Is the Price Right… or Just Wrong for Your Bottom Line?

Arival.Travel’s 2025 study shows only 7% of operators have moved into dynamic pricing.

Seven percent.

In an industry built on seasonality, weather, and demand swings, that’s shockingly low.

For eight years, I’ve been working alongside attractions that are constantly asked to do more with less: less predictability in the economy, less certainty in the weather, and less wiggle room when guests decide—at the last second—whether to show up at your gate.

Static pricing has been the backbone of the industry for decades, but it’s also the anchor holding operators back from a more stable, profitable future.

So, why haven’t you taken the leap? Let’s break it down.

A Personal Lens: How I Buy Travel

When I’m planning a family trip, I don’t shop for “the cheapest day.” I shop for value and experience. If I’m booking flights, I don’t love it when the price jumps $200 overnight—but I also understand it’s demand at work. And if I grab a hotel at a shoulder-season rate? I feel like I’m winning, not being cheated.

Where I don’t love pricing is when I roll up to the front gate of an attraction, with no incentive to have booked earlier than today, and I am handing over my credit card with three to four digits on the screen looking back at me. I’m now thinking more about what I just paid than what I’m about to experience. It takes me out of the moment. When pricing is handled smartly—whether through advance purchase deals, variable rates, or true dynamic pricing—my brain shifts back to where it belongs: enjoying the day, not calculating ROI on every ride, experience, or show.

Static Pricing is a Marketing Treadmill

Think about your own team. When the weather forecast calls for rain, or your numbers are down 9% at the end of June, what’s your first instinct? Spin up a promo. Blast emails. Slash tickets. Hope you can make up the shortfall.

That’s exhausting. And it’s short-sighted. Marketing shouldn’t be firefighting. It should be storytelling, engagement, and driving the brand forward. Yet static pricing forces marketing teams into a cycle of last-minute discounts just to cover gaps. It’s a treadmill you can’t get off—unless you change the model.

And here’s the nightmare version: I know of at least one example this season where an operator dropped ticket prices on the last day of the season. Guests who had already paid full freight weren’t thrilled, chaos broke out at the overcrowded gates—and yes, the cops got called. Don’t let this be you.

Guests Aren’t as Fragile as You Think

A lot of operators hold back because they’re worried guests won’t understand. Or that they’ll push back. But look at how people book everything else: flights, hotels, rental cars, even concerts. Price fluctuations are expected. Guests have been trained to see value in planning ahead.

And it’s not just concerts—look ahead to the World Cup in North America in 2026 ⚽. Global events are already leaning on dynamic pricing to balance demand and revenue. This isn’t a fringe experiment anymore.

Here’s another angle: sometimes pricing isn’t about squeezing every dollar from every guest. It’s about controlling your busiest Saturdays by nudging some visitation toward a quieter weekday. Or it’s about creating an accessible entry point for lower-income families who might otherwise be priced out.

Attractions aren’t just businesses; they’re cultural touchstones. Price strategy can be both profitable and equitable.

The Operator Who Took the Leap

One operator leaned into dynamic pricing seven seasons ago. They didn’t just test it for a summer and move on. They built it into their DNA. And now? They’re generating over a million more reasons annually to keep believing in it. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a future-proofing move.

When Do You Get to Call Yourself an Expert?

At what point do you get to claim expertise? A framed diploma? A decade in the trenches? A few scars from making tough calls?

I don’t have a PhD in pricing. But what I do have is eight years of watching dynamic pricing outperform static models, season after season, across real attractions with real guests.

Call it fieldwork, call it ops scars—but I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. And the data keeps proving it out.

So here’s my challenge to you:

Why haven’t you moved off static pricing yet?

• Is it too hard to implement?

• Do you believe your guests won’t understand?

• Or is it just easier to keep asking marketing to patch over every slow forecast with another discount?

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At Attraxion.ai, we’re inviting you to give us a call. Tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly of why you haven’t deployed this yet. We’ll either set you up with a plan, a seasoned partner,—or validate your reasons so you don’t feel like you’re crazy.

Because yes, I know of at least one highly visited attraction in the biggest U.S. metro that was told to stop doing dynamic pricing. Sometimes, it’s not the right fit—and that’s fair.

But let’s at least throw it all on the page and workshop it.

Your guests, your team, and your future revenue deserve more than static.