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By Keith Miller
The attractions industry is accustomed to big theme parks becoming destination resorts, imaginative places where guests may spend their entire vacation on site and never leave—Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and Europa-Park, for instance. Until recently, waterparks have generally been properties that guests would visit for a single day, and those guests would routinely frequent attractions, restaurants, and other businesses nearby. Some waterparks are changing that scenario.
Indoor Waterparks Master ‘Under-One-Roof’ Operation
Of course, to become a “destination” resort it’s typically necessary to have on-site accommodations, or at least partnering agreements with adjacent lodging properties. This is easier for indoor waterparks to accomplish since most of them have a hotel built right on to the waterpark.
With 11 locations, Great Wolf Resorts (www.greatwolf.com), headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, is the largest chain of indoor waterparks in North America, and the company has taken this destination resort philosophy to heart. “When Great Wolf began expanding, we always looked at destinations that were already tourist areas,” says Steve Shattuck, director of communications for Great Wolf Resorts, “and then we began realizing the fact that we are a tourist destination.”
To keep guests on property, the resort company had to create things for guests to do when they’re not swimming. “There are only so many hours families can spend in the water, and to make it a true destination experience, we have to provide entertainment and experiences out of the water as well. This is why we have ‘MagiQuest’ (a popular interactive role-playing game for kids) at all of our lodges, a children’s play area called Cub Club, and GR8_Space, which is a teen tech center.” These resort lodges also offer large indoor arcades, 18-hole interactive mini-golf courses, a 24-hour fitness room, a spa salon for adults, and a spa experience for children called Scooops Kids Spa.
Great Wolf doesn’t want guests leaving the resorts at mealtime, so there’s a variety of dining options available, including a la carte restaurants, all-you-can-eat buffets, an express pizza service, and coffee, donut, and dessert shops.
Another company turning its waterparks into destinations is Kalahari Resorts (www.kalahariresorts.com), which has two enormous indoor waterpark vacation centers, one in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and another in Sandusky, Ohio. Like Great Wolf, Kalahari also places a premium on keeping guests on site during their entire visit, even if it lasts for days.
“Our under-one-roof concept is meant to allow our guests the choice of staying on property by having a plethora of opportunities right here without having to go anywhere,” says Brian Shanle, general manager of Kalahari Resorts—Sandusky. “It’s as much a benefit for our guests as for us.”
In addition to dry outdoor attractions and activities (depending on location) like a zip line, a ropes course, a small zoo, and a climbing wall, Kalahari offers indoor attractions like bowling, mini-golf, go-karts, laser tag, and even a six-story Ferris wheel. Shanle says these are a huge draw when the weather is bad.
 How to Become a Destination Without a Hotel
Outdoor waterparks that have become destination attractions usually take a somewhat different approach from their indoor counterparts. On the one hand, they usually aren’t built as part of a hotel resort, but on the other they often have more land with which to work.
Valcartier Water Park in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (www.valcartier.com), has extensive experience with making a waterpark a vacation destination and has reaped the benefits. The waterpark has been around for more than 30 years and has grown to be part of Valcartier Vacation Village. So its owner and president, Guy Drouin, who also owns Calypso Theme Waterpark near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, plans to use what he and his staff learned at Valcartier in making Calypso another destination waterpark.
Valcartier took a big step toward keeping guests on property for their entire stay when it opened a 270-site campground for RVs and tents next to the waterpark in 1998. Seeing the advantages, Valcartier has expanded the campground three times since then and now has more than 700 full-service sites.
The park has also given guests plenty to do when they’re not swimming. “We have a lot of activities, like three different diving shows, mini-golf, a go-kart ring, and also a cinema that runs from 8 a.m. to midnight,” says Ginette Robert, vice-president of sales and marketing for both Valcartier and Calypso.
Robert says Valcartier even offers boating and rafting experiences on the nearby Jacques-Cartier River. She says the park would be interested in large dry rides like roller coasters, but the market wouldn’t support such a move.
Ownership plans to replicate some of what’s been done at Valcartier at Calypso to make it a destination, as well. The park, which opened in 2010 and was recently named the best waterpark in the world by MSN Travel, currently has partnership agreements with 10 nearby hotels, but that means guests must leave the waterpark. So a 350-site campground is being added to Calypso in the near future, according to Robert.
In Malaysia, Sunway Lagoon (www.sunwaylagoon.com) knows its Waters of Africa waterpark is its big draw, but it has recently left no doubt that it’s continually expanding to become a destination resort. This year, Sunway Lagoon opened Extreme Park, which offers dry attractions like gokarts and paintball.
“If it’s raining, our guests don’t have to leave,” says Loke Kah Peng, the park’s public relations manager. “They can go into indoor [attractions] at our Scream Park, and certain rides at our amusement park are also sheltered.”
Apparently the strategy is working: “Our guests had always been about 60 percent locals and 40 percent international, but in the past two years the international visitors have increased and now it’s 50-50,” Loke says. “Sunway Lagoon has evolved from being a single-park attraction to now a multipark destination [in] 2011. Our management reckons it’s very important to keep guests within our resort property, especially when they’re on vacation.”
Different Approaches, Same Goal
Schlitterbahn Waterparks (www.schlitterbahn.com) has four U.S. outdoor waterparks, each quite large. Though the company places value in the destination resort concept, it has chosen to keep its parks fairly tightly focused on water experiences rather than venture into dry attractions. “Our family group bought an old resort in the 1960s,” says Jeffrey Siebert, director of communications for Schlitterbahn, “and in some ways, we kind of pioneered the waterpark resort concept. But the name above the door says ‘waterpark,’ and waterpark [attractions] are what we focus on—we’re known for world-class waterparks.”
Even so, the company’s 70-acre facility in New Braunfels, Texas, has a carousel and a skycoaster, while Schlitterbahn Vacation Village in Kansas City, Missouri, has a SkyVenture indoor skydiving tunnel. In keeping with the “destination resort” concept, Schlitterbahn’s New Braunfels park recently opened seven new lodging units called “treehauses” and now has 164 overnight accommodations. Treehauses are also planned for Schlitterbahn Vacation Village, which is developing a Riverwalk area with retail and dining options.
Siebert notes that this year, for the first time in the history of the original Schlitterbahn waterpark in New Braunfels, the company is offering a stay-and-play package. “So you can come in the morning, spend the night, and then stay at the waterpark the next day even after closing,” he says. To help retain guests occupied on site after closing, the resort keeps its “Boogie Bahn” surf ride open, as well as kids’ areas and hot tubs.
 One waterpark with a unique experience in becoming a destination by blending dry attractions with a waterpark is Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, New York (www.watersafari.com). The operation is popularly regarded as a waterpark, and even the park’s own tagline is “New York’s Largest Water Theme Park.” But it actually began in 1956 as a dry park, then started adding water attractions in the early 1980s.
However, the park has kept its dry attractions and has even added an FEC. “On cooler days, the [dry] rides and family fun center give people a reason to come,” says Katie Noonan, the park’s marketing director. The FEC is also open at night to give guests something to do. She notes that the waterpark also owns a hotel and campground, which allows guests to stay on property, and the park throws in free admission to hotel and campground guests, as well as food packages, to entice guests to stay.
Is a Destination Resort the Right Move for You?
For waterparks, the obvious upside to keeping guests on site during their entire vacation is that the parks capture every dollar of guest spending, from admissions to lodging to entertainment to dining. But if the attractions, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses nearby don’t ever see those guests, they miss out on sharing in the revenue.
“It’s the worst thing you can do to the community—it’s horrible,” says Nick Laskaris, who owns Mt. Olympus theme park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin (www.mtolympuspark.com), where there are some 20 indoor waterparks. “We ask [our guests] where they’re staying, and only two to three percent are from the indoor waterparks.”
Mt. Olympus has both an indoor and an outdoor waterpark, and Laskaris himself has on-site hotels and recently has been buying and renovating numerous distressed motel properties nearby. But he says the difference is that he doesn’t run a shuttle to those motels, and guests routinely drive their cars to nearby attractions, restaurants, and retail stores to patronize them. He says guests wearing Mt. Olympus wristbands can always be seen at attractions and other businesses throughout the Dells. “Also, I have a [park] capacity of 14,000, and only 3,500 can come from my rooms,” he adds.
“Some of our guests will naturally visit the local businesses, and the entire communities benefit from the affiliated benefit of [Kalahari] bringing millions of visitors into the area,” says Kalahari’s Shanle. “The taxes alone generated by our resorts drive millions of dollars to the local communities which we proudly call home.”
Though Laskaris contends the endeavors of waterparks to keep guests on site during their entire visit is detrimental to the community, he notes that he fully understands why they do it. “A waterpark resort needs every single dollar they can take in to pay their bills,” he says. “They’re doomed if they don’t have enough food, retail—the whole package. The secret to their success is to keep the people there.”
Contact News Editor Keith Miller at kmiller@IAAPA.org. |
