Of course, this architect with Counsilman-Hunsaker in St. Louis isn’t your typical traveler. But Hester’s reasons for choosing a waterpark destination resort over a more traditional vacation are becoming more and more typical.

“In today’s world, we get busier and busier,” says Hester, whose firm is currently working on a waterpark resort that’s planned as the largest in the nation. “It’s a way for people to go to a facility without having to get on an airplane, but still get away for three nights and have accommodations for children and adult amenities. That, for me personally, is the biggest draw.”

That draw is fueling a boom in waterpark destination resorts across the United States and Canada — and not just in the traditional Northern climes.

The reason for the strong growth in indoor waterparks at destination resorts is a familiar one: Customers are willing to pay higher room rates for the waterpark amenity.

Indeed, an indoor waterpark destination resort can achieve an average daily rate of $50 to $150 per room higher than another hotel within the same market without an indoor waterpark.

In Wisconsin Dells, for instance, the overall market average of waterpark destination resorts outperformed the overall average non-resort hotel occupancy by 19 points — and the average daily rate of the non-resort hotels by $110 in 2004. The five Great Wolf Lodge properties opened in 2004 averaged an occupancy level of 65 percent, with an average daily rate of $206, according to their recent SEC filings.

How they differ
So what separates waterpark resorts from waterpark destination resorts? In a word, size.

Typically, waterpark destination resorts offer more than 30,000 square feet of indoor waterpark space rather than the 10,000 or so at the average waterpark resort. They also offer resort and leisure amenities not found in typical hotel properties.

“You have to have dry-side amenities to support this. It’s beyond an arcade,” Hester says. Minigolf, movie theaters, dry adventure parks and even paintball games are some examples of the non-waterpark attractions offered by destination resorts, he says.

Most waterpark destination resorts are located in the northern United States and Canada, with a concentration in Wisconsin. Currently, 30 percent of all properties with indoor waterparks qualify as destination waterpark resorts.

A vast majority of indoor waterpark destination resorts are independent properties not affiliated with a national franchise.

The first such property was the Fantasyland Hotel/World Waterpark at the Edmonton Mall — one of North America’s largest — which contains 355 guest rooms and 217,800 square feet of indoor waterpark space. This property opened in 1985 as part of the Edmonton Mall and has achieved strong success, with the hotel portion attaining some of the highest occupancy levels within the province of Alberta.

During the 1990s, a number of indoor waterpark destination resorts were developed in the Wisconsin Dells, including Polynesian Resort, Great Wolf Lodge, Wilderness Resort, Kalahari, Chula Vista and Treasure Island. The Wisconsin Dells currently has 16 indoor waterpark resorts, but only six can be considered destination resorts.

What’s happening
Since 2000, the Great Lakes Cos., now called Great Wolf Resorts, have begun an aggressive expansion plan to add Great Wolf Lodge properties in other markets across the United States. The company’s first market was in Sandusky, Ohio, with the 271-room Great Wolf Lodge, a 33,000-square-foot indoor waterpark and additional amenities that included an arcade, gift shop, kids’ club, outdoor pool, two restaurants and a lounge. This property has achieved strong success due to high summer demand from travelers visiting Cedar Point Amusement Park, as well as winter visitors from the Cleveland, Columbus and Detroit metropolitan areas who are visiting the resort itself for family getaways and vacations.

The company has since added waterpark destination resort properties in Traverse City, Mich.; Williamsburg, Va.; Kansas City, Kan.; and Sheboygan, Wis. It also has properties under construction or beginning construction in Poconos, Pa.; Centralia, Wash.; and Mason, Ohio.

In addition, five other waterpark destination resorts came on line within new resorts or expansions of existing hotels and resorts in 2004.

Two of the new resorts that opened last year were complete renovations of existing properties, while three of the properties were new-construction facilities.

Castaway Bay operated as a Radisson Hotel until November 2004, when the owners added a 38,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, renovated the property and dropped the franchise. Grand Rios Resort had formerly been a Ramada Inn, which was closed and completely renovated into the resort facility.

In the case of the Kalahari, the developers added 360 condominiums to the 378-room, 125,000-square-foot resort, bringing the total amount of available guest rooms to 738.

Hester says condo and time-share offerings are becoming more common, with units going for $250,000 to $450,000.

“There’s a limitation on how many hotel rooms you can offer,” Hester says. “They’re trying to offset some of the costs of those waterparks.”

Along with selling the properties, the resorts make money managing the rental of the property, he adds.

Meanwhile, more destination resorts are gearing up: two Great Wolf Lodge properties, the Kalahari in Sandusky and the Six Flags Great Escape Resort in Queensbury. Three indoor waterpark additions also are planned to existing resorts or hotels, including Boyne Mountain in Michigan, Massanutten Resort in Virginia and Holiday Inn East in Columbus, Ohio.

Eighty other indoor waterpark destination resorts are proposed or under development throughout the United States and Canada. These projects include an average of more than 300 guest rooms each and a proposed average size of indoor waterpark space of 60,781 square feet.

Twenty of these projects are indoor-waterpark additions to existing resort or hotel facilities. A number of existing Northern resorts are considering adding indoor waterparks to enable their facilities to increase winter occupancy levels. For example, the 200-room Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, Minn., is located on an attractive lake and offers a wide range of resort amenities, including golf, a kids’ club, a marina, tennis, food and beverage facilities, and meeting space. However, the resort achieved low occupancy levels in the winter months. In October 2003, the property put in a 40,000-square-foot indoor waterpark called Big Splash. Since adding this amenity, the property has achieved stronger levels of occupancy and average daily rates particularly in the cold-weather months.

In Southern states such as Florida, hotels are beginning to add outdoor waterpark areas. The Holiday Inn Nickelodeon resort opened in 2005 with a large outdoor waterpark area to create one of the first outdoor waterpark destination resorts. Watch for outdoor waterparks being added to existing hotels and resorts in warm-weather states in future years.

What the future holds
And that future appears very bright because many markets do not currently have waterpark destination resorts.

Nevertheless, waterpark resort operators have discovered that, just like the amusement park industry, they need to continually work to add components and keep the concept “fresh” to attract new families to their facilities — and to keep repeat guests coming back for more.

That means bigger and bigger properties with amenities such as wave pools, areas specially designed for younger resort guests, and faster, taller, steeper, more intricate water slides and tubes.

Hester says newer resorts also are upping the ante with higher-quality finishings and materials than waterparks of the past. For instance, the recently opened Grizzly Jack’s Grand Bear Lodge went beyond even his recommendations for rockwork to achieve a more natural look that goes with its wilderness theme.

“The industry used to be very design/build- oriented. Now owners are willing to take time and really plan out a facility,” Hester says. “They’re finding that theming is important.”

It’s also more elaborate. Destination properties are more likely to have amusement park-style theming such as animatronics, video displays, holograms and interactive experiences, Hester says.

“It used to be a lot of water was enough,” he says. “Now it’s more like going to Disneyland.”