ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure is the UK’s largest dinosaur-themed adventure park. Spread across 85 acres of woodland, ROARR! boasts over 25 dinosaur-themed attractions, complete with play areas, eateries and a Secret Animal Garden, for intrepid explorers to enjoy all year long. Guests can splash out in the sun, take to the high ropes, test their wits in the maze or dig for dino bones at this family-friendly attraction, which has just submitted plans for its biggest expansion to date. ROARR-some!
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ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure is a family day out with a difference. When guests step on-site, they’re no longer visitors – they’re intrepid explorers transported to a land that time forgot. They have one mission: to find the last remaining dinosaurs in Norfolk’s pre-historic woodlands.
Bringing this fantasy to life requires creativity and a willingness to push boundaries. The park has one of the most ambitious expansion plans in the industry right now, both in terms of physical development and digital transformation, which will put ROARR! on the map as a leader in AR-enhanced experiences.
To help guests to bridge the gap between the natural and pre-historic worlds, ROARR! needed a robust, flexible guest experience platform that integrates with the industry's leading technology providers.
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ROARR! initially approached Attractions.io with a request for a robust, interoperable guest experience app that would help parents manage their families’ visit and open the door to future partnerships with AR technology providers.
“We met the team from Attractions.io at a trade show and had followed their partnerships with other UK attractions, like Merlin Entertainments, for several years," explained Richard Colsell, IT Manager at ROARR!
"We were really impressed by the turnkey app solution and the platform’s ability to integrate with core services, like our EPOS, ride ops software and ticketing solution. That flexibility, along with how easy the solution is to use from both a guest and operator perspective, gave us 100% confidence that Attractions.io was the right partner for ROARR!”
Partnering with Attractions.io, ROARR! Launched their fully branded mobile app in 2020. Today, it’s used cross-functionally, with the IT, marketing, operations and customer success teams contributing to its development.
ROARR!’s mobile app comprises Attractions.io’s core feature-set, meaning the team has a suite of tools to enhance how they connect with guests before, during, and after they visit.
“From a customer success perspective, we want guests to download the app two or three days before their visit," says ROARR!'s Park Manager, Ben Francis. "That way, children can engage with the story of ROARR!, meet our hero characters and start getting excited for their visit. Meanwhile, their parents can take advantage of the apps planning tools and get directions to the park, which helps them have a more relaxing day when they arrive.”
Speaking of the app’s planning capabilities, guests at ROARR! can use the app to build their itinerary, browse attractions and showtimes, and order food in advance to skip the busy lunchtime rush. The team also send direct messages to guests containing hints and tips that help them to make the most of their visit:
Post-visit, ROARR!’s marketing team wants to give guests plenty of ways to stay connected to the park. Using push notifications to connect with past visitors, they can re-engage users that haven’t visited or opened the app recently.
“We want guests to have fun and creative ways to interact with our brand year-round, so we’ve been exploring how we can tell our story on new channels, like podcasts, YouTube and social media. The app will help us signpost guests towards these initiatives and foster long-lasting brand loyalty,” explained Katie Stoner, Marketing Manager at ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure.
With phase one of ROARR!’s guest experience platform live, the team are already looking to the future.
The adventure park is set to open a new themed area, “Valley of the Dinosaurs,” later in 2022. As explorers comb the valley searching for adventurer Cornelius Weston-Smythe’s missing notebook, they’ll be invited to partake in a series of interactive challenges directly from their Attractions.io mobile app. The new capability will be the result of a collaboration between ROARR!, Attractions.io and Zappar, and will feature augmented reality dinosaurs facilitated by the app, in addition to the animatronics that first put ROARR! on the map.
“For our young explorers, immersive technology is a powerful way to bring their fantasies to life and transport them to another place in history. We want to use the technology sparingly to elevate their experience and still prioritise exploring to the great outdoors with their loved ones.”
– Ben Francis, Park Manager at ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure
“For us, the app exists for two reasons; for parents, it removes friction from their day thanks to features like wayfinding, itinerary planning and food ordering. For little explorers, it adds to the fantasy and helps them connect to the story of our park. Wherever we use the app, we believe it should feel intuitive and a natural part of the journey.”
– Adam Goymour, Park Director at ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure
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Essential to ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure’s ambitious plans has been the willingness of their technology partners to collaborate and innovate.
“The fact that Attractions.io’s turnkey solution supports integrations with the industry’s biggest players was a huge pull factor for us,” ROARR!'s IT Manager Richard explains. “We want to push boundaries and use the technology in a playful, innovative way. The openness of Attractions.io and our tech partners has been essential in furthering that goal.”
Using the Attractions.io mobile app as the foundation of their guest experience platform, ROARR! has built a best of breed solution tailored to their unique needs. Their app integrates with their ticketing provider, ride ops platform and EPOS solution to create a feature-rich solution that puts everything guests need for a great day out in the palm of their hands.
ROARR! isn’t content to stop pushing boundaries anytime soon. Mindful of changing guest attitudes and, in particular, the need of the attraction industry to become more sustainable, the adventure park’s next goal is to go paperless. The team plan to stop printing physical membership cards by 2023 and significantly reduce the number of printed maps, tickets and brochures. Instead, they’ll direct guests to the app, putting the digital customer experience at the heart of their guest journey.
“We want to move away from printed maps, tickets and season passes and towards a digital experience. It’s better for the environment, better for our guests – as it allows for a seamless entrance experience – and better for us because we can use behavioural data from the app to improve our operational decision making.”
– Katie Stoner, Marketing Manager at ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure
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.
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