Convious, a leading eCommerce platform for the leisure industry, has recently signed ten new multi-year contracts, as the leisure sector shows signs of economic recovery.
The firm has analysed trends based on data of its more than 130 customers found throughout Europe, finding that the shift to online booking has been accelerated by the pandemic, with an increase in the percentage of mobile devices being used as the primary engagement platform by guests.
The digital customer journey
Convious has already seen positive signs of recovery within the experience economy, signing a number of multi-year contracts with venues across Europe. Among its latest clients are Belgium’s Smile Safari, Jungle City and Riebedebie, Netherland’s Julianatoren, and Germany’s Bavaria Filmstadt and Time Ride attractions.
Convious Netherlands’ vice president of sales Bernard Kochen says: “These new partnerships are testament to the expansive growth we are experiencing as a company, but are also indicative of a promising resurgence within the attractions industry.
“Theme parks have had the opportunity to realign their strategies and are wanting to digitise their visitor journey. We are seeing a steady rise in destinations swapping out their old legacy systems and now require a newer digital-first platform that focuses on the customer experience journey.”
Propelled by the pandemic
Following legislation-enforced closures in many countries, online ticket sales have soared as pandemic regulations are relaxed. Convious reports that online sales have increased by more than 3000% since January 2022 in comparison to sales from January 2021. This figure is largely impacted by the aforementioned closures, but is also an indication of the market’s transition to online booking – more than 80% of amusement park web traffic is generated purely from mobile users.
Attractions that already utilised a mobile app as part of their ticketing and guest experience have also recovered quicker, with average online conversion rates rising by more than 20%.
Other new customers include Playpark Sprookjeshof (Netherlands), Flyview Paris (France), Haystax Farm Park (UK) and Ocean Explorers (UK).
Playpark Sprookjeshof amusement park manager Yvonne Lamein says: “Partnering with Convious has given us the tools to digitise our customer experience further, and we are so pleased we are already seeing positive results.”
The pandemic has also seen another change in consumer behaviour, with guests wanting easy ways to be able to change the date of their booking online should their situation change. Convious reports that facilities that allow this are also “seeing much better online conversion rates”.
Kochen concludes: “Our mission here at Convious is to help streamline workflows, so destinations can offer a more efficient guest experience. As the number of our partnerships grows, it gives us hope that the industry is back in action.”
Convious has recently expanded its senior management team with the appointments of Werner Dullmaier and Tom Benner to the firm.
