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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Add one new attraction every year

That's exactly the advice Creative Works (wearecreativeworks.com/ ) , an FEC and LBE attraction supplier, featured in their January 14 enewsletter article about Airway Fun Center's addition of a black-light mini golf course and a mixed reality arena. Creative Works said, “If you're looking for a blueprint on how to keep your venue relevant year after year, Tyler's [the GM's] insights are pure gold [about adding a new attraction every year].”

Obviously, the story serves Creative Work's goal of selling more attractions. However, it really confirms why strictly attraction-based LBE's are no longer a viable long-term business model if you need to spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars every year and disrupt operations to add a new attraction to maintain repeat appeal.

Last month's Leisure eNewsletter included the article “LBE strategy of investing in attractions to last for decades has come and gone. (www.whitehutchinson.com/ news/ lenews/ 2026/ january/ article102.shtml#article) ”

In a recent discussion on LinkedIn about that article, Bob Cooney (bobcooney.com/ ) s very well summarized the death of the fixed attraction formula by saying, “The time of investing millions into fixed attractions is ending. But operators continue to copy and paste the same designs we've seen for decades. FECs look like easy money. They're not. And as consumer expectations and behaviors shift, thinking that what you build today will find an audience in 5 years is silly.”

Yes, fixed attractions have lost their repeat appeal for many reasons (see last month's article (www.whitehutchinson.com/ news/ lenews/ 2026/ january/ article102.shtml#article) ). The answer is that FECs and LBEs of all types now need to incorporate programming, features, and events that change, rather than relying on continual, large investments in new attractions.

There are attractions such as single VR and escape game venues that work in the right markets due to their changing experiences. But there are also time-proven attractions that can be combined with changing programming and unique events, which work just as well for larger venues to maintain their repeat appeal. Social gaming venues that have a high socialization appeal, combined with changing limited- and one-time events (L&OTEs), are also a viable formula.

L&OTEs for FECs and LBEs include limited-time food and drink offerings (LTOs), Karaoke, silent disco, singles mixers, speed dating mixers, various classes, and live music - the possibilities for programmed events are limitless as long as the venues are designed to accommodate them.

Buying and installing a new attraction each year is not an economically viable solution to maintaining repeat appeal. Operators of FECs and LBEs now need to become producers of continually changing experiences to succeed.

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