Adventurous places – how to stand out from the crowd

Adventurous outdoor play experiences remain in high demand, offering a blend of exhilaration, creativity, and learning for children of all ages that promote physical, cognitive, and social development.

In many ways the rural sector has led the way in adventure play as we see design favour natural materials and integration with landscape features, creating opportunities for connection with the natural world.

The physical, mental, and social benefits that this can provide need little explanation, but with so many new play experiences appearing, those wishing to create, or improve upon an adventure play offer need to think about how they can offer something distinctive to maximise returns.

If you are out and about this summer, it’s worth keeping an eye out for some of the features we have seen as helping to create a differentiator in new play experiences.

Unique selling point

Why do people choose to come here? A simple question but one often lost in the myriad options on the table at the initial design stage. It might be something incorporated physically into the experience such as a ‘signature’ play structure, or a theme that runs through the play design, site interpretation, and overall branding of the experience.

Creating a point of difference drives visitor footfall and tends to better at generating repeat visits than more generic offerings.

?

Access and layout

As well as the layout of the play areas themselves, it is worth noticing the visitor journey of the places you visit. From access into the car park, the route to the entrance, staff-contact points, and orientation once within the attraction itself.

A well-designed attraction will have amenities situated where and when visitors need them; and the journey around the attraction should feel part of the experience. Look out for bottlenecks, underused space, or places that visitors congregate – efficient use of space is key.

Food and beverage (F&B)

F&B offerings vary hugely in quality and appeal. While menus range from basic offers served from pop-up kiosks, through to restaurant grade meals made with local organic produce, the key priorities of the average visitor are convenience, value, quality, and speed of delivery.

Food is a big part of the enjoyment of the day out and balancing the feeling of it being a ‘treat’ with an increasing parental focus on healthy choices requires some thought. Think simple, nourishing food that can be eaten quickly. Food adds operational cost and complexity but can also be an important driver of income so deciding what the food offer should be and how it will be serviced is a critical part of planning.

The key things to look for as you ponder are foods that can be cooked and served fast, a menu that caters to the increasing dietary needs and desires of consumers, and a price point that aligns with the market audience.

?

Retail

Often one of the smaller contributors to the income model is retail, however, when done right it can contribute a helpful margin to the bottom line. The traditional exit through the gift shop endures however the introduction of online retail has been transformational for many attractions.

Rather than focussing solely on a physical shop, look out for opportunities for retail through the customer journey – something that can be purchased ahead of time as part of the ticket buying process for example, or add-ons during the day – such as photobooths, character or virtual reality experiences.

Branded merchandise has a secondary benefit as a lasting memento of a good day out and is likely to work doubly hard once it is in pride of place at home, to create the desire for future repeat visits and recommendations also!

Repeat visits and seasonality

Which brings us to how do we encourage people back? Some attractions openly recognise that they are a single visit destination, many offer a free or discounted return ticket to improve value for money, but most recognise that it is far easier to encourage repeat visits than it is to find new visitors through marketing activity. So how do they do it?

Look out for ways to deliver an experience that is different every time such as the inclusion of themed seasonal installations, activities, or events – this creates new experiences and opportunities for secondary spend items.

The other consideration is weatherproofing. If there’s one thing we know living in the UK, it is that summer cannot be relied upon. Around 35-45% of an outdoor attraction should ideally be undercover. Wholly outdoor experiences are exposed on wet or hot days, and it is wise to consider how undercover areas can be incorporated, either with permanent or temporary structures. ?

Put some science into the art

As exciting as the creative process is when thinking about a new play experience, a huge amount of science and planning goes into curating excellent adventure experiences, stretching far beyond the observations our consulting team has provided above.

The joy of designing purpose-built facilities is the ability to be intentional in design to create the best visitor experience business possible, which ultimately, assuming the right product is delivered in the right location, will give you sustainable commercial use for your land.

We regularly help landowners identify and test development options by looking at market dynamics to determine the right concept and operating model for the site and location. Wyvernwood is an example of an attraction that we helped to deliver, showing how the land and natural setting of the estate were utilised to create a magical adventure land.

Realise your vision

We can help to shape a concept, test its viability, design it, and manage the project from planning to opening day.

Should you wish to discuss any aspect of creating adventurous places or visitor attractions in general, please do get in touch by email at [email protected] or call 01756 797501 for a chat.

Dawn Mercer