Babbacombe Theatre case study: Ticketsolve feed and theatre websiteA website that lists the shows for you.
We built Babbacombe Theatre a new website that pulls every show straight from their Ticketsolve box office, so nothing has to be typed in twice, and lets visitors search and filter shows by month and genre. In the six months after launch, purchases rose 15% and revenue 29% on the same months a year earlier.
The results, at a glance.
GA4, 1 Jun – 31 Dec 2025 (the six months after launch), compared with 2 Jun 2024 – 1 Jan 2025.
Who they are
About Babbacombe Theatre.
Babbacombe Theatre sits on Babbacombe Downs in Torquay, on the English Riviera. A bandstand stood on the site from 1920; the concert hall was built in 1938 for £8,000 and opened on 27 May 1939 with Cabaret Revels.
During the Second World War it was a lecture venue for RAF trainees, and Bruce Forsyth headlined there in 1955/56. Colin Matthews has been Managing Director and Producer since taking it over from Torbay Council in 1986, and in his 40th year he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Torbay Business Awards.
Today the theatre stages its own productions alongside touring comedy, music and family shows, with wheelchair access and a hearing loop.
Summarised from their own website (opens in a new tab), October 2026.
The context
Two systems, one set of shows.
Babbacombe Theatre is a seaside theatre on Babbacombe Downs in Torquay, with a programme of shows that changes through the year.
Their shows lived in Ticketsolve, their ticketing system, and keeping the website up to date meant entering the same information again by hand. That's slow for the team, and it's easy for the two to drift apart.
What we did.
A new WordPress website built with ACF and custom development, show listings pulled in from Ticketsolve's XML feed, search and filters by month and genre, and GA4 reporting.
- 1. BuildA new WordPress websiteBuilt with ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) and custom development, so every show has a proper, structured page.
- 2. ConnectShows from TicketsolveListings come straight from Ticketsolve through its XML feed, so each show is entered once, in the box office.
- 3. FindSearch, sort and filterVisitors can search the programme and filter shows by month and genre, then go straight to booking.
- 4. MeasureAnalytics and reportingPurchases, revenue and key events reported in GA4, which is where every number here comes from.
Fewer visits, more sales.
Engaged sessions were 12% lower than in the same months a year before. Yet purchases rose 15%, revenue 29% and the key event rate 39%: more of the people who did visit went on to act. And engaged sessions from organic search rose 12%, so more people found the new site through Google.
GA4, drawn to scale.
Why the feed matters
Enter it once, show it everywhere.
Because listings come from Ticketsolve, the website always shows the current programme, and the box office team no longer copies details from one system to another. We used ACF and custom code to map each show from the feed into the website, which is what makes sorting, filtering and searching by month and genre possible.
| Revenue tracked in GA4 | +29% |
|---|---|
| Purchases | +15% |
| Key event rate Share of sessions that included a key action | +39% |
| Organic engaged sessions From unpaid Google results | +12% |
| Engaged sessions (all) Shown for balance | −12% |
Why it matters.
For a theatre, the website's job is to sell tickets. Here, fewer but better visits led to more purchases and more revenue, and the team has one less system to keep up to date.
About these numbers: All figures come from Babbacombe Theatre's GA4 property, 1 Jun – 31 Dec 2025 (the six months after launch), compared with 2 Jun 2024 – 1 Jan 2025. Comparing the same months of the year keeps seasonal patterns like for like. Engaged sessions fell 12% over the same comparison; we show it because it's part of the picture. Results also depend on the shows on offer each year, which the website doesn't control.
Questions we get asked.
Related: Hospitality & venues · Web design · Analytics & tracking
What's an XML feed?
A structured list of your shows (names, dates, times and links) that your ticketing system publishes automatically. The website reads it and builds the listings, so nobody has to copy them over.
Can you connect our ticketing system?
Babbacombe Theatre uses Ticketsolve, and we pull their shows in through its XML feed. Many ticketing and booking systems offer a feed or API; tell us which one you use and we'll check what it provides before you commit to anything.
Can visitors filter shows by date or type?
Yes. Because each show is stored as structured data (we used ACF), the listings can be sorted, filtered by month and genre, and searched.
Why did sales rise when visits fell?
More of the people who visited went on to act: the key event rate rose 39%. We can't point to a single cause, but a clearer route from show listing to ticket link is designed to do exactly that.
Running a venue with listings to keep up to date?
If you're typing the same details into two systems, there's usually a better way. Let's have a look.