Bandwango Wrapped: Some of 2025’s Coolest Passes
.png)
In 2025, we saw A LOT of passes being made, which equated to hundreds of thousands of new pass sign-ups and millions of people visiting local businesses.
2025 By-The-Numbers (as of 12/10/25)
- New Bandwango passes launched in 2025: 908
- Number of new pass sign-ups in 2025: 426,923
- Total number of people who have been sent into local businesses: 6.3 million
There were multiple new features launched, and we’ve enjoyed seeing our partners across the globe be creative with using those. Several of our partners created passes this year about the unique things that defined their destinations. We saw some unique check-in challenges that showed out-of-the-box thinking, and we saw the passes being used to create some paid attraction and tasting passes as well – some helping benefit local charities.
Many partners have also seized opportunities to capitalize on local events and others have used Bandwango’s event ticketing software for their own events. It’s been an exciting year to say the least! We’re proud of all of our partners who created meaningful strategies this year and developed a plethora of impactful passes. It’s impossible to list all 908, but here are a few that stood out in 2025.
Creative Theme That Stole the Show
Destination Muncie fully embraces their ties to this fat cat with a fun new trail. Jim Davis, the creator of the Garfield character, graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and kept Garfield’s headquarters and studio in the area for many years afterward. You can see Garfield statues all around town – each painted by a local artist. The Garfield Trail takes you through town to see them all.
Excellence in Prize Strategy
Tysons Community Alliance Trek and Treat
The Tysons Community Alliance encouraged passholders to get outside and use alternative modes of transportation. Users could walk, bike, or roll their way through Tysons to collect points that they could use toward a large selection of prizes that included: a t-shirt, a quarter zip pullover, a stainless steel water bottle, an Under Armour backpack, a Champion jacket, a set of two insulated tumblers, a premium Sherpa blanket, and a hoodie. They used Bandwango’s prize fulfillment service for these prizes, and also had additional raffle prizes that included three $100 Experience Tysons gift cards. Additional gift cards in increments of $300, $250, and $200 were given to their top trekkers who earned the most points. This one also gets extra points for using a leaderboard to track the top trekkers.
A Landing Page That Converts
Boba is popular in Pasadena due to the high population of Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants in the region. The DMO highlights their esteemed beverage with the Pasadena Boba Trail and has engaging and relevant content on their landing page that includes the history of boba. They get extra points for their adorable boba-themed prizes, too. Passholders can win a boba sticker, pins, a sticker/pin combo pack, a sticker/pin/patch combo, a boba plush keychain, boba slippers, and a neon sign that says “Boba is Life.”
Legendary Loyalty Rewards Program
Goodwill Columbus Do Good Pass
Goodwill Columbus created this as a rewards program that allows customers to earn points for their donations, and they can then cash those in on prizes. The goal is to encourage community members to donate gently used items to Goodwill. It’s a loyalty program that also helps the community. As their website states, “With every donation, you’re not only supporting a more sustainable future, you’re also helping to provide jobs and services for individuals right here in Central Ohio.” Their landing page clearly lays out the program and even shows people how they are making an impact by donating items instead of throwing them away.
Giving Back to the Community
Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley’s House That Beer Built
Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley is one of the nonprofits solving fundraising challenges using Bandwango’s Experience Builder. The House That Beer Built campaign has existed for years, but was previously a paper pass. When the nonprofit organization made the switch from paper to digital, they saw the impact. It reduced the workload for their team and made it more convenient for passholders. It also gave them an easy way to promote gifting of the pass. That helped the organization expand their reach, and in turn, their goal. Each pass sold helps fund their mission of building safe and affordable homes in their community.
Four-legged Fun
Keuka Lake Wine Trail Paws and Pours
The Keuka Lake Wine Trail has a tasting pass and glass pass, but they’ve created another that lets dogs join in on the fun and accompany their humans on a wine tasting journey. The Paws and Pours pass promotes the dog-friendliness of the area, gives pet parents discounts at the wineries, and even provides some treats for the pups that accompany them. This pass gets extra points for finding a way to help animals in need, too, as a portion of the money made goes to the Humane Society of Yates County.
Spooky Success
West Virginia Paranormal Trail
Following up on the success of their wildly successful West Virginia Waterfall Trail, the state took a look at another asset they have an abundance of: haunted locations. They developed the West Virginia Paranormal Trail as a way to curate an experience that included the state’s eeriest places, including haunted locations and intriguing attractions such as the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum and Flatwoods Monster Museum. They’ve done a great job with their landing page and prizes as well. Passholders who visit all locations can get a Paranormal Trail lantern to help guide them through future ghostly expeditions. Another creepy pass we love is Haunted History Jeffersonville: A Boo 812 Experience. Go SoIN Tourism took a different angle with theirs and created a paid pass in conjunction with a local nonprofit group that takes passholders to chilling places in their area.
Fall Vibes
Downtown Perry Scarecrow Fest Pass
Perry, Georgia celebrated the fall season by bringing our favorite childhood storybooks to life with handcrafted scarecrows positioned throughout their downtown. The itinerary pass served as a guide for visitors who wanted to wander the streets and find every scarecrow. This was a great fall activity that gave consumers a reason to get out and explore Downtown Perry. They took it a step further by using one of Experience Builder’s new features: polls. Passholders could place their vote within the pass to choose their favorite scarecrow.
Christmas Magic That Shines
Dallas took a unique stance on a holiday pass, as they created a spin-off of their popular Margarita Mile that guides thirsty passholders to some of the city’s best spots for margaritas. The Merry Mile is a similar pass that includes some of the most festive holiday sips such as the Peppermint Mocha Martini and the Mistletoe Margarita. To tie into the Christmas theme even more, passholders can redeem points for a very seasonal prize: an exclusive lime ornament. Many of our partners create Christmas-themed passes, and there are so many great ones to highlight. Some of the other festive ones this year include the Tourism Tofino Hot Cocoa Trail and the Elko Holiday Digital Passport.
Social Media Standout
The initiative was led by Keep Waco Beautiful and they did a great job pre-promoting the initiative on Instagram. Although restaurant week was October 24-November 1, they started creating posts and teasing Waco Restaurant Week as early as August 28. They also built separate coffee and taco savings passes in conjunction with Waco Restaurant Week, and this gave them even more to promote on social media.
Overall Marketing Initiative
In the state’s inaugural year of launching their passport program, they’ve gone full-force into a dynamic marketing campaign by utilizing Bandwango’s marketing services. This even includes the design of all pass assets, email headers and print collateral elements such as window clings and table tents. The state also uses Bandwango’s managed text messaging as a part of their marketing plan. With multiple passes (including passes focused on America 250 and Colorado’s 150th anniversary of joining the Union), it’s extremely important to ensure the passes are marketed correctly. A welcoming landing page on their website clearly lays out their current passes, as well as previous ones and new passes on the horizon.
Event Ticketing Done Right
The Utah Arts Festival made the jump to Bandwango’s digital ticketing in 2021 and has processed over 67,000 tickets for them. Executive Director Aimee Dunsmore said, “Switching to Bandwango’s digital ticketing platform was a game-changing move for our organization and it led to increased ticket sales. It’s also made it a really easy process to get passholders through our gates.” In addition to single admission tickets, they’ve also created VIP ticket options, as well as four- and ten-packs of tickets. The Utah Pride Festival is another awesome partner that has used Bandwango’s event ticketing software in 2023 and so far, over 64,000 tickets have been processed for their events.
Amping Up an Existing Local Event
In Edmonton, Alberta, KDays is one of the summer’s most fun-filled festivals that consists of ten days of carnival rides, shopping markets, concerts, educational programming and delicious food. This annual event is already popular, but Explore Edmonton found a way to make the festivities even more engaging by creating a KDays Scavenger Hunt. The activity was an add-on that gave attendees another way to experience the event as they checked in at key locations at the festival, allowing them to earn points that they could redeem for prizes.
New Check-In Method, Big Impact
When the WNBA All-Star Game was held in Indianapolis this year, Visit Indy created a short-duration check-in challenge that gave their local businesses a chance to share in the spotlight. The pass was only live for four days, but it was a huge success. Using Bandwango’s new QR code check-in, they had some fun with it and created some great marketing tools. The DMO printed out 24-inch circles on a material that could be applied to sidewalks, and those included the QR code. They installed these at the participating locations so passholders could check in, but it also served as a promotional tool to get people signed up for the pass.
New Features, Nailed
Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island CROSSROADS Historical Guide
This pass serves as a guide to explore the rich history of the Windsor, Essex, Pelee Island region. The team has done a great job of making this pass very interactive and a fun experience for those making their way to visit each of the historical locations. They are utilizing videos within some pass listings, and are also using the new quiz feature that requires that a passholder answer a question. It’s a great way to keep passholders engaged. They are also utilizing the ad space within this pass to encourage passholders to share their photos with them – a genius move to capture more user-generated content. Knox County Convention & Visitors Bureau also took the quiz feature to another level by creating a pass in celebration of National Hobbit Day. A Middle-earth March Through Mount Vernon was a one-day adventure that the DMO created in partnership with the Mount Vernon Downtown Merchants.
Capitalizing on Milestones
Arizona Rock the Route: Route 66 Check-In Challenge
Route 66 is an important asset to Arizona all of the time, but 2026 is even more important since it marks the 100th anniversary of “The Mother Road.” This pass features stops across multiple destinations in the state – including small towns, a Tribal Nation, a national park, and even a 4,000-foot-wide meteor crater. The state DMO has used Bandwango’s managed text messaging this year and their team shared, “We’ve seen a nice increase in usage from existing passholders as well as increased interest and signups from new users.” In a smart move that capitalizes on all of the big happenings in 2026, Arizona has also recently created a separate America 250 AZ pass to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.
Saying Goodbye to a Good 2025, and Looking Ahead to a Great 2026
2025 was a year full of successful passes. This list represents just a few of our amazing partners that utilized Bandwango’s Experience Builder to create customized experiences for their destinations. 2026 is going to be a big year, too. We’re already seeing some really interesting passes being built that are focused on FIFA World Cup, America 250, and the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
A New Goal for Bandwango
We’re so excited about what we’re seeing that we’ve even increased our own goal. Previously, Bandwango had a goal of sending 10 million people into local businesses in the communities we serve. Since our partners are building more passes and we’re seeing so much success, we’ve decided to increase that goal to 100 million.
Be a Part of Our 2026 Wrapped
As we work towards sending 100 million people into local businesses, we’re always eager to find new communities we can help as well. If you’re interested in learning more about how to create unique experiences in your community, set up a free demo with our team.
If you’re an existing partner that wants to offload some of your work and let Bandwango help handle some of the marketing, messaging, and prize distribution, we’re happy to do that as well.
We’re excited to roll out even more fun tools in 2026, so make sure to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings that we share in our monthly newsletter.
Congrats to all of our partners on a successful 2025!
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
-min.jpg)
%20(2).png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
