In spite of strains from a weak economy, 2008 will be another growth year for the indoor waterpark resort industry. So states Construction Report 2008 from JLC Hospitality Consulting.
The 28-page report predicts that by year’s end, a total of 55 new resorts will open for business, with a total of 14,615 rooms and 2,287,840 square feet of waterpark space. Another 33 are set to break ground, with openings set for 2009 or 2010. At the beginning of 2008, there were 169 indoor waterpark resorts open in the United States; by the end of the year, that number could jump to 224. That’s a 32.5 percent increase and a bigger jump than last year.
In 2007, a total of 33 new indoor waterpark resorts were opened and the industry grew by 24.3 percent. Since 2000, the industry has grown 475 percent. Construction Report pointed out several resorts with unique features. They include Westgate Resort’s Wild Bear Falls, Gatlinburg, Tenn., which features a state-of-the-art retractable roof and work by a local artist; Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park, Wisconsin Dells, Wis., which purchased several neighboring properties to create a Greek-themed resort complex; Wave Development, LLC, which opened Coco Key waterpark resorts in the Sheraton Ferncroft, Danvers, Mass., and the Sheraton in Cincinnati-Sharonville, Ohio.
“Business is good,” Coy said. “The number of new projects on the drawing board is somewhere between 200 and 300, and we don’t even know about all of them [yet]. In addition, the number we’re seeing opening each year is growing by approximately 30 percent.”
JLC’s report cites increased hotel construction and a weaker dollar, which has spurred international tourism, as two reasons for predictions of continued growth this year. “Smith Travel Research reports 211,000 hotel rooms in the development pipeline in December 2007 compared to 156,000 in December 2006 — a 35.5 percent increase,” Coy stated in the report.
Looking beyond 2008, Coy and Haralson made several other long-term predictions:
• Hotels with indoor waterparks will continue to grow faster than the hotel industry.
• Indoor waterparks will increase hotel occupancy, increase room rates and increase room revenues over typical hotels without indoor waterparks.
• Nearly all major markets will attract hotel waterpark developers in the next few years.
• Almost all future hotel waterpark resorts will be designed as indoor-outdoor combinations.
JLC is owned by industry veterans Jeff Coy and Bill Haralson and is headquartered in Cave Creek, Ariz.
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