ValoArena at Abenteuerland

Located on the outskirts of the chic German cultural hub of Hamburg is Abenteuerland, a family entertainment centre that, as evidenced by its Ninja Parkour course, giant foam pits, and various jump-centric attractions, emphasizes exercise and physical movement above all else.

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Just don’t call it a trampoline park. “When people walk in they are surprised that it is a lot more modern and offers many more attractions than what they expected,” says Steffen Brunckhorst, CEO and Co-Founder of Abenteuerland.

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The concepts of modernity and surprise are recurring themes for Brunckhorst; his goals for Abenteuerland involve pushing toward what’s next and embracing the inherent unpredictability of the future.

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“We want to stay open-minded about our concept and an exciting, unforeseeable future,” Brunckhorst says. “The Abenteuerland concept does not stand still; we will keep surprising our guests with new and fantastic things.”

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It's with that backdrop that Brunckhorst’s team made the investment in ValoArena, the 6-player mixed reality playground that fits in perfectly with Abenteuerland’s emphasis on physical play and its vision for an exciting, unpredictable future.

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In June 2022, Abenteuerland became one of the first venues in the world to surprise its guests with this unquestionably new attraction. But would they find it to be fantastic? Abenteuerland is banking on it.

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"People are playing ValoArena constantly - it has 86% utilization!" – Steffen Brunckhorst

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Utilization and placement

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Utilization is key, everything else is secondary. Because Abenteuerland’s business model revolves around giving guests access to play everything in the park for an hourly fee, the one point of economic leverage Brunckhorst has is the ticket price.

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An investment in a new attraction may require him to raise the ticket price, but if visitor numbers suffer as a result, he has made the wrong decision. For that reason, utilization - the degree to which every attraction in the park is used - is the only number Brunckhorst cares about: “Utilization is the absolute key to our business concept,” Brunckhorst says, “Everything else is secondary because of our business model.”

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After two months with ValoArena in operation, Brunckhorst is more than happy with ValoArena’s performance.

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According to the raw numbers, ValoArena was in use more than 86% of the time that Abenteuerland’s doors were open during the two months covered by this study. Brunckhorst said, “People are playing ValoArena constantly.” Not only that, the high utilization followed a small increase in the ticket price and there was no drop off in visitor numbers. This all equates to a highly successful investment for Abenteuerland.

Placement is a big deal

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Given that ValoArena is a brand-new and unique attraction, placement was a major factor in its eventual success. Just before the ValoArena’s launch, Abenteuerland completed a physical refresh of their facility during which they took particular care in ValoArena’s installation and presentation, guaranteeing that it would play “an important role as one of a few core focus points and central attractions.” Brunckhorst’s team made it impossible to miss, with the (correct) assumption that once guests saw ValoArena in action, they’d have to play it.

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“For me, the best thing about ValoArena is to observe groups and how they have fun together, they compete with each other or cooperate and they are laughing. People are completely immersed in the game and they visibly have fun playing. Another reason, by the way, why we bought ValoArena was because we observed kids playing in Finland - they were laughing so hard and it’s exactly how it is in our park now.” Brunckhorst says.

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"We increased our ticket prices after the installation of ValoArena and we’ve not had a single guest tell us that the money spent was not worth it." – Steffen Brunckhorst

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Key factors in choosing ValoArena

No “Goggles”

Abenteuerland sees high throughput across its entire facility; crowds of people are a key consideration for Brunckhorst’s team. Any new attraction would therefore have to be able to move people in and out quickly and without issue. So, when the choice came down to ValoArena vs. a very popular VR sports attraction, the deciding factor was the competition’s use of a Head Mounted Display (HMD), or as he refers to them, “the goggles''.

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“VR arenas today have a disadvantage for me because of the VR goggles. Considering our high throughput the use of VR goggles requires a lot of maintenance. We find ValoArena to be the better choice for us because it doesn’t require additional equipment, staff to strap people in, or anything restricting people’s movement in any way.”

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You will love to do this with your kids

Another decisive factor for the Abenteuerland team was inspired by the reaction Brunckhorst and other Abenteuerland staff with kids had when they saw ValoArena in use.

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“I immediately thought: ‘This is something you will love to do with your kids,” Brunckhorst said, “and then I tried it with my own family and friends and everyone had so much fun.” The keyword here is everyone. Expanding on that point, Brunckhorst reports the numbers bore out their suspicions;

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Abenteuerland’s ValoArena sweet spot is 4-12-year-old guests and then 30+-year-olds. Teenagers love to jump into ValoArena, but their attention spans tend to be shorter. Given that Abenteuerland’s guests skew younger with parents in tow, Brunckhorst had another reason to buy.

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It’s the future

In keeping with the themes driving Abenteuerland’s evolution from a typical trampoline park into a surprisingly modern, exercise-focused family entertainment center, the final deciding factor for Brunckhorst and the team was ValoArena’s impressive, next-level technology. “Our mission is to keep developing,” said Brunckhorst, “ValoArena is the perfect highlight of that mission for me.”

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Now that he’s watched thousands of guests interact with ValoArena for the past few months, Brunckhorst is ready to double down on the technology:

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“People simply cannot believe it when they suddenly see themselves in a ValoArena game. They immediately start smiling and are amazed by what is possible with technology these days. And it’s not just first-time players. We have some regular visitors who, arrive and immediately run through the park to Valo Motion products to be the first to play.”

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As if to put a final exclamation point on his thoughts on this topic, Brunckhorst makes it definitive: “If your goal is to be one of the most modern trampoline parks today, there is no way around a ValoArena.”

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