Photo Credit: Hitchcock Design Group
“This is probably our favorite place to go & always will be!” “I cannot express how much I love this park and the concept behind it!” “This isn't your typical playground.”
If your playgrounds do not generate this kind of buzz, consider developing a destination play space within your system. These quotes from Yelp reviews get to the root of destination play. It is an experience—unique to the regional context—that contains all the tools a family needs to create memories together. It is a destination, in and of itself, worthy of time, interest, and admiration. We have all been to places like this that captivate our interest, keep us searching for deeper layers of meaning, and are so grounded that we can’t help but love them and want to return. These are destination experiences.
As park and recreation professionals, our missions align perfectly with these types of spaces. Getting children and families outdoors, providing meaningful access to nature, improving health and fitness, and providing high-quality platforms for recreation and social interaction for all ages and abilities are baseline goals of most destination-play projects. With over 34-billion families having children under the age of 18 (U.S. census, 2017), there is plenty of audience to advance the mission and perhaps contribute to the local economy in the process. Clients report an increase of 25 to 35 percent in membership or trackable visitation after robust play experiences are offered, with a recent project being Bison’s Bluff in Schaumburg, Ill., nearly doubling seasonal attendance numbers from 138,000 to 275,000! These visitors often eat, shop, and stay in the area, adding to the local economy, even in small ways. If you want to attract families and get them outdoors, this is a proven way to go.