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The gift shop obsession starts with school trips, doesn’t it? When you have to balance your tiny budget so you can buy what you want and get something for your siblings who didn’t go.
The decision-paralysis when choosing between the branded pencil/rubber/bookmark, or random crystal/replica coin/figurine was real.
People still love buying something to remind themselves of a great day out, or a gift to tell someone you were thinking of them when you were there.
So why is there a bit of a downturn in gift shop sales?
Here’s what’s changed and how a photo booth can help support your retail strategy (and boost your bottom line)...
Are people buying fewer souvenirs?
58% of people now say they buy fewer souvenirs on holiday than they used to.
Ask people why, and you get three answers in roughly equal measure: 32% say they have less to spend, and the same number say they're thinking harder about buying things they don't need.
But the single biggest reason, at 33%, is that souvenirs have started to feel old-fashioned and tacky, just ahead of both.
Instead, visitors are prioritising other holiday expenses:
59% on eating and drinking out
55% on the overall cost of the holiday
52% on activities and attractions
So it's not really about money; it's about the souvenirs themselves. Let’s get into how to fix it…
What a souvenir is actually for
Meaning of ‘souvenir’: “From French, literally ‘act of remembering’, from Middle French… ultimately from Latin subvenire, meaning ‘to come up’ or ‘come to mind’.”
This reframes the whole problem. A souvenir is never really about the object.
Psychologist and therapist, Vaishnavi Madarkal, explains: "Looking at a souvenir can bring back happy emotions as the brain links it to positive experiences. This connection can happen with anything – whether it's an object, music or a smell. At the core of our actions is a desire to feel heard, seen and validated. The same holds for why we may buy souvenirs."
We already know that photo booths are the perfect way to turn the emotion of the moment into a tangible memento. When you consider this definition, a photo strip can easily be seen as the truest souvenir there is.
People value authenticity and sustainability
More and more people are questioning the authenticity of gift shop merchandise, asking, ‘Wait… where’s this actually from? Where is it made?’
That feeling of souvenirs being ‘tacky’ is in part because many of them aren’t what they claim to be. For example, the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission’s investigations discovered that up to a shocking 75% of souvenirs sold as ‘indigenous’ were counterfeit. They even found didgeridoos and boomerangs that were made in Indonesia, not Australia.
Another heart-sinking example is Thailand’s elephant pants. They’ve been a global fashion success and have become a classic souvenir for those travelling there. But more than 70% of those sold are made in China.
People are starting to ask where things come from before they buy them. They want to take home a little piece of the place they’ve visited, whether that’s another country or somewhere closer to home on a day trip.
Adding to environmental damage with items that have a bigger carbon footprint than your flight isn’t part of a happy holiday memory, and neither is cultural appropriation.
This awareness of choosing real over ‘fake-but-cheap’ is great for gift shops like yours that sell quality, locally-produced items. Unfortunately, the suspicion might mean people skip it entirely.
A photo booth gives them another way in. There's no supply chain to question or labels to doubt. It's made in front of them, on your site, at that exact moment.
Why this is good news for your gift shop
The decline in souvenir buying isn't really a decline in demand. It's a decline in trust for the generic, mass-produced end of the market.
A gift shop that stocks authentic, quality, locally-made items is exactly where this trend is heading. The real problem isn't that visitors don't want what's on your shelves, it's getting enough of them to walk in and see that your shop was never selling the tacky, generic stuff they don't want.
That's a great opportunity. A gift shop stocked with well-sourced pieces is answering a demand that's only growing. You just need people to walk through the door and see it.
Where your photo booth fits into all of this
A photo booth and your gift shop aren't competing for the same sale. They're answering two different instincts.
A photo satisfies the instinctive urge to capture the moment. A well-made souvenir satisfies something else, the desire to own something crafted, lasting, worth keeping on a shelf. Most visitors have room for both, because they were never choosing between two versions of the same thing.
Better still, a photo booth can actively point people toward the shop. A discount code printed on every photo strip turns the booth into a steady promoter of everything else you sell.
And every photo someone shares online, with your branding in the frame, is UGC that reaches people who've never set foot in your venue. Building this kind of trusted awareness eventually brings new visitors through the door and to your online shop.
It solves another problem too. A phone gives you a digital photo instantly, but turning that into something physical usually means ordering prints online and waiting for them to arrive, by which point most people never bother.
A photo booth means you walk away with a physical, printed keepsake in your hand (and a fridge magnet to hold it in place back home!).
And there's no stock to manage, inventory risk, or shelf space given over to something that might not sell. It's revenue sitting on top of what you're already doing.
Partnering with us
Wherever your attraction is, the same principles apply to every photo booth we build. The physical booth and its software are designed, built, and installed at no cost to you.
It’s fully branded to match your site, and the software can be updated to reflect seasonal exhibitions or campaigns whenever you need it to.
Curious what this could look like for your gift shop and your wider visitor experience? Take our Photo Booth Profit Potential Quiz for a personalised assessment.
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