The tourist season is starting up again, which generally means there will be a large flow of people, particularly in tourist and cultural places. It is therefore essential for the latter to find solutions for counting people in order to optimise the overall operation of their structure and to welcome visitors as well as possible.
Measuring visitor numbers and controlling the reception capacity through the analysis of visitor flows
Counting visitor flows cannot be done properly without an accurate and reliable people counting system. Choosing a suitable measurement and analysis system is the first step to optimising customer flows.
It is even more important during the tourist season. We all know that there are strong disparities in visitor numbers throughout the year and that flows are particularly high during the summer period. Seasonality is real and known to all, but it is essential to analyse visitor flows in a much more in-depth manner in order to draw conclusions and act accordingly. This is precisely the role of these devices, which make it possible to count the flows and thus deduce visitor behaviour. Do more tourists visit my establishment in the morning or in the afternoon? What are the peak and off-peak periods of the day?
Thanks to the attendance data provided by the people counting software, you will have the answer to all these questions! You will be able to measure the number of visitors and thus have a better knowledge of your visitors and the places where they pass through, to smooth out your flows and to improve the comfort of your visitors.
During your peak periods, plan to have more staff to welcome your visitors. During off-peak periods, plan the most important exhibition of the moment, reduce the price of admission to your museum or monument for example. In other words, think of a strategy to attract more visitors at that time.
You will be able to monitor your gauge in real time and if you exceed the maximum threshold set, you will be sent an overflow alert! This is an important point, which will allow you to respect any imposed gauges, as was the case during the COVID-19 health crisis. You further improve the comfort of your visitors by thinking first of their safety.
Smoothing out flows thanks to an online slot reservation system
To go even further in smoothing the flow of visitors, an online slot reservation system will greatly help you. It is generally a 100% SaaS solution that can be deployed quickly. Any type of structure can benefit from it!
Indeed, this system will allow you to give your visitors the possibility to book visit slots online. They will be able to book individual or group guided tours, visit slots to enter the tourist or cultural site or any event that you can organise within your establishment.
Thanks to this tool, your visitors will be able to book slots according to availability and will therefore be better distributed according to the maximum capacity per slot that you will have defined beforehand. You reduce queues, control your capacity and comply with health standards, such as the COVID-19 gauge.
Calculate visitor waiting time and opt for a virtual queuing system
Visitor satisfaction is more than important for tourist and cultural venues, it is even part of their main mission. No one likes to wait in general and even less so during the holidays. However, we have all experienced this as tourists, when visiting a museum or a monument for example. Well, there are various solutions to manage this wait as well as possible and above all to reduce it!
First of all, there are several devices that measure the waiting time of visitors. These are generally video sensors coupled with algorithmic image processing that can calculate the waiting time of one or more physical queues. Once this data has been collected using the tool you have chosen, it is in your interest to communicate your waiting time to your visitors before they visit. They will thus avoid coming when the waiting time is too high and will prefer off-peak periods.
But that's not all, there is also a virtual queue management solution! The principle is simple: before visiting your museum or monument, the visitor takes a virtual ticket to be added instantly to the virtual queue. They receive an estimate of their time of arrival, so they can go about their business and will receive an alert when their turn comes. This avoids physical queues by predicting and managing waiting time better. This is a win-win situation: the visitor does not have to wait in the queue and can therefore optimise their time; the establishment does not have to deal with the frustration of tourists waiting in the queue, optimises the customer experience and thus manages to improve visitor satisfaction.