Convious, a leading eCommerce platform for the leisure industry, provided a range of ticketing and reporting solutions for the Art Explora Foundation, playing a key role in transforming the guest experience and becoming a true partner in the organisation’s mission.
The Art Explora Festival is a free travelling cultural experience anchored by a museum boat, a cultural village, and various interdisciplinary programmes.
Launched in March 2024 in Malta, the Festival will stop in 15 countries across the Mediterranean. Its offerings include immersive virtual reality experiences, contemporary art exhibitions addressing Mediterranean themes and representation, as well as a dynamic schedule featuring performances, conferences, film screenings, and concerts.
Since 2021, the Art Explora Foundation has hosted annual European Awards using a free online ticketing platform for guest bookings for the awards ceremony in Paris, switching to Convious in 2023. For the Festival, a robust solution was necessary. Tickets are free, but the operator needed a platform to optimise visitor flow and offer bookable time slots for activities. Real-time data for tracking reservations and availability and a system that adapts to local expectations were essential.
Meeting the Festival’s needs
To coordinate numerous activities, like the museum boat accommodating 40 guests every 15 minutes for digital and VR experiences, a ticket booking feature was essential for managing visitor flow at the Festival. The Convious platform enables advance ticket reservations, specific date bookings, and group reservations.
A key requirement was for the chosen platform to accommodate local variations. This included translating the entire customer journey into the native language, which was easily achieved with Convious and a translation agency.
It was also important to consider regional differences between people using online reservation platforms and those wanting to purchase tickets on-site. Thus, an on-site booking method was established through a ticketing booth at the festival entrance. Data from both online and on-site bookings feeds into the Convious platform in real-time to be reactive to availability.
Being a free event, the Festival naturally experiences no-shows, which vary by country and weather. Arts Explora required a ticketing platform that provided live data to adjust ticket availability. It analysed initial festival data to ascertain regional dropout rates and oversell tickets to maximise capacity. Convious’ real-time data allows Arts Explora to monitor available tickets and no-shows, making them instantly accessible online and at kiosks to maximise bookings.
The Convious team tailored the platform for Arts Explora and trained the team on its features. A dedicated platform manager taught the teams in each country how to manage the booking process.
Membership and marketing
The Festival is free, with donations to the Art Explora Foundation welcome. Convious added a membership option during reservations, allowing visitors to purchase a 50 Euro membership for one adult and two children or a 70 Euro membership for two adults and two children. Membership benefits included skipping the queue at any festival area during visits, which Convious ensured was clearly communicated from the start.
Convious also offers a suite of marketing tools to enhance ticket procurement. These tools facilitate communication with guests before, during, and after their visit, reducing no-shows and fostering loyalty.
Arts Explora used the email system to contact registered guests 24 hours before their booking and again after the visit, encouraging them to sign the virtual guest book and leave a review. This approach has achieved a three times higher response rate than the on-site physical book.
The Convious platform is intuitive and has optimised guest flow in each festival location. The personalisation for each region, real-time data, and adjustable ticket availability allow maximum attendance for each session. Presenting membership options clearly alongside free tickets has boosted donations to the Art Explora Foundation, which is essential for its ongoing efforts.
Convious provides the information needed to boost ticket bookings, automate changes, reduce workloads, and enhance the customer experience. Forecasting helps operators to plan, use resources efficiently, and prepare accurately with visitor and sales forecasts. It optimises channels, identifies strengths, analyses results, and uncovers growth opportunities across all channels.
Users can access real-time sales data, compare it with historical trends, and utilise AI forecasting for proactive insights. This overview enables users to reduce the number of platforms the team employs and streamlines operations by consolidating e-commerce, marketing, sales, and operational data in one location.
Last year, Convious launched its latest innovation, Convious AI. This online concierge integrates with WhatsApp, websites, and other channels to enable visitors to buy attraction tickets using text-based conversations.
