Amusement park visitor routes design and optimization

Amusement parks are a huge business. Guest experiences determine the success or failure for an amusement park. This report suggests an approach to improve guest experience by managing guest flow. The guest happiness optimization problem is formulated into a visitor routing management model. The constraints for this model include attraction attributes and guest behavior. To build the attraction constraints, their information is first gathered from internet, field studies and surveys, and then input into simulation software. Constraints on guest behavior are set up with a literature study and a guest survey. A two phase heuristic is developed to solve this problem with constraints. Candidate routes are generated with a route construction algorithm in the first phase. Visitor distribution and selection on these candidate routes are determined in the second phase using a mixed integer programming solver. Visitor routes are then recommended to the park’s operator side, for them to distribute to guests visiting on their vacations. Data from Disney Epcot are collected and applied in the case study to implement the methodology in this report. Attraction operations capability is maintained at the current level with no additional cost for the project, while guest satisfaction is improved by ensuring the number and type of attractions they visit. In addition, average waiting time for visitors is reduced by at least 70% in the recommended operation strategy.