Innovative Payment Solutions Boost Spend for Holiday Parks

Fivos Polymniou

A damp summer may have dented the recent staycation trend for holiday parks but, having attracted a wider demographic and created year-round destinations, innovative ways to boost revenue in on-site holiday park facilities could be pivotal to keeping sales up in 2024.Integrated cash, token and card payment solutions will play a crucial role, explains Fivos Polymniou, Director at Ask Global Solutions..

Demographic Diversity

Holiday parks have changed significantly in recent years, extending activities and adding new food and beverage options to build on the post-pandemic staycation trend. Catering to an ever-widening range of tastes and budgets, from luxury lodgers to budget-friendly caravans, diversification has attracted a broader demographic, including younger families, retirees and friends taking short breaks. As a result, the traditional seasonal revenue model has changed, with holiday parks becoming year-round destinations.

While the resurgence in popularity has been tempered slightly by the impact of a damp summer on staycation plans, for holiday park providers the diversity in entertainment and food and beverage services provides myriad opportunities to boost revenue. From arcades to family entertainment centres offering Peppa Pig and racing games to sophisticated Virtual Reality experiences, parks can meet the expectations of the ever-changing demographic. It is, therefore, essential to provide a range of payment options that also ensure every guest’s payment preference is available.

Payment Choice

Games and entertainment areas have traditionally been cash-only, but consumer attitudes to cash have changed dramatically, with recent statistics showing that around 40% of UK adults rarely or never use cash. There is also a very significant difference in attitude between age groups: almost three quarters (72%) of those aged 16-24 routinely use mobile payments – compared to just 8% of those aged over 65.

At the same time, however, the on-going cost of living crisis has led to a significant proportion of consumers using cash for day to day spending. 1.5 million adults mainly used cash in 2023, marking the first rise since 2019. For these consumers, the ability to use cash whilst on holiday will be an important way to avoid overspending and keep track of budget.

Seamless Experience

Holiday parks can embrace an array of orchestration solutions to provide payment choice. Introducing a change machine, which can be branded to the holiday park, to clubhouses with slot machines, pool tables, grabber machines and the like, all of which are traditionally cash only, can enable customers to get specific coin denominations – or tokens – using either cash or card payments. Offering multiple card values allows individuals to budget by buying a set amount for a week if preferred.

Adding a card reader conversion kit to individual games also allows guests to pay via contactless card rather than cash. This is particularly valuable for high value activities such as Virtual Reality experiences that will appeal to the ‘cash-free’ 16 to 24 demographic who may not have played the game without a card option.

Improving Efficiency

Automated kiosk technologies can also be used within food and beverage areas, where guests make the payment via cash or card while the food or drink order is being processed by a member of staff. In addition to being more efficient and inclusive, this automated payment approach is more hygienic because staff never have to touch cash.

Indeed, the use of automated kiosk technology allows holiday park operators to better control the different entertainment and restaurant zones. The addition of card payments reduces the need to replace or top up cash floats, for example, while the use of tokens can provide an operator with more flexibility in managing the price of play to further improve revenue.

Conclusion

Holiday parks are no longer simply summer family destinations. The addition of new facilities and entertainment has increased demographic diversity and created a year long holiday option. In recent years, ‘in-park’ spending via cash and card in tandem has remained positive; operators now have significant opportunities to achieve further increase through the effective use of advanced technologies that support the payment preference of every guest.