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Svalbardhallen
An indoor sports and cultural centre
Location: Longyearbyen – Norway
Project type: Public Swimming Pools and Leisure Centres
Located in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost settlement. For the past century, the town’s main industry was coal mining, but today its focus has shifted towards tourism and scientific research. Longyearbyen has approximately 2,500 residents, around 30% of whom are foreign, due to the region’s status as a free economic zone.
Leisure activities in Longyearbyen residents largely revolve around Svalbardhallen, an indoor sports and cultural centre. In addition to the hall, which is large enough to host a game of handball, residents can also make use of a swimming pool, gym, and indoor shooting range. Furthermore, a new alpine slope is planned for the 2023–2024 season. Particularly during the two-and-a-half months of complete darkness in winter, known as the dark season, Svalbardhallen serves as a popular meeting point for community members, school children, sports clubs and other volunteer organisations.
Svalbardhallen, Longyearbyen’s multi-sport facility, has recently introduced Vintia’s Recreatex venue management platform for online and on-site ticket sales. This new way of working has improved the sports hall’s visitor experience, while reducing the Svalbardhallen team’s workload.
“We used to handle every transaction and complaint separately and manually. Today, customers can simply buy their ticket online, at their own convenience. This significantly reduces our workload.”
– Helle Jakobsen, Head of Sports and Community Work at Svalbardhallen
The challenge
Helle Jakobsen, head of Sports and Community Work in Longyearbyen, has the challenging task of coordinating all the activities that take place at Svalbardhallen. He handles everything from ticket sales, bookings and purchase management to administration and communication. She now counts on Vintia’s Recreatex venue management ticketing platform to streamline many of these tasks, and highlights a considerable improvement since the new system was introduced.
“Our former approach to ticket sales and administration came with a lot of problems and frustrations. We worked with multiple software systems from different vendors. All these systems had to work together, but in reality, they often didn’t. I was always updating and troubleshooting the system. Keeping the system up and running used to eat up about 30% of my time,” says Helle.
Recognising the need for a simpler, more effective method, it became clear to Helle that Svalbardhallen required an integrated solution. Therefore, the organisation was on the lookout for one system that could handle everything: online and on-site ticket sales for the town’s various facilities (swimming pool, gym, and sports hall), as well as product sales in the adjacent community shop.
The solution
The team at Svalbardhallen ultimately selected Vintia’s comprehensive ticketing solution Recreatex alongside their Enviso Pay module for online payments. Users of Svalbardhallen’s multiple facilities can now choose to buy their tickets online or on site at the ticket shop. Once purchased, they can access the swimming pool or gym via a QR code on their phones or printed on paper.
“All facilities at Svalbardhallen now use the same system,” says Helle. “This is a big change for us, and it has made things much easier for the daily management of our activities. Even the shop, where you can buy tickets, but also food and personal care products, uses the Recreatex software.”
The Recreatex system has made planning gym or swimming sessions at Svalbardhallen much easier. The new paperless system makes access to the facilities more straightforward, benefiting visitors and administrative staff alike. Recreatex’s integrated solution represents a leap towards efficiency for daily management tasks.
“Before we had the Recreatex software and our online shop, we had to handle every transaction and complaint separately and manually,” says Helle. “Now, customers can simply buy their ticket online beforehand, at their own convenience. This significantly reduces our workload.”
Several international companies and organisations operating in Longyearbyen include sports subscriptions among their employee benefits. Administering these subscriptions used to involve a lot of paperwork for the team at Svalbardhallen. Today, the entire process has been digitalised, allowing visitors simply to exchange their online digital voucher for a swim pass or gym session.
The introduction of Recreatex has also had a noticeable effect on sales, according to Helle Jakobsen. Before using Vintia’s system, there were mismatches between the number of visitors and customer registrations; Recreatex eliminates these human errors. An additional benefit is the software’s advanced reporting functionalities: “The system now shows us the exact data on the number of visitors and sales. This enables our team to plan ahead much more efficiently, in terms of budgeting and facility maintenance, for example.”
Currently, the town of Longyearbyen runs the swimming pool and gym, while the local sports club manages the activities in the sports hall, the shooting range, and the planned alpine slope. Looking ahead, there are plans to extend Recreatex’s management to include the sports hall, shooting range, and alpine slope. This promises even greater operational cohesiveness at Svalbardhallen.