Drawing around 300,000 guests a year to it’s fairytale park and winter festivals, Hunderfossen Eventyrpark is Norway’s third-largest visitor attraction. Boasting more than 60 rides and attractions, a children's farm, on-site hotels and a legendary fairytale palace, this year-round attraction is on a mission to add a little extra magic to precious family experiences.
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Hunderfossen were quick to realise the benefits a mobile app could have for their guests and initially partnered with a development agency to launch a bespoke mobile app with wayfinding, messaging and points of interest for the adventure park.
However, after launch, Hunderfossen found that app maintenance and stability issues were absorbing a lot of their marketing team’s time. And as their app wasn’t built by an attractions specialist, it was down to them to take charge of the development plan. They needed a solution that was reliable, low maintenance and purpose-built for theme parks so that they could focus on delivering the fairytale experience Hunderfossen is renowned for, instead of managing their tech stack.
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Espen and his team engaged Attractions.io with a brief to deliver a smoother, more reliable app experience for guests at Hunderfossen.
"After meeting with the sales and delivery teams, we felt 100% confident that Attractions.io was the right choice for Hunderfossen going forward,” Espen explained. “It was clear that the team had both the technical and industry knowledge to meet our requirements, and they made us feel completely at ease throughout the delivery process.”
Hunderfossen launched their new app with Attractions.io in March 2021, just in time for their peak summer season. They chose Attractions.io’s core feature set, which includes interactive maps, activity schedules, day planning and direct messaging to help guests make the most of their visit.
Whatsmore, guests no longer need to worry about their internet connection affecting the app’s performance, as Attractions.io’s SaaS-based app platform is optimised for online and offline use.
As for the branding, the marketing team still have plenty of opportunities to customise the app. They’ve added their brand colours, images, logos and a hand-illustrated map to create an authentic Hunderfossen experience. If you look closely, you might even spot a troll…or two!
The key difference is that these days the app feels as good as it looks, with guests benefitting from 99.9% uptime and enterprise-grade technology. The app works on and offline, is optimised to minimise battery usage and automatically updates in real-time using minimal data, meaning guests always have the latest information to hand.
Hunderfossen has also discovered another unexpected benefit; their new app not only performs better but is more cost-effective than their previous, custom-made solution. By leveraging Attractions.io’s ready-made SaaS platform, they’ve reduced app spend by approximately 15% per month.
"We have one member of staff overseeing our marketing tech,” explained Espen, “So it's vital that our solutions are reliable and user friendly. Attractions.io’s app management console is intuitive and straightforward to use, so we can trust other members of staff to update its content if we’re not available – something we couldn’t have dreamed of before.”
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The new, revamped mobile app has been a huge success with guests, who receive a personal invitation to download the app, via email, after purchasing their tickets. To date, approximately one-fifth of guests at Hunderfossen use the app to prepare for their visit, and overall reach exceeds 80%, meaning the majority of guests are using the app to enhance their day out.
Before adopting Attractions.io, Hunderfossen tracked guest satisfaction through email surveys. Now they use the app to send a push notification to guests after they’ve left for the day, asking them to rate their experience. An incredible 96% of respondents say they had a positive experience, and the number of responses has increased significantly.
The days of stability issues are also long gone. Hunderfossen’s previous mobile app was rated just three stars on the app store, as performance issues impacted the user experience. Just a year later and Hunderfossen’s new app has climbed to 4.8 stars.
“All of our key performance indicators have increased since adopting Attractions.io. We’ve also found that more of our guests leave feedback when prompted through the app, which has deepened our understanding of how guests experience our attraction.” – Geir Sondre Dahle, Web Manager at Hunderfossen
As for what’s next, Hunderfossen believes the future lies in communication. The park wants to find new and innovative ways for guests to interact with their brand year-round and are currently looking at how they can blend physical and digital experiences to bring their fairytales to life.
“We see huge potential in using digital experiences and push messaging to connect with our guests, many of whom book their tickets months in advance,” Espen told us. “We currently use newsletters and emails to build anticipation, but we know we can serve guests better by using the app to share specific content and videos that engage guests for longer. That’s the next step for us.”
The Attractions.io platform enables real-world businesses to lead in the digital age. Our guest experience apps and powerful platform for operators provide world-renowned attractions like LEGOLAND, San Diego Zoo and Butlin’s with the tools and data they need to deliver better outcomes and experiences. From virtual queuing and interactive maps to enhanced communication with guests, we’ve got the know-how to future proof your attraction for the digital age.
