Glowing Success at The Morton Arboretum

Introduction

Located 25 miles west of Chicago, The Morton Arboretum is a 1,700-acre natural preserve that welcomes more than one million visitors annually. As a mission-driven organization focused on tree conservation, research, and education, earned revenue from admission and events plays a critical role in supporting its work.

Like many outdoor attractions, the Arboretum experiences highly variable demand influenced by seasonality, weather, and timing. Historically, ticket pricing was revisited once per year, often resulting in similar prices across days with very different demand levels. This led to sold-out peak dates, underutilized off-peak capacity, and missed revenue opportunities.

In 2023, The Morton Arboretum partnered with Digonex, a leader in dynamic pricing and revenue optimization, to implement dynamic ticket pricing for its winter event, Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum. The success of that first season ultimately led to a broader transformation in how the organization approaches pricing year-round.

A Seasonal Demand Challenge

Illumination is a 40-night winter event that runs from mid-November through early January and attracts more than 125,000 visitors each season. Attendance on peak nights can reach approximately 7,000 guests, creating both revenue opportunity and operational complexity.

Demand for the event was strong but inconsistent:

• Key dates, such as holiday weekends, regularly sold out days in advance

• Other nights had significantly lower attendance

• Capacity was fixed, limiting flexibility during peak demand

• The team wanted to preserve some day-of ticket availability for guests

The Arboretum had already introduced timed ticketing to manage crowding and improve guest experience. However, pricing remained a manual and largely static process that could not keep up with rapidly changing demand patterns.

Finding a Better Pricing Strategy

The team initially considered building a complex, manually managed variable pricing structure across dates and times. However, the number of variables made this approach difficult to execute effectively.

Dynamic pricing for attractions emerged as the clear next step. After connecting with peer organizations and learning about Digonex, the Arboretum selected Digonex to implement an automated, algorithm-driven pricing solution designed to align ticket prices with demand.

Before moving forward, the Arboretum conducted extensive internal analysis of historical demand patterns, guest behavior, membership value, and pricing strategy. Having confidence in the data made it much easier for them to communicate the methodology of dynamic pricing and the expected outcomes internally.

Working together, the teams established pricing parameters before launch, including:

• Minimum and maximum ticket prices

• Acceptable price increments

• Rules to ensure alignment with guest experience goals

This collaborative setup allowed the Arboretum to maintain control while benefiting from automated pricing optimization.

Automated Dynamic Pricing in Action

Once implemented, Digonex’s model continuously analyzed demand signals and updated prices accordingly. Integration with the Arboretum’s ticketing system allowed pricing updates to occur automatically with minimal manual effort.

“The process felt almost magical,” said Vince Gortner, Senior Director of Guest Experience & Safety, noting that pricing adjustments were made overnight without requiring daily intervention.

Dynamic pricing enabled the Arboretum to:

Align Prices with Demand

Ticket prices varied meaningfully across dates, ranging from approximately $16 to $19 on slower weekdays and reaching the mid to upper $40s on peak nights.

Influence Purchasing Behavior

The introduction of plan-ahead pricing encouraged earlier ticket purchases.

• Advance purchase rates increased from 10–20% to roughly 60% on key weekends

• Last-minute buyers still had access to tickets, often at higher price points

Clear messaging that prices would not decrease over time helped set expectations and minimize confusion.

Improve Capacity Management

Attendance became more evenly distributed across nights, reducing overcrowding on peak dates while increasing utilization during slower periods. This also helped preserve same-day ticket availability for spontaneous visitors.

Maintain Guest Satisfaction

Despite initial concerns, the Arboretum experienced very little guest pushback. Visitors proved familiar with demand-based pricing in other industries, and overall guest feedback remained positive.

The Results: Revenue Optimization and Growth

The first season with dynamic pricing delivered strong performance:

• Approximately 20% revenue lift in 2023

• Continued strong results in subsequent seasons, even during softer demand conditions

• Up to 25% of revenue on peak nights occurring day-of or the day before

Dynamic pricing also changed revenue patterns, increasing flexibility and allowing the Arboretum to capture value from both early planners and last-minute buyers.

Expanding Dynamic Pricing Beyond Events

Following the success of Illumination, the Arboretum evaluated how dynamic pricing could be applied across its broader ticketing strategy. A comprehensive pricing study examined general admission, membership value, and demand elasticity.

This broader analysis, combined with the success of Illumination, reinforced confidence in expanding the approach while ensuring the Arboretum could maintain a strong value proposition for its members.

Armed with these insights, the organization expanded dynamic pricing to year-round general admission. The strength of the underlying data and analysis played a key role in gaining internal alignment and supporting a smooth transition to this expanded model.

This shift enabled the Arboretum to:

• Adjust pricing based on seasonality, weather, and time of day

• Encourage advance online purchasing and improve guest data capture

• Maintain a strong value proposition for members while optimizing daily ticket sales

Dynamic pricing now plays a central role in attendance management and revenue optimization throughout the year.

A Strategic Shift to Demand-Based Pricing

For The Morton Arboretum, dynamic pricing has evolved from a single-event experiment into a core operational strategy.

“We’ve come to see dynamic pricing as essential, not optional, for how we run the business,” said Gortner.

The organization now incorporates pricing strategy into planning for new events, future programming, and long-term growth. By aligning price, demand, and guest experience, the Arboretum has created a more responsive and sustainable model.

Looking Ahead

The Morton Arboretum’s partnership with Digonex demonstrates how attractions, events, and cultural institutions can use dynamic pricing to unlock new revenue while improving the guest experience.

By starting with a single seasonal event and scaling dynamic ticket pricing across the organization, the Arboretum successfully transformed demand variability into a year-round advantage.