In order to thrive in a shifting post-pandemic world, activity and theme park operators need attractions that provide digital data utilization reports
Finnish mixed reality (MR) gaming company Valo Motion provides digital data utilization reports on all of its games. This data shows an unprecedented post-pandemic boom in the use of their digital attractions, and gives activity park operators new insight into how to generate business growth in a rapidly shifting market.
HELSINKI, Finland (October 13th, 2022) Finnish Mixed Reality (MR) gaming company, Valo Motion, has announced that the data collected on all of their attractions since 2016 can help activity park operators better understand how to run more competitive and modern businesses. Utilization numbers on each game give operators insight into how different attractions at their park are performing and when. Increasingly focusing on attractions that are capable of generating digital utilization reports is a key factor for operators to thrive and compete in a changing landscape post-covid as customers return to parks.
According to Valo Motion’s data reports that cover an accumulation of 900+ units installed globally, there has been a massive spike in usage since spring 2021. Many machines are up 30% in use from pre-pandemic times. Furthermore, park operators in the US reported to the company that they are making 15–20% more money than they did before the pandemic, because people are now excited to come back to parks.
According to Sven Rösch, Head of Sales at Valo Motion, “Operating a park really well isn’t easy, and it’s something that operators worry about every day. Many activity parks haven’t yet shifted to full digitalization – they don’t know how their individual attractions are performing. This means that knowing things like where and when to put staff, when to clean, what attractions are popular and so on comes down to guessing, which then results in increased headaches and the loss of time and money for their businesses.”
It is no secret that the activity park market has faced rapid changes in recent years. First, there was almost a dead stop in business for many operators during 2020. Parks then saw customers come and go in 2021, and in 2022, many are seeing a healthy return of customers. In some cases, more than ever before.
Pictured above is Valo Motion’s data on their games played globally on an average amount of hours per day. You can clearly see how the pandemic affected the use in 2020 and 2021. However, the games are currently played around 3,000 hours per day in all locations – which equals to about 125 days.
It is also important to acknowledge the changing demands of the young customers that parks appeal to. Generation Z and Alpha grew up with digital entertainment in their hands and at home, and that is what they demand when they go out to have fun. Parks that once relied on traditional, analogue attractions need to adapt if they want to remain competitive and appeal to a new generation.
“The biggest competitor our operators have is not the leisure venue across the street, it’s home entertainment. Take a video game like Fortnight, they can hit over 30 million players a day, and those players are our prime target audience. Video games are a major competitor. By digitalizing parks, operators are appealing to today’s kids while simultaneously optimizing the park by substantially increasing the information they have to run a healthy business. This is a challenging shift for an industry that has relied on traditional attractions for ages, but this is what operators need to do if they want completely new insight into how to run their businesses in the modern world,” continues Rösch.
According to Forbes, the era of digital transformation is here for companies of all sizes and types, from Fortune 500s to startups. The activity park industry has been slow to adapt to digital solutions, but it is time that these businesses are run with the same modern advantages that other industries have at their fingertips. Utilizing digitalization and collecting data makes it possible for companies to follow their operations more clearly, and it makes setting company goals much easier.
“This is a different market than it was only 3 years ago, and in order to adapt to the changes parks need that digital data and they also need to provide digital attractions to the younger generation. Our data shows that kids love our digital attractions, because the play rate is a great extent higher than the POS (point of sale) at the parks. This means people are buying a ticket to the park and playing our games numerous times. By providing these solutions, we could actually change how operators work and hopefully encourage the industry to shift towards digitalization for better business models,” says Raine Kajastila, CEO of Valo Motion. "We also measure our success with the data, and the most important metric is how many players we move everyday. Now we can have 140,000 plays in a day globally. To really make an impact, our next major goal is to reach one million fun-filled and active plays per day.”
For additional information:
Media kit with pictures
Salli Leinonen
Valo Motion PR team
+358 40 084 2106
salli@sanfrancisco.fi
Valo Motion
Founded in 2016, Valo Motion creates groundbreaking active experiences that empower people to find the joy of movement. Their state of the art movement tracking technology turns park attractions into immersive digital experiences where players feel a part of the game. Viral videos of their previous launch ValoClimb reached over 200 million views and have been featured all over the world by hugely popular video channels such as Discovery Channel, MTV, Red Bull and Buzzfeed. Their games are featured at activity centers and parks world-wide.
