Categories accesso Passport eCommerce Ticketing

accesso proudly returns to IAAPA Expo 2024 for another great year as a Platinum Sponsor! Join us at Booth #5131 to discover how our innovative solutions are shaping the future of attractions.

In this month’s accesso Sales Spotlight, we’re excited to feature leisure, entertainment & hospitality industry veteran and accesso Sales Director Colby Preston! Prior to joining accesso, Colby spent more than 20 years driving sales for theme parks, attractions and hotels – including Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, City Cruises, Nauticus & Battleship Wisconsin, and Sheraton Hotels.

Welcome to the new accesso Sales Spotlight Series! Each month, we'll feature a Q&A with members of our global sales team, sharing actionable insights from their decades of industry experience. Read on to learn more aboutaccesso Senior Sales Director Wendi Yanez and explore her top strategies for deepening guest engagement and maximizing ROI in the pre-trip planning phase.

Last week, our team attended the highly anticipated Midwest Ski Areas Association (MSAA) 2022 Summer Meeting & Trade Show. Check out a recap of our educational session, “More with Less: Transformative Tech to Empower Small Staff”!

While snow sport visitation continues to grow, the demographic makeup of ski resort visitors is shifting. As older fans and aficionados retire from snow sports, operators across the industry are looking to capture the next generation of snow enthusiasts – Gen Z. Gen Z is already changing the future of commerce, but what are the wants and needs driving that change and how does that apply to your ski area?

The accesso Knowledge Base is an easily searchable, dynamic, interactive online document repository designed specifically for use by accesso clients. From product installation and configuration to daily use and troubleshooting, the Knowledge Base is a central hub of information on each of accesso’s platforms and services—ticketing, virtual queuing, distribution, guest experience, payment services, reporting, and more. You’ll find it all in the Knowledge Base

Finding the right online ticketing system can be a challenge for any venue. With hundreds of options on the market, it can be time-consuming to research all the possibilities and zero in on the features you need to succeed. That’s why we’ve rounded up this helpful guide to researching and selecting the best online ticketing system.

The World Health Organization reports that more than 1 billion people around the world live with a disability, making up 15% of the global population. From theme parks to live entertainment venues, cultural sites to family entertainment centers, organizations whose missions revolve around shared experiences and connection must strive to ensure accessibility for all, regardless of background or ability.

The IAAPA Expo 2021 is right around the corner, and we couldn’t be more excited to gather with our fellow attractions industry professionals and collaborate on where the industry is headed. Want to get a sneak peek? Kickstart your learning journey with 5 articles packed with tips, statistics and best practices to help you prepare for a mobile-first future.

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Brendan Ciecko, Founder & CEO of Cuseum, about technology innovation within the arts and cultural sector, discussing the impact of COVID-19, how organizations have adapted and what opportunities remain. Read on to discover his insights and tips for cultural operators seeking to deliver memorable experiences while preparing for the digital transformation.

Generation Z (Gen Z) is taking the world by storm and the proof is in the numbers. This generation alone made up 20% of the U.S. population last year and the number of Gen Z online shoppers is expected to surpass 37 million by the end of 2021. The importance of this shift, especially for those in leisure and entertainment, can’t be overstated. Learn how to reach and engage this important demographic through a personalized guest experience that's designed to meet their unique wants and needs.

With IAAPA Expo Europe just a few weeks away, we thought it was a great time to round up our top 5 pieces that can help theme park and attraction operators in Europe maximize their guest experience. From creating a positive first impression online to delivering a seamless guest journey throughout the duration of a guest’s visit, there’s something for everyone!

On August 19th we were pleased to present an IAAPA Education webcast: “The New Guest Experience Essentials,” with accesso chief commercial officer Andrew Jacobs and senior vice president - enterprise solutions Ben Mathews.

We were pleased to join our peers in the ski industry at this year’s Summer Meeting of the Midwest Ski Areas Association (MSAA) and present an in-depth view of three major trends impacting the future of the ski industry. In case you missed it, check out our highlights below and see how you can get ahead of the curve.

For zoo-goers, being able to view and purchase packages beforehand can allow them the time to plan out their day. Enter accesso Passport®, our award-winning eCommerce suite. Built with functionality and flexibility in mind, your guests will be flocking (like flamingoes) to your venue in no time. Interested in learning more? Check out George Hambleton’s newest deminar outlining all the benefits of our powerful accesso Passport software here.

Now more than ever, conversations about protecting the environment are taking center stage in many aspects of our everyday lives. This includes how consumers are choosing to spend their free time and money. Transitioning your venue’s operations over to more sustainable practices might seem like a daunting task, but one easy way to start is to reduce paper use at your venue. With Earth Day right around the corner, now is a great time to lean into using your technology to help your venue go paperless!

At accesso, we support providing options for alternative payments not only because it helps make your goods and services available to a larger audience that may not have a credit or debit card handy; but also because it allows for contactless payment processing, increasing on-site efficiency and freeing up time for your staff to focus on delivering a best-in-class guest experience. Additionally, this helps remove many of the barriers that can lead to abandoned purchases, thus significantly improving your conversion rate and the customer’s overall experience.

There are many factors that go into choosing a new eCommerce system. Often, price tops the list. “Can I afford this?” Most decision-makers want a fast and easy answer to this question, but unfortunately, the true answer is much more complicated than a simple sticker price. When you look at the opportunity costs, the better question is, “Can I afford not to do this?”

As we see industries gradually begin to reopen and redefine what the “New Normal” will look like, many organizations are using technology to meet the growing expectations of guests for a safe experience. Research done by Sedco has concluded that 84% of customers expect brands to find ways to maximize digital interaction to keep them safe. Whether it’s thinking outside of the box or returning to core principles of crowd management, there are many ways that your technology can help. Read on to discover 4 ways to use technology for social distancing.

The season for giving back is especially meaningful this year, with COVID-19 taking a dramatic toll on people and organizations around the world. Whether your venue has been able to reopen or not, you can look to the tools in your ticketing system to help you recapture revenue and engage with your audience. Read on to discover 8 ticketing tools for giving back. No matter your industry, our feature-rich solutions are here to help support your venue’s efforts to boost fundraising initiatives this year!

Attractions from all industries are dealing with the challenges of social distancing and how to operate safely in a COVID environment. We had the privilege of sharing the IAAPA Education stage with Matt Blumhardt from Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari and Daine Appleberry of Audubon Nature Institute to discuss ways to enhance the guest experience, boost revenue, build brand loyalty and serve guests safely during this challenging time. Below are our top 5 takeaways and recommendations from the session.

Ski season is just around the corner, and it’s exciting to see so many ski areas announcing their plans for re-opening. Is your technology ready to support a great guest experience? Protect your guests and staff with these 5 pieces of technology that can help you solve the social distancing challenges of today while building the foundation for a better guest experience tomorrow.

There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has forced venue oper­a­tors to have some dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions over the past few months. While the answers often vary by indus­try, there’s one con­stant we’ve seen across all venues: in order to protect staff and guests, venues are embrac­ing online tick­et­ing as their dom­i­nant sales chan­nel. Is your venue ready to make your eCommerce store your dominant sales channel? It may seem like a daunt­ing process, but it doesn’t have to be! By fol­low­ing these best prac­tices, you can prime your eCom­merce store for suc­cess, safe­ly serve your guests, unlock new oppor­tu­ni­ties for max­i­miz­ing rev­enue and trans­form the guest experience.

It’s been quite the year for the live entertainment industry, but if there’s one thing the coronavirus can’t cancel, it’s the holidays! At accesso, our teams are gearing up to help support venues as they launch their holiday-themed events, and it’s been nothing short of inspiring to see the creative approaches our clients are taking. We’ve seen a large increase in drive-through or pop-up walk-through events featuring movies, concerts, circuses, holiday light displays and more. Make your event a success in the era of “6 feet apart” with our top 6 ticketing tips for holiday events.

With the escalation and continued risks of COVID-19, the traditional process of visiting museums and cultural attractions has transformed in many ways. As visitor-facing sites are beginning to reopen, many are finding that they have to rethink the visitor journey end-to-end in order to facilitate a seamless, contactless experience.

Preparing to reopen your resort in the midst of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic is no small task. At acces­so, we’ve been work­ing dili­gent­ly to help our ski clients around the world plan for a safe, efficient and successful reopening. Watch as acces­so Sales Direc­tor Phil Schwartz takes us through the top three things that ski areas should be thinking about leading into this year’s ski season, and read on for your guide to “snow worries” on opening day!

Whether you man­age a theme park, a ski resort or a muse­um, our acces­so Passport eCom­merce ticketing plat­form can help you max­i­mize online sales and serve your guests safely. Watch as acces­so Passport Client Services Director Jonathan Widergren demos four tools to support safe reopening and read on to dis­cov­er how you can use these features as part of your reopening strategy.

There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced venue operators to have some difficult conversations over the past few months—how do we reopen safely? How do we staff appropriately? How do we make up for lost revenue? While the answers often vary by industry, there’s one constant we’ve seen across all venues: the dominance of the onsite ticket counter may soon be ending. In order to protect staff and guests, venues are embracing online ticketing as their dominant sales channel. This may seem like a daunting process, but it doesn’t have to be! By following these best practices, you can prime your eCommerce store for success, safely serve your guests, unlock new opportunities for maximizing revenue and transform the guest experience.

Let’s start with two simple questions. Are members important to your institution? Is time important to our members? If we can answer affirmatively to both, then why do we often unintentionally create hurdles to their experience interacting with our institutions? Whether due to lack of time or resources, we often miss opportunities to increase, serve and retain our members better. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Ryan Burtram shares five insights into how you can better attract, retain, and engage members.

A ticket is one of a venue’s most prized possessions. Every single ticket represents an opportunity to provide a memorable experience to a consumer, and every ticket sale gets you one step further to a sold-out show. Working with distributors and promoters can be an amazing way to push that last bit of ticket inventory over the threshold and reach new audiences, but if you’re using ticket vouchers or bulk tickets, have you considered all of the risks? Read on to discover seven reasons why you should stop selling ticket vouchers, and how you can do so without disrupting your valuable partnerships.

Many venues still think of ticketing from the onsite purchasing perspective, with the front gate or box office being the first interaction point with a guest. In reality, most guests today will have already visited your venue’s website before they arrive. In fact, you can expect that about half of your guests will be browsing your website from their smartphone looking to learn more about your attraction and ticket offerings. Are you prepared to make a great first impression? Watch our webinar to learn more about navigating eCommerce in today's mobile landscape!

Ski resorts face a unique set of operational challenges, from managing customer data throughout a visit to ensuring guests have quick and easy access to the gear and services they require. With over 20 years of experience in ski, accesso truly understands the unique needs of ski areas. Watch our webinar to learn about our recent innovations for the ski industry!