Building an Online Ticketing System for Tourist Attractions

The Flaws in Manual Ticketing Ecosystems

Many mid-sized tourist attractions (such as Waterboom parks or family recreation centers) still rely heavily on physical ticket sales at the counter. This traditional method constantly creates several crucial operational problems: excessively long visitor queues on national holidays, a high potential for financial leaks (fraud) by counter cashiers, and the loss of accurate daily sales recapitulation data.

From the consumer's perspective, without a digital booking system, prospective visitors also find it difficult to verify quota availability (maximum capacity) before departing. This often leads to massive disappointment if they find tickets sold out upon arrival after a long journey.

Designing an Intuitive Online Booking Flow

To completely resolve these challenges, I built a web-based ticket reservation system utilizing modern Next.js App Router technologies and a PostgreSQL relational database (via Prisma ORM). The booking flow is heavily focused on an extremely intuitive User Experience (UX):

• Schedule Selection: Visitors access the website from their phones and view a real-time ticket availability calendar.
• Data Entry: Visitors select the number of category tickets (Adult/Child) and fill out a representative personal data form.
• Invoice Generation: The system automatically calculates the total price and displays the final invoice alongside a unique QR code for QRIS payment.
• Proof Upload: Visitors complete the payment via their m-Banking/e-Wallet apps and upload a screenshot of the transfer proof.
• E-Ticket Issuance: After a brief admin validation, a barcoded digital ticket is instantly dispatched via WhatsApp/Email and can be downloaded as a PDF.

QRIS Integration and Transfer Verification

This system consciously utilizes the static QRIS payment method as it is considered the most inclusive and flexible across all Indonesian banks. To suppress the high monthly transaction fees charged by automated Payment Gateway services (which often burden SME profit margins), I implemented a semi-automated approach.

The system allows visitors to transfer funds via standard QRIS, then upload the screenshot proof to the server. On the management dashboard side, the attraction's admin receives real-time alert notifications. The admin merely needs to cross-check the bank mutation with the invoice amount on screen, and then hit the 'Validate Order' button with a single click.

Dual Benefits for Visitors and Management

For attraction visitors, convenience and quota guarantees are the primary selling points. They are freed from uncertainty and exhausting physical queues. The digital ticket in the form of a QR Code can be directly scanned by the gate staff upon entering the ride area without needing to exchange it for a paper ticket.

Meanwhile, for the Waterboom management team, this digitization provides absolute financial security (minimizing the circulation of physical cash prone to loss), presents accurate live sales graph reports, and grants the ability to predict daily visitor surges from the aggregate reservation data of the preceding weeks.