Lo-Q to power smartphone ticketing pilot at London Eye

LO-Q (LON:LOQ), the company that develops virtual queuing systems for theme parks and major attractions, has signed an agreement to pilot a new smartphone-based ticketing and queuing solution at one of the UK's most popular and best known tourist attractions: The London Eye. The twelve week pilot will begin on 1 December 2011 and will see Lo-Q’s proprietary technology evaluated at the landmark UK attraction. The London Eye is owned and operated by The Merlin Entertainment Group and has ushered over 39 million visitors through its turnstiles since first opening to the public in 2000.

Lo-Q said its smartphone-based system represented an exciting evolution of its existing, tried-and tested queuing solutions and opened up a range of new target markets for the company worldwide. The new system effectively extends all of the benefits of Lo-Q’s proprietary theme park queuing product, combined with mobile ticketing and payment solutions, to patrons at any type of attraction. Importantly, the solution is “Cloud” based and doesn’t require expensive infrastructure solutions to be deployed at customer sites. News of the deal helped to push the Lo-Q share price up by 3 percent to 173p.

The pilot scheme will offer visitors to The London Eye the opportunity to by-pass the attraction’s ticket office by purchasing tickets at any time through any internet enabled phone and from any location. The smartphone system will not only enable the purchasing of tickets without queuing, but will also allow visitors to buy a “fast pass” to board the attraction without having to wait in line. In an interview with Stockopedia earlier this year, Lo-Q’s chief executive, Tom Burnet, said the company was keen to look beyond its traditional theme park market for ways to leverage its technology platform.

Commenting today, Burnet said: “This is a fantastic and far-sighted project to be involved with and I am very pleased to see some of our most innovative technology being put to the test in this way. Visitors to theme parks and attractions are interested in one thing – the experience. Today that isn’t just about the ride or the trip, it’s increasingly also about the customer experience of accessing the attraction and maximising the time spent on fun, not formalities. We see today’s trial as an exciting first step toward extending our offering outside of the theme park world and in to all manner of single line attractions where reducing queue time will not only benefit the visitor but the operator, too.”