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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Complicated ticketing is a turnoff to attendance

More and more, agritourism farms now offer online ticket purchasing to their events, even for U-pick. This was definitely accelerated by the pandemic that required farms to control capacity (social distancing) with timed ticketing, a practice that introduced consumers to pre-purchasing their agritourism admissions. However, the way tickets are sold can unintentionally create barriers that keep visitors away.

Research by IMPACTS Experience on how big of a barrier online ticket purchasing has become for museums, zoos, aquariums, garden, and historic sites, found that difficulty to purchase a ticket has increased to a level that is resulting in some of these venues losing attendance due to its perceived difficulty.

These are some of the factors they found that are making online ticket purchasing so hard:

• A time/date selection requirement (often necessary)
• The burden of entering a lot of data, which includes the annoyance of entering information about the purchaser not required to make a ticket purchase.
• Takes too long to complete the transaction (typically due to the other factors)
• Price/eligibility confusion such as “Do I qualify for a local resident discount?”
• Planning frustration/confusion - “Does my ticket get me into the maze?”
• Transaction inconvenience - not accepting Apple Pay, etc.

Most ticket purchases are done on mobile phones, so make sure the ticketing platform is mobile-friendly

It is important that key policies (weather closings, refunds, rescheduling, what happens if berries run low, time slots if timed tickets) are in plain simple language near the top (not buried in fine print somewhere. ambiguity is a major cause of ticketing abandonment.

Make sure all major cards are honored plus at least one digital wallet option such as Apple Pay.

Timed ticketing is often necessary during peak weekends to manage parking and crowding to ensure guests have a good experience. However, a strict “online in advance or nothing” model can exclude visitors with limited digital access, low comfort with e-commerce, or a preference for spontaneous visits. During those times it is best to offer online ticketing while still reserving some limited same-day gate ticket capacity for walk-ups. But make it clear on your website that the number of walk-ups is limited so capacity can be controlled during peak busy times. This will also encourage more people to purchase tickets online to assure a spot.

Having clear, transparent, and easy to use online ticketing will assure that ticketing isn't a barrier to people visiting your farm.

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