FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
March 20, 2020

With public spaces closed around the world, Dexibit, a software company providing big data analytics for visitor attractions, today hosted crisis discussions for the industry. Together with speakers from the International Association for Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and attractions business network Blooloop, over a thousand visitor attractions professionals attended the online event with Dexibit to find a path forward for a sector hit hard by COVID-19.

Tourism reductions, border controls and cancelled events meant many visitor attractions were already experiencing drop offs in visitor numbers as early as January. Dexibit data shows attractions outside of Asia with tourist based audiences experienced a decline of 5% from late January during the early stages of the outbreak in China, rising to 20% by March then 50% in the first half of the month as the epidemic spread beyond Asia, before up to a 90% decline in attendance set in for some venues yet to close their doors after the World Health Organization’s pandemic announcement.

With visitor attractions around the world potentially closed until July or more, venues such as museums, theme parks, stadiums, performing arts, libraries, zoos, parks and more have since been dealing with a mass cancellation of bookings. The costs of closures are quickly adding up, with today’s participants citing New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s warning of $100 million in potential losses. Advocating an approach to ‘survive then thrive’, Pip Gilbert, Vice President Product Dexibit says “We’re on the edge of an economic crisis and the wider travel, tourism and entertainment sector is the canary in the coal mine”.

Using machine learning, Dexibit’s big data analytics is helping visitor attractions predict and analyze the impact of COVID-19 to visitor numbers and resulting revenue, with the company quickly releasing new insights this week. “For a lot of our customers, the immediate focus with them has been assessing the immediate impact to date with the down turn, then referring to forecasts alongside estimated closure dates to support loss of income claims”, says Gilbert. “We often talk about being insight inspired and data informed, and for no time is this more important than the present.”

The group called for the industry to begin planning for an uncertain future. “It is unlikely reopening will be a binary event” says Angie Judge, Chief Executive of Dexibit, “More likely it will come with government restrictions over public places – that might be opening hours or capacity caps. Maybe older populations aren’t out in public, or schools aren’t out for visits, or cruise liners aren’t back for a year or more.”

In responding to the COVID-19 crisis, Dexibit is now leveraging its machine learning models to help visitor attractions plan for different future scenarios by simulating various assumptions to evaluate impacts for visitorship and revenue. “Our challenge with COVID-19 is to predict the unpredictable”, says Judge. “In our mission to power our cultural future, never have we heard our call to purpose louder than now. ”

Ends.

About Dexibit:

Dexibit is the global market leader of big data analytics and artificial intelligence for visitor attractions. Dexibit’s software as a service includes forecasts, insights, dashboards and reports.

Press Contact:

Contact press@dexibit.com, phone +(64) 21 186 9321 or visit press.dexibit.com. For Dexibit’s COVID-19 coverage, see covid.dexibit.com.