Since opening in 1975, Europa-Park has always had the same vision, says Dominik Seitz, Head Marketing, PR and Sales for the UK, “creating memories that guests will not forget, ideally for a lifetime.”
He continues, “It's a place that is multigenerational and inclusive, where everybody can have a good time regardless of what they're looking for. We achieve that through close attention to detail, the quality we provide, and very high safety standards. It really is a carefree day out for everyone who visits.” So, expansion is always a path trodden with excellence in mind as well as growth.
Europa-Park is Germany’s most-visited theme park, with 80% of tickets purchased by returning customers. With such a loyal base and significant brand awareness in Germany, appealing to customers further afield required a new strategy. Partnering with GetYourGuide instantly gave them access to a wider market of visitors booking more spontaneously.
We sat down with Dominik and Isabel Schuppel, Sales Manager, to discuss how their partnership with GetYourGuide has evolved and how their shared vision of impeccable standards helps the collaboration thrive.
How many guests do you typically welcome in a year, and has that changed recently?
We started in 1975 with around 250,000 guests in our very first year, which was already quite remarkable. We've just closed another record-breaking season, welcoming over 7 million guests across Europa-Park and Rulantica, our water park, and we are consistently placed among the top three or four theme parks in Europe.
We've also been voted the best theme park in the world 10 times by a US-based trade publication.
What inspired you to partner with GetYourGuide?
What's really valuable about working with GetYourGuide is the ability to tap into their established platform and customer base and to get our product in front of new audiences we might not otherwise reach. People who already use the platform but have never heard of Europa-Park can discover us through it.
The value goes beyond ticket sales. Through marketing collaborations, social media campaigns, and content like this interview, we can expand our customer base in a way that simply wouldn't be possible on our own.
Were there any hesitations about working with GetYourGuide, and what ultimately convinced you to move forward?
The key consideration was always the risk of cannibalizing our existing business. Ideally, someone who was going to book directly with us should continue to do so. That said, you have to weigh that concern against the opportunity GetYourGuide presents in our developing markets, such as the UK, Spain, Denmark, Benelux, where international visitors are already using the platform and may have no prior knowledge of Europa-Park.
In practice, the risk of cannibalization has proven manageable. Guests who already know us, loyal visitors from Germany, Switzerland, or France, tend to book directly through us. The GetYourGuide audience is often quite different: people who happen to be in the Black Forest region and are looking for something to do the next day.
There's a natural differentiation between those two audiences, and on balance, the upside far outweighs the concern. That's where the partnership with GetYourGuide has the greatest impact, helping us reach audiences we couldn't reach on our own.
What have been the most significant outcomes for your business?
A few important learnings stand out. First, understanding just how digital younger guests are. We have an extensive network of leaflets and brochures across the wider tourist area around Europa-Park. However, younger generations are far more likely to pick up their phone than to pick up a leaflet to find out what there is to do in the region.
Seeing that a significant proportion of international visitor sales originate through platforms like GetYourGuide has been a significant insight, and one we can continue to build on.
We've also refined how we present our product on the platform. GetYourGuide provided feedback on areas where the information wasn't entirely clear, which allowed us to fine-tune our listing.
A good example: in the early days, it wasn't obvious to guests whether a Europa-Park ticket also included entry to our water world. That kind of clarity matters, and once addressed, it removes a real friction point in the booking process.
How would you describe the typical Europa-Park guest who books through GetYourGuide?
The ideal customer is an international visitor who has come to the region without Europa-Park as the primary reason for their trip.
We want to capture them once they're nearby. In my mind, that's a slightly younger, more spontaneous guest who found us on their phone that morning and is standing at our front gate the same day or the next day, ready for a great day out.
Can you share a specific example of how GetYourGuide has contributed to your growth?
We ran a marketing campaign with GetYourGuide during the low season, focused specifically on Rulantica, our water park. Europa-Park has been around since 1975 and has built recognition across various markets, but Rulantica opened in 2019, so we're still actively working to raise its profile. That campaign helped put the spotlight on Rulantica and on our low-season offering in international markets where we previously had very limited visibility.
The campaign was a tangible example of how the partnership extends well beyond ticket sales into genuine brand-building in new markets. Overall, GetYourGuide is our largest OTA partner in terms of both performance and volume. Beyond the numbers, the working relationship and the quality of the people involved genuinely stand out.
What advice would you share with other organizations looking to establish OTA partnerships?
Don't think of OTAs simply as another sales channel; they're more than that. Done well, a partnership can deliver strong visibility, international reach, and access to new customer segments.
The right fit matters: make sure the partner aligns with your brand and strategy. Start with a clear sense of what you want to achieve, and then assess what a given OTA can bring to the table to support those goals.
Don't be afraid to let your brand out into the wider world. There's a natural concern about relinquishing some control, but with the right partner, that concern is unfounded. GetYourGuide consistently understood how our brand needed to be presented, including small but important nuances, like always referring to us as "Europa-Park" rather than "the Europa Park."
For smaller organizations, especially the access to insights, know-how, and professional support that a quality OTA partner offers is incredibly valuable, the kind of support you might never be able to access any other way.
Is there anything you wish more OTAs understood about working with suppliers like Europa-Park?
The main challenge is that every OTA operates differently, the data they provide, the data they need, and the formats and workflows for exchanging it all vary considerably. For a large organization with complex requirements, that lack of standardization creates friction every season.
A more unified approach across OTAs, where pricing, availability, and opening times could be drawn from a single integrated system, would make life significantly easier for operators.
Finally, if you had to name one factor for success on online marketplaces, what would it be?
Be very clear about what you're selling. Is it a water park? A theme park? Both? Ambiguity at the point of sale costs bookings.
Key takeaways
- OTA partnerships unlock new markets without cannibalizing existing ones. GetYourGuide reaches a genuinely different audience, spontaneous, international visitors who discover the park while already in the region.
- The value goes well beyond ticket sales. The partnership delivered benefits Europa-Park didn't fully anticipate, including co-marketing campaigns, brand-building in low seasons, and visibility for newer offerings like their water park, Rulantica.
- Younger audiences are deeply digital, and that changes everything. Europa-Park reaches international visitors on platforms like GetYourGuide rather than physical brochures or direct searches. This accelerated their broader digital transformation, including a major shift to advanced online bookings.
- Listing clarity directly impacts conversions. The single biggest piece of advice they'd give other operators: be unambiguous about exactly what you're selling.
- The right OTA partner acts more like a strategic ally than a sales channel. Europa-Park highlighted that GetYourGuide understood its brand nuances, provided operational insights, and offered the kind of professional support that smaller organizations, in particular, couldn't access on their own.
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