London-listed theme parks owner Merlin Entertainments has partnered with payments platform, Adyen, to streamline its global payments systems.

Merlin said that under the terms of the deal its will consolidate its payments experience across more than 130 attractions in 25 countries around the world.

Future expansion
Adopting Adyen’s single payments platform supports Merlin Entertainments’ future expansion globally by transforming payments from a bottleneck into a seamless process that improves the experience for its customers while driving conversion rates, the company said.

Merlin Entertainments, which is a FTSE 250 company, is one of the world’s largest attraction operators, with destination theme park resorts like Alton Towers to city centre locations like the Coca-Cola London Eye, as well as global attractions like LEGOLAND Parks and Discovery Centres, Sea Life and Madame Tussauds.

Adyen will process payments across all services under Merlin Enterprises, ranging from quick service restaurants, hotels and accommodation, retail, annual memberships, wearables and ticketing.

Single global payments platform
“Given the nature of our business, our brands span across hospitality, restaurants, hotels and theme parks”, said Mark Allsop, Chief Digital Marketing and Information Officer at Merlin Entertainments.

“Adyen’s platform will consolidate our various payment solutions under a single platform across our entire global business.

“Merlin sees significant opportunity from the increasing importance of digital and technology, allowing for enhanced guest experiences”.

“With Adyen accepting transactions from all channels, whether that be ecommerce, mobile, Point of Sale (POS), kiosk or wearables, our guests get shorter wait times, faster entry to attractions and convenient payments with a simple tap or swipe.

Wider strategy
“The new payment solutions form part of our wider strategy to improve loyalty, drive revenue and continue to deliver high guest satisfaction across our resorts”

Merlin said that customer experience is the central focus for its guests.

Payments can form a big part of that overall experience, reducing wait times for food, faster admissions to attractions and a range of payment alternatives to suit foreign tourists.

Adyen’s global payment platform also helps the company achieve its growth objectives within its existing portfolio, and to support the roll out of new attractions and accommodation around the world.

“Merlin Entertainments saw 67 million visitors across its diverse portfolio of attractions last year”, said Roelant Prins, CCO of Adyen.

“The likes of wearable technology and tokenisation are the next step in customer experience and seamless payments and Merlin Entertainments is at the forefront of this deployment across hundreds of different locations”.

“Merlin can now take full control of its payments architecture across all channels, simplifying a complex challenge faced by many merchants today.”