{"id":23422,"date":"2026-07-20T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T15:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:56:08","slug":"the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you speak to almost any operator in the attractions industry, many of their calculations on investment are based on delivering increased dwell time. It's common knowledge that increasing dwell time gives you a few advantages. <\/p>\n

- It allows you to increase your gate price as you're offering a longer experience
\n- If people stay longer, the secondary spend increases, as people stay through lunch or get hungry and buy more snacks
\n- There's an assumption that reviews generally improve as people see how much there is to do during the visit<\/p>\n

But with the changes in the market post covid, demands of families and the time people have available, we would question whether adding dwell time is always<\/em> the answer.<\/p>\n

The myth of the full-day visit<\/h3>\n

There is an assumption baked into much of the industry's thinking that a longer visit equals a better visit. But research into visitor behavior tells a more complicated story. Fatigue, both physical and cognitive, sets in faster than operators often acknowledge. A family that has \"done everything\" in a few hours and left on a high is far more likely to return than one that trudged through two or more extra hours of content simply because they felt they needed to justify the higher ticket price. <\/p>\n

The concept of \"peak experience\" matters here. Visitors tend to remember the emotional high point of a visit and its ending, not just its total length. Filling time for the sake of it risks diluting those memorable moments and sending guests home tired rather than happy, exhilarated and ready to shout about their day with their friends on social media. <\/p>\n

Perceived value is critical, often more so than the headline price.<\/p>\n

The time-poor visitor<\/h3>\n

The post-pandemic leisure landscape has shifted significantly. Families are juggling competing demands on their weekends, including kids' sport, rest, time together, screen fatigue and the pull of just being in their home environment, and many are actively seeking experiences that feel manageable rather than marathon. A two, three or four-hour attraction with a clear beginning, middle and end can feel like a gift. A six-hour one can feel like a mission that may be too much to take on for many. <\/p>\n

This is particularly acute for younger children, whose enjoyment window is considerably shorter than many attraction layouts anticipate. Michael Collins of LDP<\/a> makes the point well: even the largest kids' parks tend to top out at five, or at most six, hours due to fatigue, compared to nine or more hours for destination parks. Even Legoland-scale attractions see a much lower length of stay than equivalent adult parks. When operators design for a six-plus hour average dwell time, they may be designing for a visitor who no longer exists in the numbers they once did. <\/p>\n

Quality of time versus quantity of time<\/h3>\n

The smarter question isn't \"how do we get visitors to stay longer?\" but \"how do we make every hour they are here feel more valuable?\"<\/p>\n

These are very different briefs. The first leads to padding, more stocking fillers and more queues. The second leads to curation, more surprising experiences, better visitor flow with highs and lows designed in and moments of genuine surprise and delight. <\/p>\n

Operators who focus on quality over quantity tend to find that secondary spend actually increases anyway, because visitors are having more fun and feeling less stressed. It could be as simple as having outlaid less to be there, but it all adds to the overall experience dynamic. A family that has had a great three-hour experience is far more likely to stop at the caf\u00e9 for lunch than one that is exhausted, fractious and desperate to leave. <\/p>\n

Michael Collins also raises an important context point: in some settings, a long length of stay is actively harmful. In a shopping mall, for example, pitching a four-plus hour attraction detracts from shopping time and works against the wider development. The goal of dwell time is not universal, and operators would do well to consider what the surrounding ecosystem needs, not just what works in isolation. <\/p>\n

When dwell time investment makes sense<\/h3>\n

None of this is to say that increasing dwell time is always the wrong call. For destination attractions, those requiring significant travel, a longer experience absolutely justifies the journey and supports higher ticket pricing. Overnight stays, resort-style offerings and multi-day passes all benefit from genuine depth of content. <\/p>\n

The critical distinction is whether additional dwell time is being driven by authentic new experiences that visitors genuinely want, or is just there to extend the day. Michael Collins notes that in theme parks, guests may spend 45 minutes per attraction simply queuing. Whether that is acceptable is debatable, but either way, the long length of stay accounts for it. In attraction types with less capital expenditure per unit of capacity, queues are less of an issue and the visit is naturally more active and intense. In those contexts, the case for engineering longer dwell time becomes even weaker. <\/p>\n

Visitors are increasingly good at sensing the difference, and they are not shy about saying so in reviews.<\/p>\n

A new metric worth considering<\/h3>\n

Perhaps the industry needs a complementary metric alongside dwell time: something that might be called return intent per hour. In other words, how likely is a visitor to come back, divided by how long they stayed? An attraction that generates strong return visits from guests who stayed three hours may be outperforming one with longer dwell times but weaker loyalty. Michael Collins agrees that length of stay is important, but not the only metric by which to measure how an experience is received. <\/p>\n

It turns out the industry may already have some of the mathematical tools needed to think about this differently. According to Tony Sefton of Vision XS<\/a>, they have been using a framework called EQS since 1996, which combines active time in the experience and experiences per hour against benchmark data of what visitors actually want. The result is what Tony Sefton calls \"pace of experience,\" a measure that captures something dwell time alone simply cannot. With a full chapter on the subject in his forthcoming book, it is clear this thinking has been around for longer than many of us realize. <\/p>\n

The goal, ultimately, is not to keep visitors inside the gates for as long as possible. It is to send them home happy, with a strong desire to come back for more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23425,"template":"","categories":[45,63],"class_list":["post-23422","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attractions-us","category-thinking-us"],"acf":{"text_under_title":"Worldwide"},"yoast_head":"\nThe relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/\",\"name\":\"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-20T15:56:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"The relentless hunt for increased dwell time\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/\",\"name\":\"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd.\",\"description\":\"Creating adventurous places for every imagination\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/cropped-CAP.CO_LOGO_FAVICON.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/cropped-CAP.CO_LOGO_FAVICON.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wearecapco.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/wearecapco\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/we_are_capco\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/we-are-capco\\\/about\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCN0C8R-6BQd6jU-5iB80lcw\\\/videos\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures","description":"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures","twitter_description":"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/","url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/","name":"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time | Creating Adventures","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-20T15:56:08+00:00","description":"We believe that the relentless pursuit of increased dwell time is a myth that needs to be questioned with the changing demands of consumers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"The relentless hunt for increased dwell time"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/the-relentless-pursuit-of-increased-dwell-time\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The relentless pursuit of increased dwell time"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/","name":"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd.","description":"Creating adventurous places for every imagination","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#organization","name":"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd","url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cropped-CAP.CO_LOGO_FAVICON.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cropped-CAP.CO_LOGO_FAVICON.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"CAP.CO | Creating Adventurous Places Ltd"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wearecapco","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/we_are_capco\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/we-are-capco\/about\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCN0C8R-6BQd6jU-5iB80lcw\/videos"]}]}},"main_category":[{"id":45,"name":"Attractions","slug":"attractions-us","icon":{"ID":13083,"id":13083,"title":"attractions icon","filename":"attractions_1@72x.png","filesize":2544,"url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","link":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/attractions_172x\/","alt":"attractions icon","author":"1","description":"attractions icon","caption":"","name":"attractions_172x","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":0,"date":"2019-05-01 15:09:18","modified":"2021-12-30 15:56:14","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":163,"height":163,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","medium-width":163,"medium-height":163,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","medium_large-width":163,"medium_large-height":163,"large":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","large-width":163,"large-height":163,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","1536x1536-width":163,"1536x1536-height":163,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","2048x2048-width":163,"2048x2048-height":163,"hero-image-x1":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","hero-image-x1-width":163,"hero-image-x1-height":163,"projects":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x.png","projects-width":163,"projects-height":163,"post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/attractions_1@72x-125x125.png","post-thumbnail-width":125,"post-thumbnail-height":125}}},{"id":63,"name":"Thinking","slug":"thinking-us","icon":{"ID":13086,"id":13086,"title":"work in progress icon","filename":"work-progress_1@72x.png","filesize":1957,"url":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","link":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/work-progress_172x\/","alt":"work in progress icon","author":"1","description":"work in progress icon","caption":"","name":"work-progress_172x","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":0,"date":"2019-05-01 15:09:20","modified":"2021-12-30 15:55:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":163,"height":163,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","medium-width":163,"medium-height":163,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","medium_large-width":163,"medium_large-height":163,"large":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","large-width":163,"large-height":163,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","1536x1536-width":163,"1536x1536-height":163,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","2048x2048-width":163,"2048x2048-height":163,"hero-image-x1":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","hero-image-x1-width":163,"hero-image-x1-height":163,"projects":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x.png","projects-width":163,"projects-height":163,"post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/work-progress_1@72x-125x125.png","post-thumbnail-width":125,"post-thumbnail-height":125}}}],"featured_image":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-relentless-hunt-for-increased-dwell-time-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearecapco.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}