Systems and methods for estimating demand for attractions

Abstract

Certain embodiments disclosed herein provide devices, systems, and methods of using location-based virtual audience feedback to estimate interest in an attraction at one or more venues. Certain embodiments provide devices, systems, and methods of using location-based virtual audience feedback and/or other audience data to estimate interest in a plurality of attractions or other items of interest at a particular venue.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for estimating participation in one or more attractions at a venue, the method comprising:
 receiving data directly or indirectly from members of a prospective audience for the one or more attractions, the data comprising, for each individual member of the prospective audience, an attraction interest metric based on actions taken by an audience member indicating interest in a particular attraction and one or more additional metrics, the one or more additional metrics comprising a social influence metric based on how actions of the audience member influence other members of the prospective audience;   calculating an individual participation expectation value for each individual member of the prospective audience, wherein the individual participation expectation value is calculated at least partially from the attraction interest metric of the audience member and social influence metrics of members of the prospective audience; and   calculating a total participation estimate for at least one of the one or more attractions if the at least one of the one or more attractions were to be placed at the venue by summing the individual participation expectation values of the prospective audience members.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more additional metrics comprise a participation metric based on a rate of audience member participation in past attractions. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more additional metrics comprise a location metric based on a geographic location of the audience member. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the individual participation expectation value is calculated at least partially from the participation metric, the location metric, and the location of the venue. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the attraction interest metric is based on a number of times when a member of the prospective audience operates a user interface element configured to register interest in an attraction.