Standing in the room at this year's UK Theme Park Awards, watching so many amazing theme parks collect gold, silver and bronze accolades, it struck us that a win like this does more than it used to.
Of course, it's still a massive achievement for the teams and individuals involved, it's still a badge for the website and a great press release.
But it's increasingly something else too: a data point that AI tools use to decide who to recommend.
One of the big mindset shifts with AI search and AI agents is that they have seen and ingested everything that's ever been written about your attraction. That's all your reviews, all your customer comments, your website content and more.
You need social proof for AEO, and awards are part of the answer
The old days of 10 blue links are gone, and visitors are increasingly starting their planning with questions typed into ChatGPT, Gemini or a similar assistant.
Specific, conversational queries like "What's the best theme park for toddlers in the South West" or "most accessible attraction near me for a rainy day" are exactly the kind of questions these tools now try to answer directly, often without the person ever clicking through to a website.
To answer well, these systems lean on the same kind of signals search engines have always valued: third-party recognition, consistent naming, clear and specific claims. An award win, especially one that's written up properly rather than buried in a logo on the footer, is exactly that kind of signal. It tells both a human and an AI system "this isn't just our own opinion of ourselves, someone independent said so."
Trust signals in an AI world
So, what levers do attractions have to pull to demonstrate trust online?
For us, this comes down to a few key areas:
- High quality and valuable content
- Consistent policies and easy to understand terms
- Guest reviews (both on your website and externally)
- Detailed FAQs and knowledgebase content
- Awards, accolades and press coverage
We have run AI search checks across many clients. You can ask the AI tools about the rankings too (a bit of a game-changer!), some something that often comes up is if an attraction has won awards for specific aspects of the guest experience.
That could be something big and national (like Theme Park of the Year) or something more niche, but equally important, like accessibility initiatives and regional awards.
Getting more value out of a win you've already earned
If you've won something this year, congratulations!
Just remember, the trophy cabinet is the easy part - make sure that you also get the value out of it for search and AI visibility too:
- Write the win up properly, in plain text, not just a badge image. AI tools can't read a logo.
- Be specific on the details: the category, the year, who presented it etc.
- Make it prominent and easy to find, not buried in a news archive.
Of course, the fundamentals here are still about delivering great guest experiences, helping guests create amazing memories, and keeping them coming back for more.
Operational Excellence is the name of the game.
But be sure to build in time and budget to enter, attend and communicate your successes too.
