Each month the Scattered Clouds blog takes a look at the wonderful world of tourism through a data and evidence-led lens, all in pursuit of transforming tourism sector data into insight of course!

Tickets, please!- July 2026

The humble ticket plays a crucial role in many corners of the tourism ecosystem

In transport terms it is believed that the Swansea and Mumbles horse-drawn railway was the first example of (hand-written) ticketed travel, dating all the way back to March 1807, but we can go a little further back to 1786 for an example of a paper ticket being used for “tourism” activity here in Britain, with the Royal Opera House introducing them for admission to theatrical performances thanks to the creation of a ticketing agency (some sources indicate usage prior to this, but I decided as this was not in fact a history thesis I’d curtail my rummaging around the internet for evidence)!

Unsurprisingly the Romans and Greeks had been way ahead of us, requiring a token to be presented to be granted entry into the likes of gladiatorial contests.

Those born fifteen to twenty years ago who are starting to engage in independent travel and attendance at events for the first time are doubtless filled with bafflement by the concept of a physical ticket, deeming this an item they may see on display in a museum. Having been born rather more years ago I am old enough to have had many an encounter with “real” tickets, my first memory being a platform ticket, required to watch trains at the station as a child in the late 1970s. I can still picture the dedicated machine from which these were purchased at the cost of 6p (as I recall the machine would only accept two pence pieces).

Even by the time I was making my first flight paper tickets were still definitely integral to the whole experience, with a booklet being provided from which the appropriate coupon would be removed at the gate.

In essence a ticket is just a means by which to demonstrate you are permitted to do something, whether that’s make a journey, visit an attraction or attend an event.

Time to move beyond my personal reminiscences and actually write about something substantive; it was a recent trip to British Columbia that got me thinking about how the ease of obtaining a ticket, how it is used, and what it permits you to do can influence how smooth a tourism experience is.

It perhaps won’t surprise you to learn that I am someone who does more than the average amount of research ahead of visiting a destination, partly reflecting my visual impairment as having knowledge about how things such as transport networks operate lessens the need to rely on one’s eyesight, and partly because I’m someone who rather enjoys researching this sort of stuff.

So, arriving at the automated ticket machine at Vancouver Airport’s SkyTrain station I knew that I wanted to purchase a Compass Card onto which I would load stored value. A lady ahead of me in the queue elicited my help as she was trying to buy a single ticket but the machine demanded to know how many zones this was for rather than where it was she wanted to get to, meaning she was having to try and discern this from a map printed above the machine. Those unfamiliar with a place may have no idea where exactly the station they are heading to is on a schematic, and having touchscreens that allow the budding traveller to input where they want to go rather than provide information they don’t, might be quite a good idea.

My next example demonstrates the benefit delivered to tourists (and those travelling for other purposes) of integrated ticketing, namely the ability to use the services of more than one service provider without the need to purchase multiple tickets.

There are several ways in which you can get from Vancouver to Victoria on Vancouver Island, but I opted for the integrated approach, namely getting on a coach at Vancouver bus depot that drove onto the ferry, spending 90 or so minutes watching islands pass by, reboarding the coach which drove off the ferry and dropped me close to where I wanted to be in Victoria.

What’s more I didn’t even have the faff of having to show evidence of my ticket on my phone, all I needed was to tell the coach driver my name, which handily appeared on his passenger manifest.

There are ubiquitous examples of good ticketing integration in our own visitor economy of course, but equally there is great room for improvement. If you want to make a journey by public transport that features both a train and a bus you need to know whether your origin and destination stations offer a “PlusBus” option when purchasing your rail ticket and whether the place you want to get on / off the bus is actually within the zone covered by the ticket. A large number of stations aren’t covered by the scheme, and chances are even if they were they may not be served by a bus route the timetable for which neatly aligned with that of the train service.

Getting inbound visitors to venture beyond London has been a challenge for as long as inbound tourism has been a thing, and as we drive on the opposite side of the road to most other nations many such visitors may be reluctant to hire a car. As such it is perhaps no surprise that roughly one-in-four inbound visitors already use a train to make a journey that isn’t entirely within a city.

Britain is not renowned for having cheap rail travel, especially when we are talking about walk-up tickets, that’s those purchased just prior to departure. With varying fares depending on the time of day, and in some instances between different operators serving the same route, our public transport ticketing may appear a tad labyrinthine as well as not a shining example of value for money to many of our inbound visitors, in reality it can act as a disincentive to exploring beyond London.

My final Canadian example relates to the outstanding Butchart Gardens (my top tip is to do what I did and arrive early, thereby avoiding the hordes of folks on tour busses that were streaming in by the time I left).

In this instance I had not pre-purchased my ticket so did so from a friendly chap behind one of the ticket windows, with the upside of this being that as a result I got an actual ticket along with both a handy map and a surprisingly comprehensive guide to the flowers I would potentially see. Had I arrived with a QR code on my phone I would simply have scanned this at the ticket barrier and walked in without my “souvenirs”. The point here being that it’s always pleasing when a ticket gets you something more than you were expecting.

Research conducted by VisitAberdeenshire last autumn helps to underscore how important smartphones have become in relation to tickets. Respondents (1,600 of them) were asked about the different ways in which they might have used a smartphone on their most recent holiday or short-break, and 46% said they had used their phone to display a ticket or boarding pass.

While there are a multitude of benefits to having a ticket on your phone, including a reduction in the amount of paper consumed courtesy of tourism activity, I hope the traditional ticket hasn’t quite reached the end of its journey.