How digital twin technology and AI can reimagine theme park experiences

With digital twin modeling and other emerging technology, theme parks can offer experiences that audiences hunger for.

In brief

• Theme parks can aid operational efficiency, enable crowd management and drive better experiences with tech, such as generative AI and digital twin modeling. 
• Strategic tech transformation frameworks can drive operational efficiency, cost effectiveness, and improved revenue generation and operational performance.

Today’s theme park guests are in search of once-in-a-lifetime experiences that inspire magic and wonder and create cherished memories that last lifetimes. Visitors from around the globe flock to these parks, eager for the thrills and unique, unforgettable adventures that theme parks can deliver. However, operational challenges can prevent these expectations from becoming reality. Instead of enjoying immersive and personalized experiences, guests frequently encounter congested public areas, long lines for attractions and delays due to operational inefficiencies. As a result, guest satisfaction, park revenue and brand loyalty can suffer, leading to disappointing visits that discourage return trips.

To remain relevant amid evolving audience expectations, theme parks and their business leaders must rethink how they deliver guest experiences. Introducing minor changes is no longer sufficient; addressing challenges requires a transformative approach driven by advanced technology and strategic initiatives.

Harnessing an agentic enterprise

As agentic artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly progresses, it facilitates collaboration between human employees and digital systems, allowing staff to focus on higher-value interactions with guests instead of spending time manually performing routine tasks or hunting for information that AI could put at their fingertips. This innovation ecosystem serves as a conduit for data, enabling seamless integration and flow of information that is crucial for unlocking the full potential of the insights that parks collect. It does this through technologies that transform data into actionable insights, empowering all roles within the organization. This serves as a cornerstone for integrating emerging technologies, creating a cohesive ecosystem that enhances both guest and operational experiences.

One technology that could be incorporated is the digital twin. While historically used in industrial settings and by technical roles, the integration of digital twins into an agentic enterprise offers significant benefits for theme parks by using historical and real-time data to simulate behavior, monitor operations and provide proactive crowd management. Through simulations, park management can respond effectively to changing conditions in a risk-free environment — laying the groundwork for continuous innovation.

By leveraging an agentic enterprise, parks can identify inefficiencies, optimize resources and predict issues before they arise, improving operational efficiency and guest experiences — leading to reduced cost and increased revenue.

Enhancing customer experience with hyper-personalization

By adding a layer of advanced data analytics to derive actionable insights for identify management, revenue optimization and improved guest experiences, theme park companies can strategically deliver hyper-personalized experiences to guests. This goes beyond personalizing with names or within generalized segments. Through studying insights drawn from guest behaviors and interactions, propensity for future actions and decisions, parks can use zero-, first- and third-party data to create complete customer profiles and personalities. The recommendations, offers and preferences provided by hyper-personalization make truly unique experiences possible. Since hyper-personalization isn’t appropriate for every experience, companies need to build strategies for incorporating it effectively.

Technology transformation driven by Generative AI (Gen AI)

Integrating GenAI into theme park operations can help craft unparalleled, custom-tailored guest experiences. Strategically engaging guests with GenAI-powered, personalized narratives and attractions add an element of magic while potentially predicting and meeting individual preferences. A coherent Gen-AI strategy (based on proper identity management and personalization strategies) can improve crowd management and customer satisfaction and become a core part of delivering exceptional, immersive customer experiences.

Unified Identity for theme park attendees

Creating a single, unified view of prospects and customers based on traits and behaviors can establish a consistent experience across channels and power a truly omnichannel strategy. By integrating operational and digital systems, companies can provide seamless and frictionless guest experiences for planning trips, navigating attractions, making purchases and engaging with personalized offerings. Identity management is key to understanding consumer behavior and customer demand, and it should be the foundation of tech-enabled interactions for individuals, groups and families.

Real-time notifications

Real-time interactions enhance personalized experiences by making them relevant. Information about wait times, suggestions for rides to try next, encouraging alternatives rides or experiences, providing mobile order updates or time-limited offers, real-time notifications keep guests informed and engaged. Theme park companies can use mobile applications, location-based services, proximity sensors and advance recommendations to deliver timely and relevant information to the customer. Embracing these technologies lets companies meet customers where they are, with the right message at the right time.

Gamification of theme park customer experience

Incorporating gamification into experiences can significantly enhance guest engagement and drive higher retention and overall satisfaction. Theme park companies can engage guests in gamification before and during park visits by using advanced insights to align customer behavior and drivers with business goals. In addition to incorporating an element of fun and excitement, gamification can encourage exploration of different areas of the park, participation in interactive attractions and competitions for rewards, leading to better crowd management, increased visits and improved customer experiences.

Technology transformation enablement: Strategic frameworks

Technology enablement has become a key pillar for creating captivating customer experiences and can provide a competitive advantage to theme park operators.

In partnership with the EY Tourism and Hospitality Center of Excellence, we have distilled our decades of experience collaborating with some of the world’s largest theme park operators to produce two foundational and complementary frameworks designed for enabling strategic technology transformations. The first framework helps clients assess and define their technology transformation roadmaps. The second helps drive the evolution of legacy platforms in an intentional and consistent manner to achieve their customer experience objectives.

Seamless connectivity:

Parks unify data from guests, rides and operations, creating a single source of truth that enhances decision-making and operational efficiency.

Powerful analytics:

Advanced analytics reveals patterns, predicts outcomes and optimizes resources, enabling parks to enhance guest experiences and streamline operations. Key analytical capabilities include:

Smart action:

This technology enabler automates decisions and balances traffic, facilitating safety and unlocking measurable value in guest satisfaction, operational efficiency and revenue growth. Key action capabilities include:

By leveraging these capabilities, theme parks can unlock significant value, drive guest satisfaction, improve operational efficiency and foster revenue growth while paving the way for sustainable innovation.

Technology enablement: strategic frameworks

Technology enablement is essential for enhancing customer experiences and giving theme parks a competitive edge. In collaboration with the EY Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecommunications sector, we have distilled our decades of experience collaborating with some of the world’s largest theme park operators to produce two foundational and complementary frameworks designed for enabling strategic technology transformations. The first framework helps clients assess and define their technology transformation strategies, while the second drives the evolution of legacy platforms in an intentional and consistent manner to achieve their customer experience objectives.

As theme parks navigate this transformative landscape, there is a wide range of maturity in the adoption of advanced technologies. EY professionals work closely with parks to create tailored roadmaps for the future. By connecting data, analyzing insights and driving real-time actions, parks can enhance guest experiences, optimize resources and achieve operational excellence. The time to act is now — let’s work together to make this future of enhanced experiences a reality today.

Figure 1: Tentative capability visual

The following Ernst & Young LLP professionals contributed to this report: Laura Roach, Nick Guido, Willis Logwood and Christopher Smith.