The reopening of the historic Observation Deck at the top of Rockefeller Center in New York required that Tishman Speyer develop a comprehensive ticketing solution to complement their new, high-tech take on the attraction.

Outcome

The solution provided to Tishman Speyer covered all aspects of the ticketing process. The ticketing system has served the attraction well, by providing a much improved guest experience compared to similar attractions.

Business Case

The reopening of the historic Observation Deck at the top of Rockefeller Center in New York required that Tishman Speyer develop a comprehensive ticketing solution to complement their new, high-tech take on the attraction. The focus was on enabling a "virtual queue" experience, by allowing the system to manage the flow of guests through an online and timeslot-based ticketing process. Key system requirements include the ability to process multi-channel sales, the scalability to cater for millions of guests over time and the flexibility to integrate with back-office systems and infrastructure.

Solution

The solution provided to Tishman Speyer covered all aspects of the ticketing process including:

• Onsite touch screen sales terminals.
• Secure online ticket purchases for guests, agents and concierges.
• Admissions using handheld PDA scanning devices and bar-coded tickets.
• Guest flow control through responsive capacity and timeslot management, and automated LED devices directing guests to the correct queue.
• Browser-based administration covering everything from cashier management to reporting.
• Automated integration with existing accounting systems.
• Integrated CRM system for tracking interactions with agencies, including bulk mailing functionality.
• Significant failover and redundancy planning to ensure constant up-time.

Benefits

Since its grand reopening, the Top of the Rock Observation Deck has been a destination of choice for tourists and locals alike. The ticketing system has served the attraction well, by providing a much improved guest experience compared to similar attractions. Management personnel are able to tailor their sales capacity in response to the needs of the day or even in advance. Comprehensive reporting on every aspect of the process — from people flow to cash flow — allows for full auditing as well as forward planning. The system itself has undergone many enhancements over time, changing and improving in response to the needs of the attraction and the feedback from its many users.