2011 Wagner Prize Finalist - Georgia Institute of Technology

Designing Guest Flow and Operations Logistics for the Dolphin Tales (Georgia Tech on behalf of The Georgia Aquarium)

Effective strategies for managing guest flow are imperative for the successful operations of tourist attractions. The Georgia Aquarium and Georgia Tech team worked together to prepare for the 2011 grand opening of a new exhibit, the Dolphin Tales. The team aimed to explore critical issues including 1) Understand current guest flow and behavior patterns (choice/selection patterns). 2) Predict new exhibit flow and impact to surrounding areas and overall guest flow. 3) Optimize operations and logistics, and resource allocation. 4) Determine optimal scheduling, loading, unloading, and exit strategies. And 5) Investigate smart space usage. In this talk, we present novel modeling and computational advances that offer solutions to the new exhibit operations.