What cities and public spaces can learn from theme parks
Like theme parks, cities and public spaces actively run campaigns and organize events to attract both local visitors and travelers. Theme parks spend millions each year enhancing their spaces and creating new attractions to entice visitors, but few cities have that sort of budget. Few cities want to turn their spaces into theme parks, either, but many wouldn’t say no attracting more visitors each year.
With that in mind, here are three things that themes parks do that cities can adopt to become even more attractive destinations – without breaking the bank!
Install photo points throughout your city
Have you ever noticed how photo points appear throughout theme parks? There’s the one where you can pretend to be a pirate, the one where a family can appear as comedy dinosaurs, and many more. There’s a reason for this. Most people are only a moment away from their cameras—er, we mean their mobile phones and in-built cameras. The trend of taking selfies or group photos, sending them to friends or posting them on social media in the hope of getting lots of “likes” isn’t going away.
So why not use this idea from the theme park industry and give people even more reasons to take photos in your city by strategically placing photo points in parks and streets. Add the name of your city for extra “findability” and encourage people to post their photos with a special hashtag to be entered into a giveaway to get even more coverage.
Benefits: give visitors a souvenir of their visit to keep and to share; add a bit of fun to the traditional city tour; more visibility and free publicity on social media; the potential to become a place that so-called “influencers” want to be…
Bonus: change up your photo points to make them interesting and relevant at any time of the year…
Bring your city to life with a themed experience
One of the reasons that theme parks are so successful is because they don’t just offer fantastic rides: they wrap their rides and amusements and entertainment into stories, and the human brain loves a good story. If you offer Ghost Walks and walking tours in your city, you’ll know just how much people resonate with storytelling. With that in mind, you why not bring a themed experience that’s rich in story to your city? If your city celebrates a Dickens day as they do in the city of Deventer, install light sculptures and photo points to bring your city to life. Turn your streets into a wonderland for little people with characters straight out of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm or celebrate a local legend or celebrate a cultural holiday like Chinese New Year.
The possibilities are endless and can be changed throughout the year.
Benefits: use storytelling to capture the imagination of visitors of all ages; create a city experience that can only be enjoyed in person; bring together families and friends to create memories and share a day out…
Combine fiberglass and light to create attractions that people love day and night
One thing that theme parks know only too well is that they can’t attract visitors when they’re closed. That’s why many use themed attractions and rides made out of fiberglass by day, and attractions and live events supported by light to keep visitors around for longer. You can do the same. Create themed worlds, fantastic exhibitions, public art and even street furniture using fiberglass with in-built lighting to give your attractions 24/7 appeal.
Benefits: mixed materials mean that your attraction looks great day and night; create experiences that work well throughout the year; change your displays regularly to keep people coming back for more…
That’s it
We hope you’re inspired by these three easy ways for you to enhance your city with some tricks from the themed world trade. If you’re curious about how you can use these ideas to create in-city attractions for Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Spring, Halloween, Advent, Christmas and more, get in touch: we’d love to help.