GILBERTSVILLE, Pa. — Gateway Ticketing Systems, the world leader in ticketing, admission control, revenue generation and expert consulting for the attractions industry, held the eleventh installment of their Webinar Wednesdays series on Wednesday, May 27, titled: These Attractions Have Already Reopened – Here’s What They Learned So Far.

Their panel of industry professionals from attractions that have already reopened included: 

• Alan Mahony – Vice President, Marine and Waterpark Operations at Atlantis Sanya
• Becky Mackie – Vice President & COO at The National WWII Museum
• Angelina Davanzo – Director of Visitor Services at The National WWII Museum
• Heather Doggett – Chief Operating Officer at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

“When we reopen, we get one chance to make a second first impression for the cleanliness, safety and guest experience of our venue – so we need to get it right,” says Randy Josselyn, co-host of Gateway’s Webinar Wednesdays series. “Many of our customers have already reopened. So we wanted to connect the wider industry with a few of them; to learn what worked, what didn’t, what was expected, and what was surprising, when they reopened.”

Alan Mahony and Atlantis Sanya operate an aquarium and a waterpark in Hainan, China, which have both reopened. He outlined his four major tenants for a successful reopening on the webinar.

1. Work closely with your local government.
2. Have a full understanding of your operations. Know the parts of your attraction that you can operate profitably.
3. Keep as much staff in their current roles as possible.
4. Understand that there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Alan colored between these lines with an in-depth story of their reopening plan that every attraction professional needs to hear.

Becky and Angelina from The National WWII Museum showed everyone that the simple considerations are what separate a successful reopening from a poor one. Watch Gateway’s recording to find out how a nine cent stylus, photographs of staff, and on-mission signage turned their reopening from good to great.

For Heather, and the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, a successful reopening was largely about analysis and training. They used crowd engineering to determine the amount of space guests will take up within their facility, and then trained their staff to help guests move through the venue and maintain social distancing, not to police them.

“It’s just as important now to stay connected, stay united, and learn from each other as we move into the next phase of this crisis,” says Peter Wolf, Director of Sales and Marketing at Gateway Ticketing Systems. “We hope to continue the conversations around sharing successes, and even failures, to help every attraction successfully reopen.”

The discussion ended with one simple question: “What is one mistake you made, and what did you learn from it?”

To see how all three attractions answered, and to find out much more information about their reopening strategies, watch the full recording of the webinar here.

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