Turbulence Ahead? Navigating the Guest Experience

The airport. Delays, long lines. Unpredictable weather.

Wait. Does that sound familiar? It sounds an awful lot like a theme park. Or zoo. And while mostly indoors, museums aren’t immune to lines through security or unexpected encounters.

Whether it’s an airport, museum, theme park, or zoo, the challenges are the same: moving large numbers of people through complex systems. For a great guest experience, the guest must also feel cared for—and even inspired. Airports could take a lesson from attractions in adding that extra step, and attractions can learn from each other as well. Across every destination, the parallels are clear: arrival and security, ticketing, wayfinding, dining, restrooms, and even the final stop at a gift shop. We can take it further by thinking of it as fulfilling a hierarchy of needs. Start with the basics and move through to a transformative experience.

Few people understand the guest journey better than PGAV Principal Diane Lochner. She’s logged countless miles in airports and helped the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., reimagine its visitor experience.

As Lochner puts it, “The guest journey at an attraction mirrors the airport: arriving, navigating security, finding your way around, deciding where to eat, and shopping for mementos. All destinations can learn from each other on what to do—and what not to do.”

Logistics and comfort.

The basics come first: logistics and comfort. Restrooms, ticketing, food and beverage, wayfinding. These are universal friction points. Addressing them starts with data: capacity, flow, and dwell time. At NASM, PGAV applied operational modeling to tackle these challenges. Lochner explains, “We calculated restroom demand on peak days, mapped security and ticketing logistics, planned queue lengths, and analyzed restaurant transaction times. The result was a right-sized, seamless experience where every detail of arrival, entry, and flow felt intentional.” But it didn’t stop at capacity. Curious why astronauts wear a mirror on their wrist? Just check the bathroom mirror at NASM. Even in the restrooms, the team found ways to extend storytelling by sprinkling fun facts and space stories where guests least expect them. It’s a small touch that turns even the most ordinary moments into part of the experience.

Arrival + Timing.

First impressions set the tone for experience (whether it’s a terminal, a park gate, or a museum entry). But guests aren’t ready to engage with content while navigating ticketing and security. They’re still in problem-solving mode. The real opportunity to engage the guest emotionally comes once those hurdles are cleared. At NASM, that moment of transition happens in the Milestones Gallery, where awe and wonder reset the tone of the visit.

Lochner says, “Theme parks create that shift with a first grand vista after the turnstiles. Zoos spark curiosity with a dramatic animal encounter just past the entry. Even airports can reawaken the joy of flight by framing the moment guests leave security as a chance to inspire, not just to sell a bottle of water.”

Across every destination, the principle is the same: reduce friction, meet basic needs, and then create moments of connection, surprise, and delight. When we design with empathy, we transform stressful, transactional places into meaningful experiences. Whether you’re catching a flight, strapping into a coaster, or wandering a gallery, you deserve not just efficiency, but inspiration.