Parklife queueing up for business application of latest digital know-how


17 Nov 2010

A digital rethink of traditional business practices in amusement parks is being lined up, as vendors at an expo in Orlando, Florida, US, heard that new technology is set to bring fun parks into the digital age.

Attendees at the conference heard that as customers were becoming more mobile, strategies must to be implemented to meet their demand, according to Reuters.

Smartphone tickets

One company, Accesso Mobile, discussed customised smartphone applications that allow amusement park goers to buy tickets via the device, to track their friends of family on GPS, as well as post updates on social media pages, such as Facebook and Twitter.

This would certainly make the queueing system more tolerable for customers, as well as increasing potential revenues for vendors with transactions expected to be smoother.

Q-credit

Many different companies attended the conference and discussed everything from a virtual queueing system ‘Q-bot’, which allows guests to digitally stand in line, ‘Q-credit’, which enables customers to spend digital money via their credit card details when their wallets are stored away for safety, and a video system that tracks and tapes customer’s experiences throughout the park – offering them a mini movie of their experience.

The evolution near field communications (NFC) products in smartphones has been widely discussed recently, with Google recently showing off a soon-to-be-released device by an unnamed manufacturer that allows consumers to quickly pay for items by tapping the phone against a special terminal and Apple announcing its interest in the area.