How Wax Museum Barcelona Reinvented Itself with the Help of OTA Marketing
2020 may have been a sluggish year for a lot of museums and attractions, but for some, it provided the space and motivation to envision something new. Just before pandemic shutdowns began, the consulting group Advanced Leisure Services took over the Barcelona Wax Museum, founded in 1973. In the lull of 2020 they saw an opportunity to reinvent the space. The brand-new version, Wax Museum Barcelona, boasts over 150 wax figures and 28 sets where visitors can fly in a spaceship, adventure through the jungle, and come face to face with pirates, among other immersive adventures.
But you can’t simply build a great museum and expect people to show up. Marketing the museum well, and making the ticketing experience a positive one, are two other critical elements of the effort. That’s why Wax Museum Barcelona relied upon Tiqets as an OTA marketing partner in the first place.
So far, reviews have been raving, which is why the museum was Tiqets’ 2021 Remarkable Venue Awards winner for Best Onsite Experience in Spain. The partnership between Tiqets and Wax Museum Barcelona is a study in how OTA marketing strategy is essential to any museum opening.
The moment we thought about buying the museum we had it clear in mind that online ticket sales were going to be very important to us, and in that aspect, Tiqets is a very important partner to us.
Ángel Díaz,
Business Director, Wax Museum Barcelona
The Challenge
How to sync up marketing and ticketing efforts with the right technology
Wax Museum Barcelona lies within a neoclassical palace built in 1867 as the headquarters of Banc de Barcelona. It’s a fascinating historical space with an impressive view of La Rambla, the iconic pedestrian thoroughfare, which is typically crowded with international tourists – but not in the spring of 2020, when pandemic shutdowns began.
That’s around when Advanced Leisure Services saw an opportunity. While tourist traffic was stalled, they revamped the museum, reopening at the end of that year with an exciting 21st-century version of the experience. To promote the new experience and ensure smooth ticketing, Ángel Díaz, the museum's business director, knew that to get the word out to both domestic and international visitors, which would require the right OTA marketing strategy. He also knew that any OTA marketing partner they worked with would have to provide great technology to ensure smooth, synchronized ticketing regardless of where visitors registered.
Díaz says, “We needed a management system that allowed us to have online reservations at time slots in real time, so we looked for a long time.” This is what led the team to Tiqets as a fundamental component of their OTA marketing strategy.
Courtesy of Barcelona Wax Museum
The Solution
Tiqets as an amplifier of experience and a foundation of practical ticketing
Tiqets provides both the technology and marketing boost that Wax Museum Barcelona needs to build hype and buzz about its updated experience and get visitors smoothly through the door. Being recognized for that experience as a winner of the Remarkable Venue Awards was both gratifying and helpful for the museum, especially early on in the reopening.
“There were many categories on the Remarkable Venue awards,” says Díaz, “and winning Best Onsite Experience let us know that the experience we’re offering is up to expectations. For a new product – as Wax Museum of Barcelona is – this was a huge success.” His marketing team leverages the award to woo back those who may have visited the old museum before the relaunch, and to entice new visitors as well, with glowing social proof.
The additional marketing Tiqets provided by publicizing the RVAs was equally helpful to Wax Museum Barcelona’s promotional efforts. And this is just one of the ways that the museum takes advantage of its OTA partnership with Tiqets.
We used the RVA award in many ways to let past visitors and potential new ones know that our product is worth experiencing, our museum worth visiting.
Núria Solé
Coordinator, Wax Museum Barcelona
01
More visibility on the local and international travel scene
First priority: Reaching as many people as possible to let them know about the envisioned museum experience in the same historical spot. Núria Solé, Wax Museum Barcelona Coordinator, explains how Tiqets’ website helped with this effort: “With a website translated into many languages, easy navigation, and information that’s well-written and detailed, this allows us to reach way more potential visitors.”
Tiqets’ large audience and user-friendly site help attract more visitors both domestically and abroad. Solé says, “At first we thought Tiqets would bring us more European tourists, mainly, but since the pandemic negatively affected precisely these visitors, we saw how locals and nationals started using the platform, too. That’s when Tiqets managed to start being a trusted provider of activities in our destination.”
Because of its robust reputation as an OTA, Tiqets also gives Wax Museum Barcelona more visibility on search engines. People conducting organic searches of “things to do in Barcelona” or “best wax museums” find the museum more easily simply because of its presence on Tiqets’ site. And, of course, Solé says, “We got to be nominated for an award, and actually won it for Spain, which was something new for us. It let us be known, not only to possible tourists of the destination, but to professionals.”
Our products on Tiqets’ platform let us be visible to a whole amount of potential clients that might not have known us.
Núria Solé
Coordinator, Wax Museum Barcelona
02
An advanced technology partner lets the museum try new things
Part of the appeal of Tiqets for Wax Museum Barcelona is the capabilities Tiqets’ technology platform provides. This enables the team to experiment with different types of marketing and ticketing. Díaz says, “Our company is very proactive in terms of trying new things. They don’t always work, but when one works, it’s worth the effort.”
For one thing, Tiqets provides built-in ways to easily partner with other nearby attractions to sell combination packages. Tiqets handles the functionality of ticketing these types of partnerships, so Wax Museum Barcelona doesn’t have to deal with complexity around administering and managing payments between multiple museums. Solé says, “This lets us have more visibility, but at the same time, avoid the costs that a collaboration outside the system may have.”
Her team has plenty of exciting ideas in the works, including a third-party photography service that Tiqets is partnered with called Smiler. Tiqets’ existing technology partnerships and API integrations are yet another way Wax Museum Barcelona can lean into the OTA partnership.
Tiqets is always willing to listen, to try to find solutions, and to explore.
Ángel Díaz,
Business Director, Wax Museum Barcelona
03
Bottom line: Increased sales
At the end of the day, the real benefit of any partnership is a boost in business, and ultimately, that’s what Tiqets provides Wax Museum Barcelona. The museum works with other OTAs, but Tiqets is their main OTA marketing partner and the one that provides the most ticket sales.
When Wax Museum Barcelona reopened in late 2020, says Solé, “We made sure our product was already on Tiqets, and we immediately received sales from Tiqets, so it definitely helped in many ways – with visibility, with reviews that help other potential clients decide whether or not to visit our venue, and more.”
Of all our partners, Tiqets is the one that sells more tickets for our venue.
Núria Solé
Coordinator, Wax Museum Barcelona
Partner for reinvention with an OTA marketing strategy
The partnership with Tiqets was a big part of Wax Museum Barcelona’s relaunch efforts, helping the museum get more visibility, high reviews, and increased sales. But a partnership is only as good as it is easy. Solé raves about the flexible relationship her team has with Tiqets’ team: “There’s always a fluent communication between the museum and Tiqets. Every problem is solved quickly, every question answered fast.” As international visitors pour back onto La Rambla, Wax Museum Barcelona is poised for popularity.
For more OTA marketing inspiration, read our case study on the Scotch Whisky Experience.
Want to learn more about how you can partner with Tiqets or use the Tiqets Booking Engine to achieve similar success?
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