Theme Park Visitors Want a Lot More Mobile Integration

Theme parks and mobile devices seem to be a perfect match, in theory. And now a survey by a leading entertainment design and production firm Thinkwell Group has some numbers behind consumer behavior and implications for existing and potential mobile integration into the park experience.

From a survey of roughly 1,000 theme park visitors across U.S., it asked participants to rank mobile features. Not surprisingly, the most popular features were more customer service-oriented, helping visitors save time, including front-of-line access to rides, shows, and attractions. The respondents also ranked highly having the ability to check queue wait times from anywhere in the park, using GPS to locate friends or family members and using a mobile device to plan an itinerary.

Some other findings from the survey:

• 67 percent are interested in seeing increased mobile integration at theme parks.
• 80 percent took a mobile device on their last theme park visit.
• Among the respondents who took a mobile device, a full 72 percent spent “a few minutes on and off throughout the day” engaging with it.
• 15 percent revealed that they did not use their mobile device during their theme park visit, although they did take it with them.
• 78 percent of participants took photos with their smartphones and tablets. 44 percent shared their photos on social media.

The survey in a handy form as an infographic, below: