18th June, 2021
Just off the coast of Marazion, St Michael’s Mount looms powerfully out at sea. Not only is St Michael’s Mount a stunning tidal Island, but it also boasts a rich history and incredible geology as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Likely a centre for trading in the Bronze Age, the history of the island dates back thousands of years. The Monastery was originally completed for Benedictine Monks from Mont-Saint-Michel in 1135, which later became a Castle and is now a family home. One of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions, St Michael’s Mount is also home to spectacular terraced formal Gardens, a harbour and village steeped in history, spacious lawns and incredible views.
In late 2020 the Team at St Michael’s Mount opened to tender to review their ticketing requirements and after extensive scoping, DigiTickets were delighted to begin building the site.
With the COVID-19 pandemic reshaping how attractions welcome visitors both online and in-person, the tourism industry has begun to reshape and adapt to our new normality. For many attractions, this period of flux has been a way to restructure and evolve both logistically and digitally. Not only is St Michael’s Mount one of the most impressive attractions around, but it is also one of the most logistically challenging as well. As a tidal Island, access to the Mount is either by an ancient, cobbled causeway available at low tide or high tide via a boat.
One of the most important aspects of the build, as always, was to ensure that the customer journey is as clear as possible so that visitors knew how they would access the island on any given date. Creating the ticketing site meant utilising many different features of the DigiTickets BackOffice, to achieve a smooth, clear user experience. By dividing the categories into Public Admission and National Trust Admission and creating multiple events for the Castle, Gardens and Combination visitors this gave the Team at St Michael’s Mount ultimate control over their capacity. The main aspect of the customer journey included:
By applying the Trading Planner feature to different timeslots, enabled the team to highlight the customer journey for each timeslot, so that visitors have a smooth crossing either by boat or causeway! After selecting their session, if applicable a purchase suggestion for a boat ticket would also pop up meaning that the journey for the customers was seamless. Finally, the BackOffice automatic email’s function was also used as a secondary safeguard to email customers two days before their visit. A link to the boat tickets category was also included just in case!
Creating an eye-catching online shop was also one of the key requirements of the build. Showcasing bespoke Cornish products, jewellery & home, and kitchenware. Displaying all of these incredible products easily was key. As a world-renowned attraction, St Michael’s Mount also wanted to take advance of multiple delivery methods and price differences for various postage types.
With their new ticketing site up and running St Michael’s Mount are now able to manage their site, tickets, dates, times, and prices with ease. On-site, staff are trained to scan ticket barcodes and redeem visitors with our queue-busting ticket redemption software: ProPoint. Overall, DigiTickets are looking forward to supporting the St Michael’s Mount team through a successful season.