These are tough times for the hospitality industry. The economy is down, consumer spending is limited, and travelers are fewer. One market segment that finds itself in flux due to the times is waterpark resorts. The changing nature of travelers today has good points, such as the fact that more travelers are foregoing distant family vacations in favor of local attractions, and bad points: development potential is often limited due to the lack of available credit options. For waterpark resorts, success is all in the way they handle the situation.
“I think a lot of the rules have gone away and there’s a lot of wait and see,” says Donny Weber, principal at the Weber Group, which designs and constructs waterpark resorts. “What people do for leisure and the way they spend their recreational dollars is all in flux right now. It’s a transition. You can make some assumptions, but predicting whether those are true or not is a little difficult right now.”
Waterpark destinations, such as Great Wolf Lodge and Alabama Adventure Hotel, are built around attracting travelers seeking fun in the water. The waterpark is the central attraction of the resort, and it is also the most expensive part of the resort to build and maintain. But as consumers change their habits, waterpark resorts have had to rethink the way they attract guests.
“If you look at it from a consumer base and what they’re going to spend money on, and how much and when, conservatism will be prudent,” Weber says. “People will stay closer to home and pick things that are more value based. So recreating
entertainment from that point of view is going to be a factor.”
What that means for the waterpark industy is that there are now a lot choices to make. “We can react to it creatively, or we can just cut back,” Weber says. “I like to think that the market will react to it more creatively.”
That means thinking about what type of return can be gained from the investment in things such as wave pools, slides and other water play equipment. That’s why developers are beginning to look beyond the water and to the other “dry” attractions they can offer.
No one advocates taking water attractions out, but simply adding value to them. The idea is that travelers are starting to think in terms of multi-value offerings in one place. “It’s about trying to do some-thing that is more buildable,” Weber says. “That means a capital expenditure in which you can get a return on your investment.
One of the ways developers are looking at waterpark resorts is by market. With less travelers, larger resorts in larger markets rely on filling hundreds of rooms. One of the reactions has been to look at smaller markets to service travelers from closer locations. “The issue there is that in smaller markets, everyone isn’t going to be a destination traveler so you’ll be able to have a higher percentage of repeat business, so when you’re developing these facilities you have to look at ways to develop a repeat business portion of the business,” Weber says. “Maybe a portion is day activities where you can sell tickets for day attractions as well. Can you rethink food and restaurant sales, so it’s not just a destination location where people have to stay overnight?”
Some waterpark resorts are even looking at different types of sales and marketing models, such as selling memberships in the mode of a health club. Season passes are a way to bring repeat customers in even if it’s only for the waterpark or the restaurant or any other non-stay attraction.
Another creative approach is to look at partnerships with other local attractions. “I think those are good ways to help share costs,” Weber says. Waterpark hotels can partner with, say, restaurant chains and create a new type of destination.
While it may sound like the state of the economy is having a negative impact on water-park resorts, Weber says it’s actually an opportunity for the industry to get creative and redefine itself. “It’s an opportunity for us to put some new product out there for the consumer,” he says.
“They’re ready for it. It can be part of the next generation, the new economy, and we can market it that way. There’s no reason for us not to be positive. This is a great time to introduce new playground use in America.”
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Better Safety
The Virginia Graeme Baker Act has taken effect. Are your pools up to code?
This past December, the long-awaited enactment of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act took effect. The act was the result of efforts of many individuals and organizations whose lives have been touched by fatalities associated with unsafe drains in pools and spas. It is a law that carries some extreme penalties—both monetary as well as forced closures of pools—if compliant safety drains are not installed in public pools.
Named for the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who died in a tragic suction entrapment
accident at the age of seven when a spa drain’s powerful suction trapped her underwater, the law requires new drain covers on pool filtration systems. The covers can prevent children from being caught in the suction.
However, despite the new law, many pools are reportedly not in compliance as of yet. Now, some manufacturers are attempting to help pool operators get up to code.
AquaStar Pool Products in San Diego has initiated a VGB Non-Compliant Buy Back Program, which seeks to remove every unsafe, non-compliant drain cover from inventories from around the country and replace them with safe, compliant VGB Series anti-entrapment drain covers. The eco-friendly program allows businesses to clear old inventory and restock with compliant drains using one simple transaction. It also aims to ensure that all products returned will be recycled.
“This is a great way for distributors and retailers to clear out merchandise that they legally can no longer sell and would otherwise throw in the dumpster,” AquaStar Co-Founder Olaf Mjelde said in a statement. “We also want to make sure that every drain installed in the country is up to the new safety standards.”
For hotels, the new law, means they will have to equip their public pools and spas with compliant covers. n
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