This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 13, 2021 - December 19, 2021

Sim Leisure Group is at it again. The company, which went on a full-on crusade against corruption in the construction industry and is responsible for the ESCAPE brand theme park in Cameron Highlands, has decided to disrupt one aspect of its business — ticketing solutions.

Its outspoken CEO Sim Choo Kheng tells Digital Edge: “About 20 years ago, to develop your company website, you would need to engage some so-called expert company’s help to design it, and invest in a server hosted in a special air-conditioned room. Every time you needed to make changes to the website, you would have to engage the expert to update it for you.”

Sim points out that today, it would be hard to imagine the cost and trouble involved. “Today, a high school kid can do all these things, and your website can be hosted on the cloud at a fraction of the cost.”

He uses this as an analogy for how the company’s solution, The Cool Melon, is disrupting the ticketing solutions for the theme parks and attractions industry. “We are making the whole experience seamless, simple and cost effective.”

But what is The Cool Melon? “Basically, it is a ticketing solutions platform, developed by the attractions industry for the attractions industry. It is the brainchild of Sim Leisure Group, in collaboration with Ticket2U, which has more than 10 years of ticketing technology development and operations experience.”

He says the company decided to develop its own ticketing solution out of sheer frustration because it was unable to find a purpose-designed and cost-effective ticketing system to meet the diverse needs of its attractions business.

“Using the platform, industry players can do away with large upfront capital consultancy and licensing fees, complicated systems and procedures, while eliminating the need for ticketing counters and POS (point-of-sale) systems.”

He adds that customers will benefit from not having to stand in long queues, a seamless user experience through facial recognition technology, integrated digital photography technology with value-added benefits and cashless transactions.

Sim Leisure developed the solution for its own use but, finding that The Cool Melon has worked so well, the company intends to offer it as a product to other theme parks and attractions companies.

If an updated ticketing solution is so beneficial to the industry, why haven’t the big boys, with considerably greater resources than Sim Leisure, got in on the game?

“Given their heavy investment in legacy systems, any change would be too challenging and it is simply too cumbersome for them to switch,” Sim points out.

He adds that the smaller players tend to follow where the larger ones lead, as they have neither the resources nor the wherewithal to take them on.

This is despite the great frustration with the conventional ticketing process. “The long lines at ticketing booths and counters are often self-imposed, created by antiquated, complicated and expensive ticketing systems requiring manual processing and heavy operational staffing.

“From a guest’s perspective, there is nothing more frustrating than having to queue up to enter a theme park or attraction, even when you have purchased your tickets in advance.

“For theme park operators, the traditional ticketing software and systems require large upfront capital investment in both software and hardware, heavy customisation consultancy fees, never-ending upgrades and ongoing hefty licence fees and, in most cases, costly and inefficient operational staffing and physical front gate infrastructure,” Sim says, adding that in many cases, operators are forced to maintain an inefficient ticketing system because of the heavy capital investment in software and hardware systems integration.

How is Cool Melon different? “The Cool Melon ticketing solution does not require costly set-up and complicated operations. The ticketing platform is designed to ease the operational burden, with no licence or subscription fees and no lock-in contracts.

“It allows operators to use our template in whichever way they like, and they are charged on a pay-per-use basis, which only involves a small percentage of the transaction that is made,” he says.

Needless to say, coming up with its own solution to meet one of the needs of the attractions industry has opened Sim’s eyes to the great business potential in digitalisation. “As a matter of fact, this is just the start of the digitalisation business we are embarking on. Certainly, we have ambitious plans and the opportunities are limitless. Our tagline is: ‘Cool ideas with melon possibilities,’” he quips.

In fact, it can create one source of additional income from what it has already designed. He says: “Our facial recognition technology affords park owners a new business stream, that is, the imaging business. Visitors will be notified through email of photos of them captured while roaming the park and they can decide if they want to pay for prints or softcopy downloads.”

Sim is particularly pleased with this innovation, a mix of artificial intelligence technology and his team’s business creativity. “Gone are the days when visitors lined up at the photo booth to check for their photos.”

He says the company is also in the midst of developing a child monitoring software for its play centres, which will be made available to third parties via its platform. “This system will enable parents dropping their children off at play centres to monitor them online while they have their hair done or go shopping.”

Sim says the company’s facial recognition system will also provide third-party operators with essential customer data such as a demographics breakdown, age group, gender, “level of happiness” and what they like to do while they are in the park. “This information will help operators understand their customers better.”

How does this tie in with privacy? Sim becomes a little irate at the question, saying: “Most people think progress typically comes from the West but when it comes to tech and applications, it can often be the opposite.

“While most Westerners champion personal rights and privacy and the Western media can often criticise the lack of privacy in Asia, there is another side to this, where convenience can outweigh the perceived risks.

“Controlled access is one of the many benefits of The Cool Melon system, using facial recognition and tracking in-park for added peace of mind. It captures and recognises the faces of our visitors, which will be detected across the park, wherever they are, in case of emergency.

“Many don’t realise that facial recognition has other hidden advances such as proof of payment and fraud prevention. We are aware that security is a concern for some. Rest assured, we will be abiding by all rules and regulations, including the Personal Data Protection Act, and will use technology for the greater good.”

At the moment, the focus on theme parks and attractions, where great crowds converge, seems to be at odds with the emphasis on social distancing and the discovery of yet another Covid-19 variant.

Sim disagrees. He avers that people are tired of being cooped up and starting to come out now. “We actually witnessed a spike in spending, as people have been caged for too long because of the recent lockdowns.”

He believes priorities have shifted after what he refers to as two years of “scare-mongering”. “They want to live life to the full now, as anything can happen at any time. They have a newfound appreciation of leisure and recreation, and are willing to spend for that.

“The fears and restrictions create an opposite effect in that, the more people are confined, the bigger their desire to go out.”

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