Open Forum

As a nonprofit, the National Aquarium relies heavily on its gate. And we are learning that defining capacity/daily attendance is more than just calculating square foot per person. Other variables that we are using are the recommendations for guest safety, the guest perception around safety, creating exceptional guest experiences, and meeting revised revenue goals.

Beginning with capacity, and similar to you, we started with calculating the total area of the primary, useable public spaces and applied the standard 30 sq ft/person. This number created a false positive. Our guests do not evenly distribute themselves in each area, and the flow rate in some galleries is much longer than others.

Using the same public spaces, we categorized them by function -- Circulation, Exhibits, Business Partner (retail, restaurant), etc. -- and adjusted the square foot per person. Non-linear spaces, like Circulation, where social distancing will be self-regulated by guests was increased from 30 sq ft/person to 100. For exhibits that are linear in flow, we increased the 30 sq ft to 50.

From there, we looked at spaces where specific pinch points impacted the guest flow. Calculating the capacity for just these areas, not the total of all spaces, gave us a second set of numbers to consider.

Next, we worked with our Guest Services Team, who works and manages our crowds every day. We reviewed both sets of capacity numbers and did a gut check on the number of guests they thought they could manage under these new conditions. With this number, we went through last year's attendance numbers and found several days with similar daily attendance. Digging deeper, we pulled their hourly ticket sales to understand the guest flow and rate.

Finally, we worked with our finance and marketing team, who were already looking at attendance and price per cap by using various percentages (25%, 50%, 75%) of our daily attendance.

We found that when we applied the most restrictions, our capacity number was approximately 25% of our previous attendance. Working with a cross-department team and looking at increasing the number of online sales, timed ticket entry, moving more of the onsite experience to a linear flow, etc., we believe we can adjust our capacity to approximately 40% of our attendance while maintaining a safe and engaging aquarium experience.

I hope this helps.
sP

As a nonprofit, the National Aquarium relies heavily on its gate. And we are learning that defining capacity/daily attendance is more than just calculating square foot per person. Other variables that we are using are the recommendations for guest safety, the guest perception around safety, creating exceptional guest experiences, and meeting revised revenue goals.

Beginning with capacity, and similar to you, we started with calculating the total area of the primary, useable public spaces and applied the standard 30 sq ft/person. This number created a false positive. Our guests do not evenly distribute themselves in each area, and the flow rate in some galleries is much longer than others.

Using the same public spaces, we categorized them by function -- Circulation, Exhibits, Business Partner (retail, restaurant), etc. -- and adjusted the square foot per person. Non-linear spaces, like Circulation, where social distancing will be self-regulated by guests was increased from 30 sq ft/person to 100. For exhibits that are linear in flow, we increased the 30 sq ft to 50.

From there, we looked at spaces where specific pinch points impacted the guest flow. Calculating the capacity for just these areas, not the total of all spaces, gave us a second set of numbers to consider.

Next, we worked with our Guest Services Team, who works and manages our crowds every day. We reviewed both sets of capacity numbers and did a gut check on the number of guests they thought they could manage under these new conditions. With this number, we went through last year's attendance numbers and found several days with similar daily attendance. Digging deeper, we pulled their hourly ticket sales to understand the guest flow and rate.

Finally, we worked with our finance and marketing team, who were already looking at attendance and price per cap by using various percentages (25%, 50%, 75%) of our daily attendance.

We found that when we applied the most restrictions, our capacity number was approximately 25% of our previous attendance. Working with a cross-department team and looking at increasing the number of online sales, timed ticket entry, moving more of the onsite experience to a linear flow, etc., we believe we can adjust our capacity to approximately 40% of our attendance while maintaining a safe and engaging aquarium experience.

I hope this helps.
sP