New report reveals nearly half of UK attraction bookings are made on the day of visit
New research analysing more than three million admission tickets has revealed that visitors are increasingly leaving it until the last minute to book a day out, with almost half of online bookings made on the day of the visit.
The first report from Visitor Attraction Intelligence (VAI) found that 45.9% of bookings were made on the day itself, while 67.9% were made within 24 hours of the visit.
The findings are based on more than three million anonymised admission tickets from 56 UK attractions between 1 January and 11 August 2026. The research focuses specifically on day visitors, excluding schools, coach parties and corporate bookings, which tend to follow different booking patterns.
VAI is a new data-driven initiative established through a partnership between visitor attraction specialists Agility Marketing and ticketing software provider DigiTickets. By combining DigiTickets’ anonymised booking data with Agility’s industry knowledge and commercial expertise, the initiative aims to identify the trends shaping the visitor attraction sector.
Liz Dimes, managing director at Agility Marketing, who led the analysis of the data, said: “We all know visitors are booking closer to the day of their visit, but what stood out when we interrogated the data was the scale of that behaviour. Almost half of bookings are now made on the day itself and more than two thirds within 24 hours.
“But the headline numbers are only part of the story. When you look more closely, there are some really interesting differences between school holidays, term time and different types of attraction. That’s where the data becomes particularly useful, giving attractions context to better understand their own booking patterns.”
The research revealed a clear difference between school holidays and term time. During school holidays, more than 70% of bookings were made within 24 hours of the visit, compared with 63% during term time.
The biggest contrast was among visitors who booked further in advance. During term time, 36.7% booked at least two days ahead, with an average lead time of seven days. During school holidays, only around a quarter booked at least two days in advance, and the average lead time fell to just three to four days.
Booking habits also varied considerably depending on the type of attraction. Country parks and gardens recorded some of the shortest booking lead times, with 80.9% of bookings made within 24 hours. By comparison, the figure for boat trips and railways was 19.7%.
Factors such as weather exposure, restricted capacity and fixed departure times may help explain some of these differences.
Jamie Faulkner, operations director at DigiTickets, said: “This first report gives us a fascinating insight into when visitors are actually committing to their day out, based on millions of real bookings.
“By combining DigiTickets’ anonymised booking data with Agility Marketing’s sector knowledge and ability to contextualise the findings, we can start to build a much clearer picture of visitor behaviour. As VAI develops, the ambition is to keep exploring the data, identifying useful patterns and giving attractions intelligence they can use to inform their decisions.”
Although last-minute bookings account for the largest share, 32.2% of visitors still book at least two days in advance. The report encourages attractions to explore ways of persuading more visitors to commit earlier, potentially through added value, weather guarantees, greater flexibility or other incentives.
Anita Waddell, CEO at Agility Marketing, said: “These results demonstrate how important it is to make late bookings as easy as possible. We know some attractions close online ticketing the night before, but with almost half of bookings made on the day, keeping it open allows visitors to book on the day, on their journey or even from the car park.
“But booking later doesn’t mean discovering later. Visitors may only buy their tickets close to visiting, but they are likely to have been considering that day out for weeks.
“That means marketing needs to work across the whole journey. Attractions need to be building awareness through search, social, AI generated answers and third party listings well in advance, while making it incredibly easy for visitors to convert when they’re ready to book.”
This is the first report from Visitor Attraction Intelligence, which plans to publish an ongoing series of free industry reports exploring real visitor behaviour and identifying the patterns, changes and opportunities shaping the UK visitor attraction sector.
For more information about Visitor Attraction Intelligence and to download the full Booking Lead Times report, visit www.visitorai.co.uk.