What makes a museum or attraction stand out? Innovation, imagination, and creativity. Having a north star mission. And working with the right partners to make visitor dreams a reality. These are just some of the ingredients that go into award-winning experiences.
This year’s Remarkable Venue Awards were held at the Tourism Innovation Summit in Seville, where the top-rated museums and attractions in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UAE, the UK, and the US were honored with accolades.
Three of the RVA winners participated in a panel discussion on the current state of the tourism industry, and how their particular venues managed to carve out a special niche and really shine this year.
Whether your attraction hopes to win awards, attract press, dazzle visitors, or all of the above, read on for inspiration from three standout winners of Tiqets’ 2022 Remarkable Venue Awards.
Bringing an old part of the London underground back to life
Hidden London is a one-of-a-kind experience hosted by the London Transport Museum, which re-discovers “forgotten” parts of the underground Tube network with behind-the-scenes tours such as “Charing Cross” and “Down Street: Churchill's Secret Station.” In addition to being a Remarkable Venue Award winner for the Global Best Hidden Gem category, Hidden London was also named Best Hidden Gem in the U.K based on millions of customer reviews in 2022.
Fascinating spaces with (literally) deep history to be explored, 30K guests a year flock underground to check out the quirky tours. These once-forgotten parts of the Tube are not otherwise accessible to the public, so the attraction has an “insider knowledge” sort of cachet. The organization has also capitalized on the experience by publishing a book (now in its third imprint), a TV show, and two series on the secrets of the London underground.
Ollie Burton, Head of Hidden London, quips, “Innovation is a love of invention, and Hidden London is born of innovation.” That was never proven more true than during pandemic shutdowns, when the venue couldn’t welcome guests onsite but instead improvised with a podcast and hangouts on Zoom, a Patreon channel, and virtual tours that wove in archival footage – and sold 5,000 tickets.
Their initial challenge: Getting the word out about an experience so unique that no one would even know to Google it in the first place
How they do it well: By seeking out niche audiences and scaling tours
Hidden London’s target audience was not necessarily international. After all, those travelers come to London to see Big Ben and Windsor Castle. Instead, Burton’s marketing team actively sought out other niche audiences within London.
Hidden London is also growing its number of tours and sites, as well as trying to safely work more people into each individual tour, so they can share the experience with a bigger audience. They’re considering adding more tours per day and possibly even adding above-ground experiences.
The irony of being a “hidden gem” is that you stop being a hidden gem when you win an award and tons of people find out about you. As Burton says, “Do we want to stop being a hidden gem? Yes and no. When overseas tourists come to London, we probably won’t be top of list. But we have plans for growth, and we want to expand.”
The importance of an outstanding mission
Oceanário de Lisboa in Portugal pays homage to the sea. A large public aquarium known around the world, Oceanário is visited by about a million people a year. Like most reputable aquariums, this one is both a place for visitors to learn about ocean ecology, and admire exhibits and a major contributor to promoting environmental sustainability and supporting critical scientific research.
It’s partly that underlying culture of conservation that earnt Oceanário a place in the RVA canon as the Global Winners of the Most Remarkable Venue award. But what also makes Oceanário a true winner is the sheer uniqueness of the visitor experience. From the iconic campus, which includes two buildings connected by a large forecourt with a stunning 55,000-tile panel, to its extensive collection of aquatic creatures, Oceanário leaves an indelible impression on the minds of everyone who steps foot onsite.
Their initial challenge: Mission is incredibly important at Oceanário de Lisboa. “But we don’t want people distracted,” says Elsa Coursela, Head of Marketing, Sales, and Education, “We just want them to feel engaged.” So how to give visitors a great experience without over-indexing on the mission message?
How they do it well: Visitors are given precisely curated information by a helpful, non-intrusive team that enables them to engage deeply with the exhibitions.
Courela says, “Everything we do should make people understand that we are, above everything, about conservation. We try to provoke emotions because we believe that through emotions it’s possible to make people change behaviors, and we are fighting against a huge problem: the planet facing serious danger.”
Above all, Oceanário is leading by example, with its mission of environmental stewardship front and center at every turn. Even the items available in the gift shop are a showcase of sustainable products. Environmentalism is not just about marketing or greenwashing at Oceanário. It is, instead, an ethos.
It’s a business, though. As Coursela explains, it still has to be aggressive with pricing, increasing pricing smartly during the high season and offering promotional discounts during the low season. This after all is what funds the conservation efforts.
She says, “We are all connected by the ocean, and what our visitors expect from us is a focus on a great and excellent experience in order to make everyone really feel at home.”
PR-worthy campaigns and partner support
“The most beautiful bookstore in the world” lies in the civil Parish of Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitóri in Portugal. Livraria Lello is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal, founded in 1869, and its central staircase, Staircase to Heaven, is widely known in architectural circles (and a favorite photographic subject of visitors).
The art nouveau–style building dates to 1906, a bookstore first founded by brothers José and António Lello. Livraria Lello began a new life in 2015 with the acquisition of a 51% holding by the Pedro Pinto family. While the store has always been a draw for visitors, the new shareholders laid down a freshly worded mission: a campaign to “preserve the book” and the ambition to get the entire world to read.
The goal of Livraria Lello’s curators is to create a compelling space people want to step inside, without feeling like they’re being lured into a commercial enterprise. Yet, while people were coming in droves to photograph the arresting staircase and the rest of the building, they weren’t exactly buying books — a necessary activity to keep the business alive. Under the new ownership, there’s a voucher system: while there’s a charge for admission, visitors get that money back in credit toward a purchase.
This model enables the bookstore to stay financially solvent while continuing to offer free cultural programming and further its mission of getting more people to read more books. However, if you’re going to charge for entry to a bookstore, you really need to entice people to want to come in.
Their initial challenge: How to entice more people to come in, pay for admission — and then buy books
How they do it well: Creative director Hugo Cardoso prioritizes imaginative marketing and promotional ideas, and often teams up with outside partners on PR-worthy campaigns. Here are some of the reasons Livraria Lello won the RVA for Most Innovative in Portugal under his tutelage.
Back to that amazing staircase, which had traditionally been painted red. In 2021, Livraria Lello teamed up with Pantone to celebrate its Color of the Year campaign as well as the bookstore’s 115th anniversary and painted the staircase PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminant (yellow) and PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray.
Livraria Lello’s Presidente of the Board of Directors, Aurora Pedro Pinto, said of this venture: “We painted our staircase in a wake-up call for society to recognize the importance of the book. We want them to look at us and remember all the bookshops in the world, who heroically resist the adversities of today.”
During the pandemic, the bookstore also sponsored the world's first “drive-through for books” and gave out 10,000 books from their collection. They held a short-fiction competition, which attracted 6,500 participants. And perhaps most strategically, they partnered with Time Magazine to dedicate the first floor of the bookstore to Nobel Prize winners. The exhibit “What Makes a Nobel?” featured the greatest authors of the last two centuries, from 1901, when French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme won the inaugural prize, through today.
Cardoso emphasizes that Livraria Lello always thinks of its roots when embarking upon a modern promotional campaign: “Know both who you are, and where you’re going.” The mission of Livraria Lello has always been to inspire people to read books, not just take pictures of the architecture. As a result of recent efforts, they’ve managed to move the needle on that effort, with 60 to 70% of visitors now buying books — up from a previous paltry 10%.
Find what makes your museum or attraction unforgettable
Not every bookstore is a historical gem, but every bookstore can find the distinguishing factor that sets it apart from the rest. Cardoso’s advice is not to be afraid of new technology (ahem, ebooks) but to work with it.
The same can be said of any type of museum or attraction. Focus on your visitor experience, what makes you unique, and how you can get the word out to the general public about your brand and venue.
