The Year of the Fire Horse: What the Next 12 Months Mean for the Attractions Industry

The next 12 months will be defined by pace, confidence and volatility. In the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Horse is associated with movement, independence and momentum. Horses don’t wait for consensus, they move first and adjust later. Add the Fire element and those traits are amplified.

A Fire Horse year is traditionally fast, noisy and disruptive. It favours bold action, rewards clarity and exposes hesitation quickly. Things tend to happen sooner than expected and often in ways that feel slightly out of control. Momentum builds rapidly, but it can also change direction just as fast.

In business terms, Fire Horse years tend to separate leaders from followers. Those with strong fundamentals and the confidence to act gain ground. Those relying on legacy position, cautious planning cycles or outdated systems often find the pace uncomfortable.

That symbolism maps closely to where the attractions industry now finds itself.

After an extended recovery phase, the industry is no longer recalibrating. It is accelerating and not everyone will keep up.

Momentum is back, but margins are tight

Demand has largely returned, but operating conditions remain unforgiving. Costs are higher, labour remains constrained and guests are more selective. Growth over the next year will not come from volume alone, but from sharper commercial execution.

Fire Horse cycles do not reward incrementalism. Operators that move quickly, refreshing products, refining pricing and responding in near real time to guest behaviour, will take share. Those waiting for certainty may find that the market has already moved on.

In my recent Skip The Queue podcast with Doug Douglas from Avon Valley Country Park we talked about how he’s been able to add new attractions overnight, taking real time visitor feedback and using that to drive immediate action. There isn’t time to stand still anymore

Booking technology becomes core infrastructure

Booking technology has shifted from support function to commercial backbone. Guests now expect fast, mobile-first journeys, transparent availability and relevant upsell options. Any friction in the path to purchase directly suppresses demand.

Over the next 12 months, booking flow optimisation, integrated payments, and intelligent bundling are likely to outperform many traditional marketing investments. More importantly, booking platforms are becoming the primary source of operational intelligence, powering capacity management, dynamic pricing, staffing forecasts and campaign targeting.

Attractions still treating booking systems as basic ticketing tools will be structurally disadvantaged.

OTA volatility reshapes distribution strategy

Fire Horse years are rarely stable, and the OTA market is a clear example. The acquisition of Tiqets by Expedia signals further consolidation of attractions distribution into large, multi-vertical travel ecosystems.

For operators, this creates a familiar tension. OTAs can deliver reach and incremental demand, but consolidation increases dependency, margin pressure and distance from the end customer. Distribution strategy over the next 12 months will require more active management, not passive participation.

The delayed IPO of Klook underlines the same theme. Demand for experiences remains strong, but investor caution reflects pressure on margins, rising customer acquisition costs, and the difficulty of scaling profitably in this sector.

In Fire Horse terms, relying on external momentum without control is risky. Attractions that strengthen direct booking channels, maintain pricing discipline and use OTAs tactically, rather than strategically, will be better positioned if conditions shift further.

AI search is forcing a rethink of SEO

I’ve talked a number of times about the way AI-driven search is reshaping how guests discover and evaluate attractions. Traditional SEO, focused on keywords and rankings, is being overtaken by conversational, answer-led search experiences.

AI tools increasingly summarise options rather than list them. That means attractions must be clearly understood, not just indexed. Structured content, consistent data and unambiguous experience descriptions now directly influence visibility.

Over the next year, SEO becomes less about optimisation tricks and more about operational clarity. Pricing transparency, accessibility information, FAQs and accurate product detail all feed AI models, and all effect whether an attraction is recommended or overlooked.

Innovation without waiting for capital projects

Fire Horse years reward agility over scale. While major developments still matter, much of the competitive advantage in the coming year will come from smaller, faster interventions: limited-time events, seasonal overlays, narrative enhancements and technology-enabled personalisation layered onto existing assets.

AI-driven recommendations, real-time demand modelling and automated operational responses are moving rapidly from experimentation to expectation. Guests increasingly assume attractions can adapt dynamically, failure to do so will feel outdated.

Adding shot run events and activities creates the need to visit this week, not at some point during the holidays. Now being a “Must Do” isn’t enough the successful operators will become “Must Do Now” and “Must Do Again”. Changing the offering multiple times in the same season gives people the reason to come back.

People matter especially in a high-speed year

Despite accelerating automation, frontline teams remain decisive. Fire Horse energy can be exhilarating, but it is also demanding and that pressure will be felt most acutely by staff.

Attractions that invest in training, empowerment and clear decision-making frameworks will perform better under pace. As systems become more complex, human judgement and authentic interaction become stronger differentiators, particularly when expectations shift or technology fails.

Sustainability Moves from Narrative to Requirement

Fire symbolises transformation, but it also brings risk if unmanaged. Environmental performance continues to move from messaging to measurement. Energy use, water management, and visible sustainability practices will increasingly influence regulators, investors, and guests alike.

Operators embedding sustainability into design and operations, not just communications, will be better positioned for resilience in a year defined by scrutiny and speed.

Leadership in a Fire Horse year

Fire Horse years favour leaders who are visible, decisive and comfortable acting with imperfect information. Over the next 12 months, success will depend on the ability to connect strategy, technology and guest experience into a single operating model.

Industry bodies such as IAAPA, BALPPA and TEA  will continue to provide insight and benchmarking, but advantage will come from execution, particularly around booking technology, AI readiness and distribution control.

The Year Ahead

This is not a year for standing still. Fire Horse years amplify momentum, for better or worse. Some operators will use this period to modernise, simplify and sharpen their offer. Others will discover that the pace has become uncomfortable very quickly.

In Fire Horse terms, movement is not optional. The only real choice is whether you are setting direction or being carried by it.