In depth

Talking heads: What trends will shape the attractions industry over the next decade?

What ideas and emerging trends will shape the attractions industry over the next decade? Planet Attractions speaks to the experts to find the answers...

What are the ideas that will take the attractions industry forward over the next decade?

The attractions industry is ever-changing and ever-evolving, with shifts that are both unpredictable and, at times, surprisingly clear.

In the coming years, emerging trends have the potential to either make or break attractions - even entire sectors. As operators around the globe look to the year ahead, Planet Attractions spoke to thought leaders across multiple disciplines to gain insights on the forces likely to shape the industry not just in 2025, but over the next decade.

From the rise of artificial intelligence to the development of innovative new experiences, staying ahead of the curve will offer operators the opportunity to stay at the forefront of an increasingly competitive and dynamic market. This series of Talking Heads explorations will dive deep into the strategies, technologies, and philosophies that will help guide the industry forward, offering invaluable insights for operators, creators, and innovators alike. Stay tuned as we explore how the future of attractions is unfolding and what it means for those who are shaping it.

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“For the next ten years, we will be shaped, I hope, by some new and emerging technologies.

“We've had some relatively new things come out over the last few years, such as drone shows, and those are becoming more elaborate. But I think it's about time for some new breakthroughs because we're in bad need of refreshment and new ideas.

“We either need to find the next technologies that are going to lead us forward or figure out how to combine the existing technologies - the tried and true technologies - in new and innovative ways so that they appear to be new things.”



“The first trend that I see is a blending between formats. Retail will no longer be retail and I imagine that there will be so much fun taking attractions experiences and blending them into retail environments. If you look at waterparks, 20 years ago you would think about pools when you thought about waterparks. Now, that thinking has expanded with a waterpark being wherever water might be. Sometimes it's a full waterpark but other times it’s just a huge spray ground integrated into a hotel environment.

“Second, I believe that food quality will continue to increase in attractions. The discussion 15 years ago was that we had to serve more healthy food with the question being burger or salad. Now, this is no longer the question. The question is, can this burger be the best burger that somebody has ever had? And so I think that we will measure the evolution of food as part of the experience inside all of our attractions. It can be a museum where you eat the food of astronauts, or it can be an animal park where you go totally veggie. We can enrich an attractions experience through food and I see this being a key theme in the coming years.

“Third, I would say ‘small might be big’. I don't want to say that small is the new big. That's not true. We have big groups that are investing billions. Imagine Universal here in Orlando with Epic Universe or what the parks in Japan are doing. It's a no brainer. The big destinations we have in our world of attractions will grow bigger and bigger. This won't stop. But I also think that there will be dozens, hundreds, thousands of new, very small venues opening up. But on the flip side, who would have thought only five years ago that Universal Studios was about to build a standalone horror experience in Las Vegas next to other experiences like Area 15.”



“Where we see things going is a huge focus on interactivity. That can mean individuals with pieces of equipment or more importantly, individuals with other individuals, whether it be a family or a group of friends, and sharing the experience. You can't beat being in a raft - mom, dad, the two kids, dad looking up on the sidewall and seeing the glee in his son or her daughter's eyes. He will put down US$50 every time he sees that for sure. So that direction is there.

“I can tell you one that is absolutely surging in the marketplace for WhiteWater and that's Endless Surf. It’s taking surfing inland, creating a pool that produces an eight-foot high wave every eight seconds. It's just exploding around the world. We recently opened a venue in Munich, Germany, and on the first day, 14,000 people visited. Every hour of every day, of every week of every month, it’s been 100% sold out. It’s a hugely exciting area”.



“One thing that I've seen with a lot of the work that I do around the world is a convergence of really two different industries.

“One industry is location based entertainment - theme parks, immersive gaming experiences, escape rooms, that kind of thing. The other is the gaming industry. I think those two industries are poised to converge and you'll have in-person immersive play that is gamified like you would do on your PlayStation or Xbox right now.”



“I think the trend we see is already there, which is ‘me, myself and I’. Everything revolves around the visitor and people are expecting this to be part of the experience of the park.

“You hear about things like artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. It's nice. But it’s just a means to create these customer-centric experiences. It's not really personal, it's ‘me’. That's probably the most important development coming.”



“The biggest emerging trend that we are seeing, we are developing and what I think will be taking us into the future, is really immersive experiences.

“I know that the word immersive has been used a lot. But I do believe that any sort of experience that gives an audience their own journey, one where they can enter a world and experience something with someone else as well, will definitely continue to be an emerging trend.

“We're seeing it more and more with things like haunted experiences and walk-through experiences as well. You're able to experience and go through an emotional journey with someone as opposed to potentially sitting in a theatre and getting a more passive experience. I think that people are enjoying being an active part of any sort of entertainment experience.

“I also think that IP driven experiences will continue to grow. An experience that has that hook, something the visitor feels familiar with or one that features a brand they particularly love, they will always want to experience something like that.

“People are also going to be continuously interested in enrichment experiences as well. Anything that can inspire conversation or anything that they can learn something from. Anything that has that almost edutainment aspect is going to be an emerging trend.”



“I believe that we're going to see a lot more with the gamification and communal aspect of attractions. You're seeing people spend time in queue lines and experiences and I think we're going to have less phones in our hands in exchange for more tactile and more discoverable moments.”



“We're seeing a lot of developments within flying theatres especially. There are quite a few companies that do flying theatres and are working on evolving the technology. We ourselves at Simworx offer a range of two different flying theatres. I think it's the scalability options that come with these attractions that we feel are really going to push the genre forward.”



“I think we're going to see a change in venue types. We’re already seeing a fusion in retailtainment, with shopping malls and entertainment starting to come together. I see so many hotels and resorts entering into the attractions space and creating new environments. I see surf parks being attached to accommodation and other environments. The concept of what an attractions venue is, is going to change fundamentally.

“Sustainability is going to be something that both employees and guests continue to demand and legislation requires, so that's going to be a huge trend.

“Looking at data and technology, our ability to understand how our businesses are operating and what's happening is going to change significantly. This area will be hugely impacted by both AI and data analytics.”



“The personalised feedback of the experience that everybody is looking for? The good solution is to think, ‘How can we create a personalised experience for each of our guests?’ I mean, the biggest dream is that we are going to see that.”

Stay tuned to Planet Attractions in the coming weeks, as these collection of industry leaders tackle the big questions shaping the future of the attractions sector.