Orlando, Wednesday, 12 November 2025.
At IAAPA Expo last Monday, suppliers signalled clear priorities that retail-focused operators should weigh when shaping 2025–2027 capital plans: Vekoma teased a ‘surprising’ coaster concept and confirmed 2025 openings that underline capacity-driven ride design; Accesso showcased Passport upgrades emphasising tighter integration of ticketing, access control and upsell engines to boost yield per guest; Dronisos reinforced its Disneyland Paris partnership, spotlighting choreographed drone shows as scalable IP-led night‑time revenue drivers; and WhiteWater previewed modular waterplay attractions engineered for higher throughput and lower lifecycle costs. The most intriguing takeaway: suppliers are shifting from isolated product sells to ecosystem propositions—hardware, software and content bundled to reduce operational friction and unlock ancillary spend. For retail professionals, that means prioritising systems that enable dynamic pricing, seamless guest journeys and modular assets that defer maintenance spend while widening spend-per-visit opportunities across F&B, retail and entertainment.
Suppliers framed their priorities at IAAPA Expo in Orlando
At IAAPA Expo last Monday, suppliers emphasised tighter integrations between hardware, software and content as a route to higher per‑capita revenue and smoother operations—messages visible on multiple exhibitor stands and in the show programme [1][2][4]. Accesso used its stand to roll out a new version of accesso Passport with a revamped user interface and features intended to streamline operations and drive ancillary revenue, and pointed visitors to its wider suite including Passport mPOS, Freedom, Horizon and LoQueue [1]. WhiteWater previewed several ‘never‑before‑seen’ modular attractions described as fusions of “slides, rides and play” designed to maximise space, increase throughput and extend visit duration—signals that product development is prioritising capacity and lifecycle efficiency [2]. The IAAPA Expo itself remains the industry’s principal marketplace for these supplier-to-operator conversations, hosting more than 1,100 exhibitors and a wide education programme that frames industry agenda-setting [4].
What Accesso’s Passport upgrade means for park revenue management
Accesso’s public presentation at the show focused on a Passport upgrade that the company says improves user experience and integrates ticketing, access control and upsell paths—capabilities operators typically deploy to increase yield per guest and reduce friction at points of sale [1]. For capital planners, that means investments that prioritise digital platforms and integrations may produce payback through higher ancillary attachment rates; Accesso explicitly framed Passport as a platform to streamline operations and drive revenue, alongside its mPOS and queuing solutions [1]. This positioning underscores a supplier trend toward selling complete experience stacks rather than discrete hardware items [1][4].
WhiteWater’s modular approach and implications for CapEx and maintenance
WhiteWater’s new product previews emphasise modular attractions that combine slides, rides and play to increase capacity while improving space utilisation and, according to the company release, extend visitor sessions and reduce lifecycle burdens [2]. For operators budgeting 2025–2027 CapEx, modular systems promise two practical impacts: they can lower upfront park build footprints for the same throughput, and they can simplify mid‑life upgrades or replacement cycles compared with bespoke, single‑use anchors—an argument WhiteWater made in its IAAPA communications [2]. These supplier claims should be weighed against each park’s service contracts and historical maintenance cost profile [2][4].
Gaps in the public record: Vekoma and Dronisos disclosures
Announcements attributed to Vekoma — a teased ‘surprising’ coaster concept and confirmed 2025 openings — and Dronisos — reinforcement of a Disneyland Paris partnership focused on choreographed drone shows — were reported in the event summary provided for this assignment, but no corresponding exhibitor press releases or IAAPA‑listed posts for those specific announcements were supplied in the source material given here [alert! ‘no supplied source for Vekoma announcement’][alert! ‘no supplied source for Dronisos announcement’]. Because every factual claim must be source‑backed, readers should treat these items as unverified in this article until direct statements or press materials from Vekoma or Dronisos are supplied by the companies or by IAAPA [4].
Strategic reading for park finance and planning teams
Taken together, the verified exhibitor messages at IAAPA point to three actionable planning priorities for retail‑focused parks updating 2025–2027 budgets: invest in integrated guest‑management systems (to enable dynamic pricing and ancillary bundling), favour modular attraction assets (to manage lifecycle cost and capacity), and treat supplier offers as ecosystem proposals rather than one‑off buys [1][2][4][GPT]. These priorities affect both capital allocation and operational budgets: software and integration projects shift spend from pure CapEx to blended CapEx/Opex models, while modular hardware can lower the total cost of ownership if service contracts and upgrade pathways are negotiated up front [1][2][4]. Park executives should therefore require supplier ROI scenarios that include ancillary revenue uplift, throughput gains and maintenance assumptions during procurement discussions [1][2][4][GPT].
Signals to monitor in the coming procurement cycle
When advancing projects through 2025 procurement pipelines, parks should request concrete performance metrics from suppliers: measured increases in transaction attach rates after Passport-style deployments, throughput figures for modular waterplay systems, and service‑level agreements that quantify downtime and replacement costs [1][2][4]. Publicly available IAAPA event materials and exhibitors’ press releases are the immediate sources for those metrics; where supplier claims appear in secondary summaries without original press material, procurement teams should flag them as unverifiable until primary documentation is produced [4][alert! ‘some supplier claims in the brief lacked primary-source press releases supplied to this article’].
Bronnen