From Living History to Digital Future: How Skansen Is Redefining the Museum Experience with VISIT

The first time I walked through the gates of Skansen, I was hit by that unmistakable blend of wood smoke, cinnamon and history. Children were running between traditional houses while the distant sound of hammering came from the blacksmith’s forge. It felt like stepping into another time, yet everyone I met that day was talking about the future.

Skansen, Sweden’s most visited museum and the world’s oldest open-air museum and zoo, has begun a transformation that connects two worlds: preserving cultural heritage while embracing digital innovation. Founded in 1891 and located on Djurgården, Stockholm’s green and historic island in the Royal National City Park, Skansen welcomes around 1.45 million visitors annually and stays open all year. With more than 140 historic buildings, Nordic wildlife and its beloved funicular railway, Skansen is both a national treasure and a living story of Sweden.

Now it is also becoming a model for how heritage destinations can evolve in the digital age.

A New Kind of Guest Journey

When I spoke with Johan Edström, Unit Manager Entrances, he described the scale of the challenge. Skansen operates three main entry points, each welcoming thousands of guests during peak season. Managing those flows smoothly is essential, and it is one of the biggest reasons they wanted a more capable system.

Johan explained that the new setup allows Skansen to move toward a prepaid audience, helping them control visitor flow and communicate with guests in more meaningful ways.

At first glance, prepaid tickets might seem like an online convenience, but for Skansen they are a critical part of how the physical entrances run smoothly. By encouraging guests to book ahead, or even in the queue before arrival, the team can minimise congestion and focus more on welcoming visitors than managing transactions.

“We need to have a fairly high level of prepaid tickets in order to get through just the biggest days of our calendar,” Johan explained.

Skansen is moving toward a prepaid, digital-first model that helps them manage both online and on-site flows and stay connected to guests before, during and after their visit.

“We have a great basis to be able to communicate,” Johan added. “To help [guests] figure out what they’re going to do, what they’re going to eat… and to take care of their journey throughout Skansen in the best possible way.”

This design, where digital preparation meets on-site simplicity, turns iTicket into more than a sales platform. It is what allows Skansen’s entrances to flow effortlessly while keeping the human touch alive.

It is a subtle but powerful shift from selling tickets to nurturing relationships, and it is reshaping how families experience one of Sweden’s most beloved destinations.

Balancing Heritage and Innovation

There is something poetic about a place built to celebrate tradition leading one of the most forward-thinking digital transformations in the Swedish attractions industry.

Yvonne Borg Nordlind, Skansen’s Commercial Director, summed up the challenge perfectly when we spoke.

“Skansen has had a challenge for a while to become more digitalized,” she explained. “We need to keep track of our customers to give good customer service… We have a lot of customers that come year round. They buy our annual card and they come many times, and we don’t really know who they are. That’s one thing that’s extremely important, to know our best customers and take good care of them.”

Then, as we shared a cinnamon bun during our conversation, she smiled and said:

“Otherwise, Skansen is actually a place where we like to be analog.”

That line stayed with me because it captures what this journey is about, keeping the soul of the analog experience alive even as the systems behind it evolve.

“We are a living outdoors museum,” she continued. “We have a lot of old houses… from the 18th and 19th century. But the infrastructure still needs to move on and become modern so we can meet our customers in a modern way.”

Skansen’s story shows that innovation does not mean detachment. In the right hands, it can mean connection, precision and purpose.

The Ticketing Engine Behind the Change

Behind the scenes, that connection is powered by a new technical foundation. Johann Schneider, Skansen’s Head of IT, described their search for the right platform as the start of a “system journey”, one that began just weeks after he joined the organisation.

“One of our main revenue streams comes from ticketing,” Johann said. “We need to enhance this capability of Skansen and try to make it easy for the customers… We need to adopt new ways to attract visitors and also to basically [make it] able to cross-sell, to start new partnerships in an easy way.”

He explained that iTicket was not only chosen for what it could do today but for how it could evolve tomorrow.

“I’m not looking for a ticketing system. I’m looking for a ticketing engine,” he told me. “It’s supposed to be easy for a customer to buy their tickets, be able to change their tickets, [and] validate when they want to come… It works together with the entrance solution, it works together with the online travel agents, it’s a hub.”

That hub mindset makes Skansen’s approach forward-looking. It is not only about ticketing, but about laying the groundwork for a connected ecosystem where packaging, collaboration and data flow seamlessly across the visitor journey.

Redefining What a Modern Destination Can Be

What I found most inspiring during my visit was how naturally the conversation about technology always circled back to people, the guests, the staff and the community.

Skansen is not digitising for the sake of efficiency. It is doing so to strengthen relationships, elevate experiences and open new possibilities for how culture is shared.

Skansen is a clear example of how tradition and innovation can strengthen each other. Their vision for digital transformation is deeply human. It is about making every visit smoother and more personal, while keeping the heart of Swedish culture alive.

Walking back across Djurgården that afternoon, I thought about what that means for the wider industry. The story of Skansen is not only about one museum upgrading its systems, it is a glimpse of how heritage destinations everywhere can evolve, blending the timeless with the transformative.

And that is something worth celebrating, cinnamon buns and all.