Mappedin, the indoor mapping leader transforming how complex spaces are experienced, managed, and understood, today announced the release of an industry report, The State of Venue Experience. The research examines how expectations for indoor environments are changing and what venue leaders must rethink to keep pace and prepare for what’s next.
The report looks across airports, malls, stadiums, and other large venues to understand how visitors experience indoor environments today, and where gaps are emerging between rising expectations and the fragmented systems many venues still rely on to support them.
“Most venues are still trying to solve experience, operations, and revenue challenges with disconnected tools owned by different teams,” said Hongwei Liu, Founder and CEO of Mappedin.
Venue Experience Expectations Are Rising, but Digital Infrastructure is Fragmented
The report finds that while visitor expectations are rising, many venues continue to operate with traditional tools and digital systems designed for isolated applications—such as wayfinding, directories, security and safety, or analytics—rather than coordinated experiences that adapt to people in real time.
Key themes from The State of Venue Experience report include:
- Visitors increasingly expect intuitive, self-directed experiences, supported by curated information that adapts to real-time location and context.
- Experience and operational outcomes are closely linked, yet they’re often managed through disconnected tools and siloed teams.
- Discovery plays a growing role in experience quality, influencing how visitors explore a space and uncover relevant options once they arrive.
- Most venues lack a shared digital foundation, limiting their ability to scale what works or respond as expectations evolve.
Rather than treating experience as a layer added on top of existing systems, the report signals that leading venues are beginning to design experience into the core of how their environments function.
“Great venue experiences don’t come from adding more layers of technology,” Liu added. “They come from alignment. When experience teams, operations teams, and partners are all working from the same map, they help visitors move confidently, explore what’s around them naturally, and make better decisions in the moment. Discovery isn’t something you bolt on—it’s what happens when the foundation is right.”
Indoor mapping for Unified Systems, Teams, and Experience at Scale
While the report centers on venue experience, it also points to a broader structural shift underway: indoor mapping and geo-intelligence are increasingly serving as digital infrastructure, not standalone tools.
Instead of acting as a single application, unified mapping is becoming the connective system that links:
- Visitor-facing experience touchpoints
- Operational systems and workflows
- Tenant, partner, and product visibility
- Analytics and emerging AI-driven capabilities
This approach benefits not only visitors, but also the tenants and partners operating within venues, who rely on visibility, footfall, and relevance to connect with the right audiences at the right times and in the right places.
“The same shared foundation matters just as much for venue tenants and partners,” Liu said.
When experience, discovery, and operations share a common spatial foundation, venues are better equipped to learn faster, scale successful initiatives, and make more confident decisions over time.
Practical Guidance for Venue Leaders
The report concludes with practical considerations for venue leaders evaluating their experience strategies, including how to:
- Identify experience gaps created by fragmented systems
- Align teams around shared spatial data
- Enable discovery without adding friction or noise
- Invest in digital foundations that support evolving experience and business goals
The State of Venue Experience report is available for download here.
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