Lemme back up for a minute, to answer that question. The biggest factor affecting how much someone spends in a theme park is how long that person stays in the park. So if you want your guests to spend more money, you've got to find a way to keep them in the park for more of the day.
In my first piece on this topic, I wrote about improving breakfast options in the parks, as a way to get more people into the parks earlier in the day. Free water is designed to keep them there later on summer days, when heat and dehydration combine to force many visitors to seek relief with an early retreat to their hotel, or, worse for the park, home.
Pretty much all parks do offer free water at their restaurants. If you ask. Or you can always stoop over at the nearest water fountain. I'm suggesting that parks get much more aggressive about it, to dramatically increase the percentage of people taking advantage.
Do like Dollywood, and line up cups of ice water on the counter, free for the taking. Or better yet, do like Holiday World, and place open drink cells throughout the park, so people can have all the free water - and soft drinks - they want.
Free soft drinks, I can hear you ask: Am I insane?
Soft drinks are among the highest margin items that theme parks sell. Giving them away surely would cripple the per-guest spending that we're trying to increase, right?
Maybe not. Free drinks not only encourage people to stay better hydrated, allowing them to last longer in the summer heat, they change people's mentality about the park.
The free drinks we got at Holiday World affected the way we thought about our money while we were in the park. By not having to spend two or three bucks a drink, we felt like we could more easily afford souvenirs and extra snacks later in the day. I'm convinced that we ended up spending more at Holiday World because of the free drinks than we would have without them.
For further proof, let's talk about our trip to Kings Island, later the same week. Spending three bucks per Coke left us feeling ripped off after the Holiday World experience, and helped convince me to keep the wallets shut when the kids started looking at souvenirs. The hassle of asking for water also led to us getting less than we did at Dollywood. So, when we were wavering in late afternoon about whether or not to stay longer, feeling tired and hot, we made the easy decision: leave.
Would we have chosen differently had Kings Island more aggressively offered free water, or free drinks? Probably.
Again, the key to higher guest spending is a longer day in the park. If giving away a three-dollar Coke (which actually costs the park pennies, if anything, giving pouring deals), helps keep guests there so that they can buy a $20 dinner or souvenir later in the day, that initial loss pays for itself.
When I attended the media day for Terminator: Salvation at Six Flags Magic Mountain, I saw Six Flags employees offering cold bottled water to every park employee and media rep at the ride. Park President Jay Thomas encouraged everyone to take one, imploring people to "stay hydrated" in the California desert sunshine.
Every park should be that aggressive in offering water to every guest when the temperature exceeds a certain mark. Even if a park decides against offering free soft drinks, it should put free cups of ice water out on all its food service counters and set up freely accessible water drink cells throughout the park, for people to refill their water bottles. Gross old water fountains don't cut it anymore.
Happy, healthy park guests spend more than cranky, ill-feeling ones. Providing cold drinks to everyone is a small expense for parks to take when compared to the money that they can make if more people stay, eat and shop in the parks later in the day.
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So I think it all boils down to goodwill. If a park is willing to give you something for free, the guest is willing to reward the park by spending more and most importantly enjoying their time at the park. This also encourages repeat visits.
Still, any park that gives away free drinks will be popular. I wonder if any are willing to test the theory out for a month.
Furthermore, like Robert, when we went to Holiday World we took XX amount of dollars for food, drinks, and souvenirs. Even with the free drinks, we still spent XX amount of dollars AND bought some snacks we normally wouldn't cause we felt like we were saving so much money!
Silver Dollar City, like its sister park Dollywood, has plenty of water available around the park, and they always offer to REFILL your plastic water bottles whenever you stop at a food vendor. Nice touch.
I also feel this works on another level, it doesn't just effect how long people are going to stay in the park but also if they are going to come back again. If you feel you've got value for money then your more likely to go to the park again. Of course word of mouth will also be effected. You know what they say, if you have a good experience (free Coke) you'll tell a few friends and family members, if you have a bad experience (paying $3 for a Coke) you're going to tell near enough everyone you meet for the next few days.
It's not something which is going to happen at somewhere like Walt Disney World, where there's new guests everyday but at smaller, regional parks repeat business is integral to their survival, especially during an economic crisis like we're in at the moment. If they keep local guests happy by offering things like this they increase not only the chance of them coming back again but also the chances of them considering an annual pass.
If they're going to give something for free then they should stop gouging us for parking. Even if they secretly raised the price of the ticket a couple of bucks and just told me that parking was free I'd be happy with that.
Mike
It's isn't just the free soft drinks, it's the high quality fresh meals with a price equal or less than McDonald's....5$ meals such as a huge slice of the best pizza, large fries, and a cookie...or fully loaded hamburger, fries and cookie....or taco salad made fresh in front of you....funnel cakes for under 3$...caramel apples under 2$.
Their gift shop is full of that same quality and reasonable prices. You can get a handblown hand made ornament in the gift shop for under 5$ I bought all of my children steel mood rings and a huge lolly pop for under 4$ each.
We are a family of 10, this year we spent over a thousand dollars to buy season passes for our entire family.
We spent on average 200$ at Holiday World. Because our family truly believes in supporting family owned business that have such extreme dedication to families. I have never seen such kindness, quality and passion for service as I have when witnessing the employees at Holiday World.
Free sodas are nice...wonderful infact. But at Holiday World it's just the tip of the ice cream. (Which for a huge ice cream is only 2$):P
Holiday World has our money, we will be their customers every year. The real secret to bringing back folks is making them feel cared for...and we do.
Lanie Eden<3
The handles are frequently touched too, so it's an easy way to pick up germs.
A soda tap requires far less hand contact (often none), and I have never seen anyone press their mouth to the delivery spout.
Bathroom water taps are actually cleaner than water fountains (blech and double blech).
America's safe and clean tap water is truly amazing. Some of the delivery mechanisms are not.
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