Cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associate job description
An admissions and ticketing associate sells and scans tickets at the front gate of a zoo, aquarium, museum or historic site. They check member and reciprocal cards, check in school groups, run a cash drawer, and offer a membership to day visitors who might come back.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, museums, zoos and gardens · BLS, May 2025
Cultural Attractions - Admissions and Ticketing Associate
Company Name:
[INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE]
Department:
Guest Services
Reports to:
Guest Services Manager
Location:
[INSERT LOCATION HERE]
1. Position Summary
Admissions and Ticketing Associates sell and scan tickets at the front gate. You check timed tickets, scan member cards, check in school groups, take payments, and keep the line moving on busy days. You are often the first person a guest talks to, and you help turn day visitors into members.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Sell general admission, timed-entry, and add-on tickets, and scan online and member tickets at the gate.
Check member cards against photo ID, apply member discounts, and offer to put today's ticket price toward a membership [if your policy allows].
Check in school groups and camps against their booking: count students and chaperones and collect any balance due.
Follow capacity limits for each entry time, and offer the next open time when a slot sells out.
Handle refunds, exchanges, and rain checks under your policy, including on weather closure days.
Count your cash drawer at the start and end of each shift and report any difference.
Answer questions about hours, prices, parking, accessibility, and the day's schedule.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Set up your station before opening: cash drawer, ticket printer, scanner, and card reader.
Sell and scan through the morning rush, when school buses and families arrive together.
Point guests to strollers, lockers, and the day's [feedings, talks, or tours] as they enter.
When a lost child code is called, watch your exit for a child who matches the description and radio right away.
Close out: count your drawer, print the shift report, and hand both to the supervisor.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Transactions per hour at peak: [your target].
Cash drawer variance: [your target].
Membership sales and upgrades at the window: [your target].
Wait time in the admissions line: [your target].
Ticketing and refund errors: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent, [or currently working toward one].
Cash handling and card payment experience, or willing to learn on your system.
Says no kindly and clearly to a sold-out time or an expired membership.
Comfortable with a point-of-sale system, ticket scanners, and a tablet.
Available for weekends, holidays, and [summer, school breaks, or your peak season].
6. Preferred Experience
Experience as a cashier, ticket seller, or front desk agent.
Has used ticketing software such as [your system].
Speaks a second language common among your guests.
Experience selling memberships, upgrades, or add-ons.
7. Physical Requirements
Stand for most of an [8]-hour shift at a ticket window or entry gate.
Count cash and use a scanner and keyboard for long periods.
Staff an outdoor gate in heat, cold, and rain.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Seasonal, part-time, and full-time shifts. Weekends, holidays, and school breaks are required.
Ticket windows and gates may be outdoors or only partly covered.
Shifts start before opening and end after the last entry and the drawer count.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new admissions and ticketing associate gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
What makes admissions different at a cultural attraction
Selling a ticket looks the same everywhere. At a nonprofit zoo, museum or garden, the gate also checks memberships from other institutions, honors national access programs, and starts many of the site's membership sales.
Timed tickets come with a hard cap
With timed entry, each slot holds a set number of guests. When the 11:00 slot sells out, the associate offers the next open time instead of squeezing a family in, and says why. Online tickets scanned early or late follow your grace rule, applied the same way to every guest.
Reciprocal cards need a close look
Visiting members of other museums show cards from reciprocal programs, and each program sets its own rules. ASTC's Passport Program, for one, only applies at venues more than 90 miles from both the visitor's home and their home museum. It also says admissions staff may ask for proof of residence. Keep a one-page cheat sheet from your membership team at every window, and send unclear cases to a lead. Source: ASTC: Passport Program.
Access programs ring up differently
Your site may honor national access programs. Museums for All offers free or reduced admission to people who get SNAP food benefits and show an EBT card and photo ID. Blue Star Museums gives free admission at museums that sign up to active-duty service members and their families, National Guard and Reserve included. It runs from Armed Forces Day in May to Labor Day. Associates need to know which programs you take and the button for each. Source: Museums for All.
School groups arrive by the busload
On spring field trip mornings, several buses can pull in within minutes. The associate checks each group against its booking, counts students and chaperones, collects any balance due, and sends the group through a side lane so the line of families doesn't stall behind it.
Today's ticket can become a membership
A member comes back and renews; a day guest may never return. If your policy allows, the associate offers to put today's ticket price toward a membership before the guest walks in. A family that just paid for four tickets is often the easiest membership sale of the day, and the membership team gets a new name to welcome.
How much cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associates make
The closest BLS group for cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associates is ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers. Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $16.75 an hour ($34,850 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $32,910 median for ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers in all industries. About 2,410 of the 121,770 ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers in that survey work for museums, zoos and gardens.
Hourly, mostly part-time and seasonal, with a smaller year-round crew who also train new sellers and close out the day.
Museums, zoos and gardens
$34,850$34,850 median Middle half $30,730–$38,000 10th–90th $27,350–$43,600
All industries
$32,910$32,910 median Middle half $28,310–$36,940 10th–90th $23,560–$42,470
$10k$20k$30k$40k$50k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Museums, zoos and gardens
$27,350
$30,730
$34,850
$38,000
$43,600
All industries
$23,560
$28,310
$32,910
$36,940
$42,470
BLS groups museums, zoos, botanical gardens and historic sites together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Accurate with cash, cards and change while a line waits
Says no kindly to a sold-out slot or an expired card, then offers the next best option
Keeps pace on a rush morning without skipping ID checks
Comfortable on a touchscreen register, a ticket scanner and a tablet
Explains a membership in under a minute, without a hard sell
Teach these on the job
Your ticket types, discounts and the reciprocal programs you honor
Checking in school groups against their bookings
Refund, exchange and rain check rules
Opening and closing drawer counts and the shift report
Membership levels and what each one includes
Admissions runs on a ticketing system built for attractions, such as Tessitura, Blackbaud Altru or Doubleknot, with a handheld or turnstile scanner, a ticket printer and a card reader. Someone who has sold on a theater or theme park box office system usually picks up yours quickly.
Cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associate interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associate KPIs
Use your own peak days and ticketing reports to fill in the targets. Judge first-season sellers against their own progress, not against your fastest veteran.
Transactions per hour at peak
Pull completed sales per window per hour from the ticketing system for your busiest hours only. Count group check-ins on their own, since one booking can take several minutes.
Cash drawer variance
Compare each counted drawer with the system's cash total at close. Track over and short by associate across the season, and look for a pattern rather than one bad day.
Membership sales and upgrades at the window
Count memberships sold or upgraded at each window from the membership system, as a share of that associate's transactions, so busy and slow days compare fairly.
Wait time in the admissions line
Time a sample of guests from joining the line to reaching the window at set points on peak mornings. Note the cause when it runs long: a group, a printer jam, a missing seller.
Ticketing and refund errors
Log wrong ticket types, missed discounts, double charges and refunds outside policy, found in audits or guest complaints. Review them weekly and retrain on the patterns.
Career path
Cashier or movie theater jobLearns a register, a cash drawer and a line.
Admissions and ticketing associateSells and scans tickets and checks memberships at the gate.
Admissions lead or box office supervisorOpens and closes the windows, approves refunds and trains sellers.
Membership coordinatorTurns window sales skills into renewals, upgrades and member service.
Cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associate FAQ
What happens to tickets when the site closes for weather?
That's your policy, not the associate's call, but the associate is the one who explains it. Your choices are refunds, rain checks or a new date. Write the rule, post it online and at the windows, and give associates a short script so every guest hears the same answer, including the ones who bought online.
How much does a cultural attraction admissions and ticketing associate make?
Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $16.75 an hour ($34,850 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $30,730 and $38,000 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Do admissions associates sell memberships?
In this template, yes. The window is where a family deciding between one visit and a year of visits makes up its mind. Train associates on each level and the upgrade math, and give them a quick hand-off to the membership team for questions they can't answer at a busy window.
How do you check member cards without slowing the line?
Scan the card and match the name on the screen to a photo ID, as the template says. On busy mornings, post a sign or a greeter in the line asking members to have both cards out before they reach the window. Send expired cards and disputes to a lead at a side window, so the main line keeps moving.
What experience helps an admissions associate?
Any job with a cash drawer and a line: a grocery store, a movie theater, a theme park gate or a concert box office. Box office sellers already know timed entry and sellouts. What you can't train quickly is patience at the tenth sold-out conversation of the morning, which is worth a question of its own when you meet candidates.
