capture tower and order station. The former is easy to use and efficient. The order station allows visitors to pay for photos using either a QR code or facial recognition software.
There’s “always a human element” at GoPhoto stations. “It’s not self-service because we still want to provide a service level at the order stations.” These employees welcome and guide visitors, who can then “buy their photos all the way through the printing part.”
Duivestein says: “It’s all automated, but you want someone there who provides a little bit of service. Reducing that staff by not having to edit all these photos or having to print them out one by one makes it still very efficient and a low-staff handling system.”
Pattison says: “Another thing, too, is that people don’t necessarily want to be sold like they did in the old days… they’ve already made up their mind. All they want to be is connected so they can make their own decision and make it easy to pay. So that’s part of the way that times have changed.”
On top of increased revenue, photo products can result in social sharing and, therefore, free promotion for a visitor attraction. “Having that family moment when you’re actually entering an attraction captured in a fun way and then edited with the theming that you see inside the attractions, it really fits the narrative of your complete experience,” says Duivestein.
“When you exit and see that photo, you want to share that with your friends and family. It’s a very important part. So, of course, it’s a nice revenue stream, but the content you create so they can share it on social media is also important to be visible to new potential visitors.”
Business guidance from Ripley Entertainment
GoPhoto’s offering is attractive to operators like Ripley Entertainment for several reasons, Pattison tells us:
“What I like about it is you can constantly change it and continuously improve it, and you can be topical, and you can be on brand, and you can play around with things that people are interested in on any given day. You’re not locked into the same old stuff.”
“We like young companies because you’ve got to support young people in business today because they’re the ones that bring in new ideas,” he says. “And the biggest problem is having the capital to move forward with your vision. Sometimes, your vision is faster than your bank account, and we can help you do that. We’re not getting in the way, but we can add some business guidance and expertise. All I want to do now is figure out how many ways we can use this product.
“The other thing is that if we’re selling and if Daniel’s selling to other attractions, at least he can point to someone that’s an operator themselves, which is us. And we can give everybody a really good report on what works, what doesn’t work, what we suggest. We can make continuous improvements and suggestions to the product. So I think we’re much more operator-friendly when we have a relationship like this.”
AI and the future of photo technology
Advances in technology continue at an exponential rate. Artificial intelligence (AI) in particular is being used in the attractions business to streamline various processes. “AI is the magic word also in our industry. We’re working on a lot of new features using AI technology,” says Duivestein.
“I cannot say too much, but as Jim mentioned, the photo business is a numbers game. So you need to understand the numbers you’re pulling through and understand your business, and AI can provide all those results comprehensively. It makes your team more efficient and makes the outcome more likeable. We can see from every photo how it sold, when it sold, who likes it, who doesn’t.”
“That way, we can maximise that potential, not only in terms of revenue but also in [terms of] guest expectations,” he adds. GoPhoto is also working on AI technology to enhance photos and content “into something people cannot take themselves or even see when they’re in the attraction”, says Duivestein.
Pattison adds:
“You’re only limited by your own imagination because thinking 5 or 10 years now is not a very smart idea, in my opinion. We always used to have to do that. Still, I think you need to be much more flexible today, and you have to be able to change when you capture something, and you think you see a very good idea; you need to be able to move quickly because everyone will spot the opportunity at the same time that you do.”
“Very exciting times ahead”
GoPhoto has implemented its services at many leading visitor attractions around the world. After introducing the GoPhoto system at Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach, Ripley Entertainment enjoyed a double-digit increase in photography capture and spending.
Duivestein emphasises how grateful the company is to Ripley Entertainment for supporting its growth in the US market:
“It’s not an easy market. A lot of people try it. We have the American dream,” he says. “Having the ability and the opportunity to come out here and build your business here inside the US market with the support of Ripley’s, you’ve got one shot, one opportunity. With this partnership, the chance of being successful then significantly increases. It’s a very exciting time ahead for us. I’m confident we can make it work and become a market leader.”
